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ers, most of them Chinese." CNPC is the largest oilinvestor in Sudan; the other key Chinese company is theSinopec Group (also known as the China PetrochemicalCorporation).

Oil money has heled violence in Darhr. "The prof-itability of Sudan's oil sector has developed in closechronological~stepwith the violence in Darhr," notesHuman Rights First. "In 2000, before the crisis, Sudan'soil revenue was $1.2 billion. By 2006, with the crisis wellunderway, that total had shot up by 291 percent, to $4.7billion. How does Sudan use that windfall? Its financeminister has said that at least 70 percent of the oil profitsgo to the Sudanese armed forces, linked with its militiaallies to the crimes in Darhr."

There are other nefarious components of the CNPCrelationship with the Sudanese government. China shipssubstantial amounts of small arms to Sudan and has helpedSudan build its own small arms factories. China has alsoworked at the United Nations to undermine more effec-tive multilateral action to protect Darhr. Human rightsorganizations charge a key Chinese motivation is to lubri-cate its relationship with the Khartoum government so theoil continues to flow.

CNPC did not respond to repeated requests for com-ment.

D O L E : T H E S O U R T A S TEO F P I N E A P P L ESarting in 1988, the Philippines undertook what was tobe a bold initiative to redress the his- , --.

report, "The Sour Taste of Pineapple," the workersreceived only nominal title. They were required to formlabor cooperatives. Intended to give workers- ow thenew land owners- means to collectively manage theirland, the cooperatives were instead controlled by wealthylandlords.

"Through its dealings with these cooperatives," ILRFfound, Dole and Del Monte, (the world's other leadingpineapple grower) "have been able to take advantage of anumber of worker abuses. Dole has outsourced its laborforce to contract labor and replaced its full-time regularemployment system that existed before CARP." Doleemploys 12,000 contract workers. Meanwhile, from 1989to 1998, Dole reduced its regular workforce by 3,500.

Under current arrangements, Dole now leases its landfrom its workers, on extremely cheap terms - n oneexample cited by ILRF, Dole pays in rent one-fifteenth ofits net profits from a plantation. Most workers continue towork the land they purportedly own, but as contract work-ers for Dole.The Philippine Supreme Court has ordered Dole toconvert its contract workers into regular employees, butthe company has not done so. In 2006, the Court uphelda Department of Labor and Employment decision requir-ing Dole t o stop using illegal contract labor. Under Philip-pine law, contract workers should be regularized after sixmonths.

Dole emphasizes that it pays its workers $10 a day,more than the country's $5.60 minimum wage. It also saysthat its workers are organized into unions. The companyresponded angrily to a 2007 nomination for most irre-sponsible corporations from a Swiss organization, theBerne Declaration. "We must also say that those fallaciousattacks created incredulity and some anger among ourDolefil workers, their representatives, our growers, their

torically high concentration of landownership that has impoverished mil-lions of rural Filipinos and underminedthe country's development. The Com-prehensive Agricultural Reform Pro-gram (CARP) promised to deliver landto the landless.

It didn't work out that way.Plantation owners helped draft the

law and invented ways to circumvent itspurported purpose.Dole pineapple workers are amongthose paying the price.

Under CARP, Dole's land was divid-ed among its workers and others whohad claims on the land prior to thepineapple giant. However, under theterms of the law, as the Washington,D.C.-based International Labor RightsForum (ILRF) explains in an October

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cooperatives and more generally speaking among theentire community where we pperate." The companythanked "hundreds of people who spontaneouslyexpressed their support to Dolefil, by taking the initiativeto sign manifestos," including seven cooperatives.

The problem with Dole's position, as ILRF points out,is that "Dole's contract workers are denied the same rightsafforded to Dole's regular workers. They are rehsed theright to organize or benefits gained by the regular union,and are consequently left with poor wages and permanentjob insecurity." Contract workers are paid under a quotasystem, and earn about $1.85 a day, according to ILRF.

Conditions are not perfect for unionized workers,either. In 2006, when a union leader complained aboutpesticide and chemical exposures (apparently misreportedin local media as a complaint about Dole's waste disposalpractices), the management of Dole Philippines (Dolefil)pressed criminal libel charges against hm . Two years later,these criminal charges remain pendmg.

Dole says it cannot respond to the allegations in theILRF report, because the U.S. Trade Representative isconsidering acting on a petition by ILRF to deny sometrade benefits to Dole pineapples imported into the Unit-ed States from the Philippines.

Concludes Barna Atheya, executive director of ILW,"In both Costa Rica and the Philippines, Dole has delib-erately obstructed workers' right to organize, has failed topay a living wage and has polluted workers' communities."

GE: CREATIVE ACCOUNTING

G neral Electric (GE) has appeared on Multi~ationalMonitor's annual 1 0 Worst Corporations list fordefense contractor fraud, labor rights abuses, toxic andradioactive pollution, manufacturing nuclear weaponry,workplace safety violations and media conflicts of interest(GE owns television network NBC).

This year, the company returns to the list for new rea-sons: alleged tax cheating and the firing of a whistleblow-er. In June, former New York Times reporter David CayJohnston reported on internal GE documents thatappeared to show the company had engaged in long-run-ning effort to evade taxes in Brazil. In a lengthy report inTax Notes International, Johnston cited a GE subsidiarymanager's powerpoint presentation that showed "suspi-cious" invoices as "an indication of possible tax evasion."The invoices showed suspiciously high sales volume forlighting equipment in lightly populated Amazon regionsof the country. These sales would avoid higher value added

taxes (VAT) in urban states, where sales would be expect-ed to be greater.

Johnston wrote that the state-level VAT at issue, basedon the internal documents he reviewed, appeared to beless than $100 million. But, "since the VAT schemeappears to have gone on long before the period covered inthe Moreira [the company manager] report, the total sumcould be much larger and could involve other countriessupplied by the Brazil subsidiary."

A senior GE spokesperson, Gary Sheffer, told Johnstonthat the VAT and related issues were so small relative toGE's size that the company was surprised a reporter wouldspend time looking at them. "No company has perfectcompliance," Sheffer said. "We do not believe we owe thetax."

Johnston did not identify the source that gave him theinternal GE documents, but GE has alleged it was a for-mer company attorney, Adriana Koeck. GE fired Koeck inJanuary 2007 for what it says were "performance reasons."GE sued Koeck in June 2008, alleging that she wrongful-ly maintained privileged and confidential information, andimproperly shared the information with third parties. In acourt filing, GE said that it "considers its professional rep-utation to be its greatest asset and it has worked tirelesslyto develop and preserve an unparalleled reputation of'unyielding integrity."'

GE's suit followed a whistleblower defense claim filedby Koeck in 2007. In April 2007, Koeck fled a claim withthe U.S. Department of Labor under the Sarbanes-Oxleywhistleblower protections (rules put in place following theEnron scandal).

In her filing, Koeck alleges that she was fired not forpoor performance, but because she called attention toimproper activities by GE. After being hired in January2006, Koeck's complaint asserts, she "soon discoveredthat GE C&I [consumer and industrial] operations inLatin America were engaged in a variety of irregular prac-tices. But when she tried to address the problems, bothMr. Burse and Mr. Jones [her superiors in the generalcounsel's office] interfered with her efforts, took certainmatters away from her, repeatedly became enraged withher when she insisted that failing to address the problemswould harm GE, and eventually had her terminated."

Koeck's whistleblower filing details the state VAT-avoidance scheme discussed in Johnston's article. I t alsoindicates that several GE employees in Brazil were black-mailing the company to keep quiet about the scheme.

Koeck's whistleblower filing also discusses reports inthe Brazilian me da that GE had participated in a "bribingclub" with other major corporations. Members of the cluballegedly met to &vide up public contracts in Brazil, aswell as to agree on the amounts that would be paid inbribes. Koeck discovered evidence of GE subsidiariesengaging in behavior compatible with the "bribing club"stories and reported this information to her superior.Koeck alleges that her efforts to get hgh er level attorneys