Their testimony confirms a 1991 Food and Drug Administration report that claimed that the valve was manufactured under conditions "in serious violation" of good manufacturing processes (see Multinational Monitor, October 1991).
Fractures occurred in at least 501 of the devices that were sold from 1979 to 1986, when Shiley ceased production due to "negative publicity." At least 250 people have died from the fractures.
The former employees allege that workers at the Irvine, California facility, where the device was manufactured, routinely re-welded valves previously tagged to be rejected. Former welder Harvey Hilman stated that re-welding was done because the components "were very expensive, and it would cost the company too much to scrap valves that had cracks." The re-welding was often done improperly, or not at all. The ex-employees claim that supervisors, often aware that workers were using improper techniques, did nothing to train workers to correct their procedures.
According to the ex-employees, Shiley attempted to cover up its practice of selling faulty devices by forging records to state that corrective manufacturing processes took place, or by buffing over the control numbers of faulty valves and stamping them with new numbers, thereby destroying the ability to trace the devices. The former employees stated that drug and alcohol abuse was also rampant at the plant.
Shiley declined to comment on the ex-employees' allegations.
Ypsilanti argued that GM made an irrevocable promise to provide jobs in the community when they accepted $13.5 million in tax abatements from the Township (see Stopping Capital Flight," Multinational Monitor, June 1993 ). According to Douglas Winters, the attorney that represented Ypsilanti in its case, "the tax abatement is an incentive to keep the industry there. ... With that, comes some responsibility. If [GM] doesn't want to have any commitments to the community, then they shouldn't take the tax subsidies [that require] those commitments."
In response, according to Janine Frueham at GM's Mid-sized Car Division, GM argued that it merely "took advantage of incentives offered by the State of Michigan ... just like any other business does." She adds that GM fulfilled its obligation to invest $250 million in the community, but that "employment levels cannot be guaranteed when the market fluctuates as it does."
The appeals court adopted GM's position, and the company is now free to close the plant which once employed 4,600 workers.
Bob Harlow, president of United Auto Workers local that represents the Willow Run workers, says he was "flabbergasted" by the ruling. He expresses concern for how the community will cope as workers leave to work at other facilities.
Winters fears that the ruling "allows corporations like GM to continue to practice deceit and dishonesty and to bamboozle communities when they seek tax subsidies in exchange for creation of employment."
The Township will still seek monetary damages in trial court, but Winters claims that "the courts will have to realize that there are some things that money simply cannot fix."
Hoechst Philippines, Inc. and Hoechst Far East Marketing Corporation are suing the news service and a scientist quoted in the story for over $814,800, according to PAN.
The lawsuit was filed in Philippine court against the English-language news syndicate, Philippine News and Features, and Dr. Romeo Quijano, a pharmacologist and professor at the Philippine General Hospital, and the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, who was quoted in the article "More Diseases Traced to Pesticide Use." The article ran in Philippine Daily on May 13, 1993, according to PAN.
Hoechst has been able to block the Philippine government from effectively banning pesticides containing endosulfan, and those products, including Thiodan, are still on the market, according to PAN.
"There have been other problems that have to do with Hoechst endosulfan, in the Third World," says Judith Gips of PAN.
Hoechst spokespeople in New Jersey and Germany said they could not comment on the Philippines situation.
According to PAN, the Hoechst subsidiaries are also threatening further legal action against Philippine News and Features for reporting on the company's harassment of a farmer, Erminia Abongan. Abongan, at an April 1993 pesticide conference, charged that she is still experiencing health problems from the fungicide Brestan, which was banned in the Philippines in 1990.
- Aaron Freeman