Site Fwd:[Hankyoreh] International investors request explanation from Samsung over occupational hazards allegations

[Hankyoreh 21]
International investors request explanation from Samsung over occupational hazards allegations
: Eight international investors have launched a joint inquiry, to which Samsung is expected to issue a formal response
Posted on : Jun.2,2010 14:29 KST

» Members of a civic organization in support of the human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry hold a signboard that mourns the death of Samsung Electronics' ex-employee Ms. Park Ji-hyeon in front of Samsung Headquarters in Seocho-dong, Seoul, April 2. Institutional investors in Europe and the U.S. have asked Samsung for an explanation over allegations that workplace practices related to toxic chemicals at Samsung semi-conductor plants in South Korea have been the cause of increased fatal cancer rates among employees. The Hankyoreh 21 exclusively obtained a letter issued by eight foreign investors including the All Pensions Group (APG) of the Netherlands, which was sent to Samsung Electronics President Choi Ji-seong on May 21. The investors requested that Samsung provide more information about occupational safety raised by Samsung‘s former employees. The investors are a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) of the UN, which was established by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on April, 2006. It states that eco-friendliness, social responsibility and corporate governance should be considered as important factors for investment. About 700 institutional investors managing the 15 percent of the world’s invested capital have joined PRI. They have broached six questions about the allegations of Samsung Electronics’ toxic chemicals. First, regarding Samsung’s plan to invite a third-party investigation team, they have requested more information about the timeline to implement this plan, the strategy on how to deal with its outcomes and to what degree Samsung would disclose the outcomes to its investors and/or to the public. They also asked if Samsung currently has plans to deal with the ailing ex-employees including the provision of medical supports, training activities and presence of a whistle-blowing policy and effectiveness of governance regarding overall work place safety issues. The death of former Samsung Electronics employee Hwang Yu-mi ignited the allegation of Samsung’s workplace safety. Hwang passed away from acute leukemia in March 2007 at the age of 23, after working in the third line at Samsung Electronics’ Giheung plant. Another employee Park Ji-hyeon, who fell ill with acute leukemia after working at Samsung Electronics’ Onyang plant, died on March 31, 2010. Samsung denied any link between cancer and the workplace conditions, however, by opening up the Giheung plant to the media on April 15. Samsung called the string of diseases “mere coincidence.” The situation took a volatile turn when the Hankyoreh 21 published an internal Samsung semiconductor handbook describing a wide range of toxic chemicals used in the plant in an article entitled “Samsung Semiconductor Uses Six Types of ‘carcinogens’,” published May 21, 2010. APG initially proposed a joint inquiry into the allegations about Samsung on April 30, saying, “Twenty-three former employees of Samsung Electronics have fallen ill with leukemia through April 22, and they have raised questions about occupational safety at Samsung Electronics plants.” Initially, APG proposed that investors request Samsung disclose more information on the safety of the workplace, and eight international investors made the decision to support the proposal. An APG official said other investors had already submitted respective requests to Samsung to explain the occupational safety allegations. The institutional investors that joined the joint inquiry plan will coordinate on the allegations through conference calls soon. Samsung is expected in turn to issue a formal response to the investors’ inquiries. By Lim Ji-seon sun21@hani.co.kr

Text Fwd: Stunning Statistics About the War [in Afghanistan] That Everyone Should Know

* Text fwd from Muriel Bossier (Jieun) on Jan. 2, 2009. The below article was introduced by the Amnesty Korea 48.

Stunning Statistics About the War That Everyone Should Know:
The US Currently Has 189,000 Personnel in Afghanistan
December 21, 2009
By Jeremy Scahill
Source: Counter Punch

A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill's Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense's total workforce, "the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history." That's not in one war zone—that's the Pentagon in its entirety.

In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. According to a memo released by McCaskill's staff,

"From June 2009 to September 2009, there was a 40% increase in Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan. During the same period, the number of armed private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan doubled, increasing from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000."

At present, there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. According to a report this week from the Congressional Research Service, as a result of the coming surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, there may be up to 56,000 additional contractors deployed. But here is another group of contractors that often goes unmentioned: 3,600 State Department contractors and 14,000 USAID contractors. That means that the current total US force in Afghanistan is approximately 189,000 personnel (68,000 US troops and 121,000 contractors) . And remember, that's right now. And that, according to McCaskill, is a conservative estimate. A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.

The US has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002. By next year, the number of contractors will have doubled since 2008 when taxpayers funded over $8 billion in Afghanistan- related contracts.

Despite the massive number of contracts and contractors in Afghanistan, oversight is utterly lacking. "The increase in Afghanistan contracts has not seen a corresponding increase in contract management and oversight," according to McCaskill's briefing paper. "In May 2009, DCMA [Defense Contract Management Agency] Director Charlie Williams told the Commission on Wartime Contracting that as many as 362 positions for Contracting Officer's Representatives (CORs) in Afghanistan were currently vacant."

A former USAID official, Michael Walsh, the former director of USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance and Chief Acquisition Officer, told the Commission that many USAID staff are "administering huge awards with limited knowledge of or experience with the rules and regulations." According to one USAID official, the agency is "sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent." As a result, the agency does not "know ... where the money is going."

The Obama administration is continuing the Bush-era policy of hiring contractors to oversee contractors. According to the McCaskill memo:

In Afghanistan, USAID is relying on contractors to provide oversight of its large reconstruction and development projects. According to information provided to the Subcommittee, International Relief and Development (IRD) was awarded a five-year contract in 2006 to oversee the $1.4 billion infrastructure contract awarded to a joint venture of the Louis Berger Group and Black and Veatch Special Projects. USAID has also awarded a contract Checci and Company to provide support for contracts in Afghanistan.

The private security industry and the US government have pointed to the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker(SPOT) as evidence of greater government oversight of contractor activities. But McCaskill's subcommittee found that system utterly lacking, stating: "The Subcommittee obtained current SPOT data showing that there are currently 1,123 State Department contractors and no USAID contractors working in Afghanistan." Remember, there are officially 14,000 USAID contractors and the official monitoring and tracking system found none of these people and less than half of the State Department contractors.

As for waste and abuse, the subcommittee says that the Defense Contract Audit Agency identified more than $950 million in questioned and unsupported costs submitted by Defense Department contracts for work in Afghanistan. That's 16% of the total contract dollars reviewed.

Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.His new website is RebelReports. com

--
Tom Rainey-Smith
Amnesty G48
Seoul
Republic of Korea

'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind' Mahatma Gandhi