Science and Society Science and Society | Page 5

safe work conditions for its workers. Moreover they have signed contracts with cotton factories that use slave labor.

Shell is also one of the major Multinational companies and is also known as Royal Dutch Petroleum. The company was founded in 1907. Since 1958 Shell was legally allowed to extract oil form the Nigerian Delta in Nigeria. From 1990 till 1995 protests occurred in Nigeria by the Ogoni people. The governments however financed and legitimized the use of deadly force against those who protested against Shell due to the immense damage that followed on the environment due to the exhaust of the oil extraction process.

Syngenta is large specialized chemical company that sells seeds and pesticides to farmers. It was established in the year 2000. Complains about health and environment issues have been reported by farmers whose waterways and seeds have been utterly destroyed due tot he products of this company. Moreover reports of health issues have occured by those who use the chemicals and sell their products in the market. Above all that, Syngenta denied all those accusations and refused to provide a health care service for those who were harmed from their products.

Mattel is a multinational company for toy manufacturing. It was found in 1945, right after the second world war. Their Toys are all manufactured out in the Pearl River Delta, where 1.5 million farmer girls produce the toys and must work from 12- or even 14-hour shifts while
inhaling toxic fumes.

Disney is a multinational for Mass Media Corporation. Diney has a factory in china that forces workers to work 60-90 hours per week, with only 33-41

cents per hour. Moreover, the workers are not given health insurance, pension, or even the right to form their labor Union and association.

Monsanto is an American multinational chemical, and agricultural biotechnology corporation. It was established in 1901, and now is using something called Genetically modified organisms to dominate the world’s food supply. Marches against Monsanto started back in October 2013 with the propensity to protect the food supply, prevent corruption and domination, spread awareness about the harmful effect of GMOs, expose the company for what it actually is and lastly to support local farmers.

To solve the issue of having a multinational company violate human rights and harm the environment, governments should intervene, because without having laws that restrict multinational companies from committing crimes against humanity chaos will take over. Have a universal affirmation that sets a minimum wage for the workers of multinational companies. Have health inspections every month to ensure a good hygiene. Distribute surveys to get a somehow reliable feedback from the workers ensuring them that it’ll be anonymous. Force multinational companies to build smoke filters to lessen the air pollution. Require all companies to provide masks and gloves for its workers so the workers’ health wouldn’t be jeopardized. Require all companies to recycle the waste. Sanction those who pollute the waterways. Provide health insurance for the workers. Seek the aid of NGOs to raise awareness about the level of abuse and damage caused by multinational companies. Allowing workers to have a labor union to speak on their behalf. Completely demolish the exploitation of children and women by the multinational companies, and penalizing thecompanies that violates those conditions. companies that violates those conditions.

By: Reham El Morally