31 January, 2011
An ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) affiliated trade union, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), has raised issue with the insolent social conduct of US managers of a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ. The conduct is pointedly contrary to standards GDF SUEZ only in November agreed to in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs).
The matter involves a US subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, United Water Services Inc., a private utility that employs about 400 UWUA members in the US. UWUA called on the ICEM and PSI to rebuke United Water over an environment indictment levied in December by the US Justice Department, as well as troubling public comments made by United Water executives to minimize the seriousness of the alleged crimes.
After consulting with the third GUF that is signatory to the 16 November 2010 GFA, Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the ICEM and PSI on 19 January issued the first complaint of this particular agreement, calling United Water’s overall conduct a breach of GDF SUEZ corporate social responsibility. (That complaint can be found here.)
On 8 December, the US government issued a set of 26 indictments against United Water for conspiracy and felony violations of the US Clean Water Act. The GDF SUEZ subsidiary and two of its executives are charged with tampering and manipulating water quality measurements at a Gary, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant that it had operated on behalf of the municipality’s Sanitation Board.
Specifically, over a five-year period, the US Justice Department charged United Water with a scheme that increased chlorine input levels immediately before US government E.Coli monitoring samples were taken, and then lowering the input levels afterward as cost-savings measures. United Water is accused of doing this 68 times.
The practice, the US government claims, poses a serious health risk to the public.
The UWUA, ICEM, and PSI also took serious issue following the US Justice Department indictment with public comments made by United Water’s president and senior vice president for Corporate Communications downplaying the charges. They stated that the indictments are mere technical disagreements, with the president of United Water, Robert Iacullo, calling the government’s environmental charges “an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.”
In the addendum to the GFA, GDF Suez states that it has “responsibilities to society” and that “it will respect national law and regulations.” The agreement also states: “Among it activities, GDF Suez distributes energy and water, essential to the health and well-being of society.” The ICEM/PSI intervention notes, “If the US government’s charges prove true, the discharge of untreated, or sub-standard wastewater into waterways poses a serious public health threat.”
The GUFs are currently awaiting reply from GDF SUEZ over the complaint.