Unions Challenge Halliburton Over Burma Ties

Worker shareholders are stepping up their global campaign to end corporate support for Burma's military dictatorship.

At Halliburton's annual meeting in the US today, union representatives will speak in favour of a shareholder resolution addressing the company's involvement in human rights abuses in Burma.

The union speakers will be from the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the US national labour federation AFL-CIO.

Halliburton, the energy giant formerly headed by American Vice-President Dick Cheney, is one of the few US-based companies with investments in Burma. The Burmese government is noted for massive human rights violations and involvement in narcotics trafficking.

The shareholder resolution, sponsored by the LongView Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank of New York, urges the Halliburton board of directors to report on the company's operations in Burma. The resolution asks what steps Halliburton has taken to ensure "that neither Halliburton nor any of its subsidiaries is involved in or appears to benefit from the use of forced labour or other human rights abuses in Burma."

"Working people who invest in Halliburton want to know if its operations in Burma prop up a military regime which condones forced labour and other human rights abuses," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "The LongView resolution at Halliburton is a positive measure in the best interests of its shareholders that will lead toward compliance with internationally-recognised workers' rights."

DISINVESTMENT CALL

In November 2000, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) approved a resolution urging members to "review their relations with Burma" and "ensure that such relations do not perpetuate the system of forced or compulsory labour in that country."

"The ILO has clearly ruled that forced labour is continuing and systematic in Burma, and our energy unions in that region have made their views very plain," said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. "We call upon Halliburton to disinvest from Burma. We cannot condone any economic activity which directly or indirectly supports the regime in Burma until full democracy and human rights, including workers' rights, are restored there."

A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to "cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labor continues." The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting 20 million workers in 390 affiliated unions in 107 countries.

Halliburton's recent activities in Burma include its participation in the Yadana pipeline, a project that used forced labour. The Yadana pipeline is one of the largest foreign investments in Burma, projected to provide the military-controlled regime with US$150-400 million annually for decades. Unocal, another US company doing business in Burma, is being sued by victims of forced labour on the Yadana project. Halliburton's involvement in the Yadana project occurred during Vice-President Cheney's tenure as CEO of the company.

In addition, Halliburton has been instrumental in efforts to oppose sanctions on Burma through its strong involvement with USA-Engage and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), two powerful industry groups. Vice-President Cheney last autumn defended his former company's operations on the CNN talkshow Larry King Live. Cheney stated that "you have to operate in some very difficult places and oftentimes in countries that are governed in a manner that's not consistent with our principles here in the United States."

"The struggle for human and workplace rights in Burma has been critical for our union for many years," notes Joe Drexler, Director of Special Projects of ICEM American affiliate the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). "Our members don't want their retirement savings invested by Halliburton in brutal dictatorships that use forced labour. It's just wrong." PACE represents workers in the US oil and gas industry.

The situation in Burma violates the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, including the right to no forced labour. Unions around the world have recently launched a campaign to make sure workers know these rights, distributing an ILO-produced poster (see below) in workplaces and communities worldwide.