"Keeping the Heat on Dow Chemical"

Activists Challenge Dow Shareholders

By Rebecca Meuninck
August/September Issue, 2004

The 2004 meeting of Dow Chemical shareholders was politely crashed with a protest and some challenging public debate and hard-hitting questions in what has become an annual opportunity for environmentalists and public health activists to apply direct pressure on the international chemical giant.

Ecology Center staffers Tracey Easthope, Mary Beth Doyle, and Rebecca Meuninck joined representatives from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), the Lone Tree Council, and the Tittabawassee River Watch at the May meeting of 850 shareholders in Midland, Michigan, Dow’s world headquarters.

The group was lead by Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, in protest of the company’s failure to accept their liabilities for the 1984 Bhopal disaster, and for the dioxin contamination in Midland and the Tittabawassee River flood plain. In April, Bee and Shukla were awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the “Nobel Prize of the environmental community,” for their ongoing work in Bhopal. They were at the Michigan Dow meeting as part of their U.S. tour to spread awareness about ICJB’s demands for justice in Bhopal.

Outside before the meeting, Bee and Shukla led demonstrators in songs and chants. Inside, they had a statement read to the shareholders on their behalf by Tracey Easthope.

After the initial demonstration, a small group of activists (with proxy passes) went inside the meeting to support a resolution calling on Dow to report how the company’s potential liabilities in Bhopal might affect their growth and stability in India and the rest of Asia. Tina Van Dam, Dow’s corporate Secretary, spoke on behalf of the board of directors in recommending a vote against the proposal, while Lauren Compere of Boston Common Assets Management, a socially responsible investment firm and the sponsor of the resolution, read a statement in support.

Shareholders were then asked to vote on this and all the other resolutions. The Bhopal resolution received 6.14% of the vote, not enough to pass, but a success nonetheless. Three percent of the vote is required to bring the resolution before shareholders next year.

A question and answer period with Dow Chairman William Stavropoulos followed. Fifteen environmentalists, community members from the Tittabawassee River flood plain, and Bhopal activists questioned the chairman about Dow’s public health and environmental liabilities in various communities. Each speaker had three minutes for comments and to ask questions; Stavropoulos had three minutes to respond.

Many activists were disappointed with the chairman’s responses. On several occasions, he appeared to mislead shareholders by inaccurately portraying Dow’s legal liabilities and the known hazards of dioxin. At one point, Stavropoulos asserted that the worst known human health impact of dioxin was chloracne, a gross misstatement considering the scientific literature linking dioxin with a host of diseases, disorders, birth defects, and numerous other health problems.

The chairman’s misleading statements were nothing new to activists who have attended prior annual shareholder meetings. In 2003, Stavropoulos “misspoke,” denying the pending criminal lawsuit that Union Carbide, Dow’s fully owned subsidiary, faces in India. Activists left the 2004 shareholder meeting equally disappointed with the chairman’s responses, but encouraged by the shareholder support of the Bhopal resolution. The ICJB and their allies will continue to pressure the company until their demands for justice in Bhopal are met, and Dow is held accountable for other communities affected by their manufacturing practices and products.

Rebecca Meuninck is part of the Ecology Center’s Environmental Health Project and a member of Justice for Bhopal.

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