Caterpillar Board confronted in Little Rock over sale of bulldozers to Israel

8 June 2011, Jewish Voice for Peace http://wedivest.org (USA)

Caterpillar Board confronted in Little Rock over sale of bulldozers to Israel

21% of shareholders ask for review of company’s human rights practices

For immediate release

Contact Sydney Levy (Jewish Voice for Peace) 415-994-4854

(June 8, 2011) At its annual shareholder meeting, the Caterpillar Board of Directors was confronted once again with shareholders and activists upset about the use of Caterpillar bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes.

Since 2004, Jewish Voice for Peace, together with grassroots activists and an interfaith coalition of shareholders, has been attending the Caterpillar shareholder meetings in the Chicago area to hold the company accountable for their bulldozers being used to demolish Palestinian homes. This year, Caterpillar moved its shareholder meeting to Little Rock, AK, in an apparent attempt to make the meeting less accessible to company shareholders and to dampen criticism of the company’s human rights practices. Despite Caterpillar’s efforts, criticism of the company’s policies is on the rise. Over 2,500 people have contacted the Caterpillar Board of Directors within the last 24 hours, asking how many more Palestinians need to be made homeless before Caterpillar reacts.

The United Nations is reporting a two-fold increase in the rate of Palestinian home demolitions by the Israeli authorities this year. These demolitions have razed entire villages again and again. The Bedouin village of Al-Arakib in the Negev has already been destroyed by Caterpillar bulldozers 21 times.

Russ Greenleaf, representing Jewish Voice for Peace and a coalition of interfaith shareholders, presented a shareholder proposal asking Caterpillar to review its human policies. The proposal got 21% of the shareholder votes (provisional results).
“Caterpillar’s sale of D9 bulldozers to Israel is not good for Israel, nor is it good for Caterpillar’s reputation,” said Mr. Greenleaf. “[Caterpillar] management buries its head in the sand when dealing with human rights,” he added. [Read Mr. Greenleaf's speech and the shareholder proposal here.]

Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman confirmed this assertion when he responded to the overwhelming evidence of Caterpillar bulldozers used to commit human right violations against Palestinians by saying, “How our customers use [the bulldozers] is their business. We can’t stop them.”

Yet Caterpillar has the power to stop the sale of these bulldozers today, if they so choose. According to news reports, the deliveries of Caterpillar bulldozers to Israel have been suspended during the length of the Corrie trial in Israel. Cindy and Craig Corrie, are bringing a civil suit against the government of Israel in a court in Tel Aviv. Their daughter, Rachel, was a 23-year-old American peace activist killed under under a CAT bulldozer when she tried to protect the home of the Nasrallah family in Gaza from an Israeli army demolition. At the shareholder meeting, Caterpillar’s CEO would “neither confirm nor deny” that any shift in policy or practice has taken place.

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Jewish Voice for Peace is America’s largest Jewish grassroots peace group dedicated to reaching a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the principles of equality and international human rights law.

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* An end to all violence against civilians


SPEECH BY RUSS GREENLEAF AT CATERPILLAR SHAREHOLDER MEETING

8 june 2011, Jewish Voice for Peace http://wedivest.org (USA)
Hi. I’m Russ Greenleaf, a shareholder with Jewish Voice for Peace and a coalition of religious organizations, speaking in favor of Proposal 11.

I am Jewish. I am not anti-Israel. I have friends in Israel, and I want what’s best for them.

Caterpillar’s sale of D9 bulldozers to Israel is not good for Israel or for Caterpillar’s reputation.

Israel’s routine use of those D9’s to destroy the homes of innocent Palestinian’s is making Israel a pariah in the world and destroying any chance for peace.
Amnesty International says, and I quote:

“House demolitions usually are carried out without warning, often at night, and the occupants are given little or no time to leave their homes. Often the only warning they get is the rumbling of the Israeli army’s Caterpillar bulldozers. They barely have time to flee as the bulldozers tear down the walls of their homes.” [Sometimes they are buried alive under the rubble.]

An Israeli newspaper reported that an Israeli army D9 dozer operator said, and I quote:

“I had no mercy for anybody. I would erase anyone with the D9. They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I came, but I gave no one a chance. I didn’t wait. I didn’t give one blow and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible.”

Ladies and gentlemen these are very serious human rights violations, and they happen again and again — with our knowledge.

The Israeli army says, quote: “The D9 is a strategic weapon here.”

Fellow shareholders, our product has become Israel’s weapon of choice for ethnic cleansing and potentially even war crimes.

Israel knows it, and the world knows it.
Yet our management buries its head in the sand when dealing with human rights. They say, quote:

“It’s not clear what is meant by the Company’s ‘policies related to human rights.’ ”
That is exactly why we need proposal 11 – a call to review Caterpillar’s policies related to human rights and to conform more fully with human rights standards.

Caterpillar makes very little money from selling these military D9’s to Israel, and the cost to Caterpillar’s reputation is enormous and escalating. It’s time to call a halt. Passing proposal 11 is a very modest first step in that direction. It’s long overdue.

I move proposal 11. Please vote for it.

PROPOSAL 11 — Review of Global Corporate Standards

Whereas, Caterpillar, a global corporation, faces increasingly complex problems as the international social and cultural context changes.

Companies are faced with ethical and legal challenges arising from diverse cultures and political and economic contexts. Today, management must address issues that include human rights, workers’ right to organize, non-discrimination in the workplace, protection of environment and sustainable community development. Caterpillar itself does business in countries with human rights challenges including China, Colombia, Myanmar/Burma, Syria and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

We believe global companies must implement comprehensive codes of conduct, such as those found in “Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance,” developed by an international group of religious investors. (www.bench-marks.org) Companies must formulate policies to reduce risk to reputation in the global marketplace. To address this situation, some companies, such as Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola, are even extending policies to include franchisees, licensees and agents that market, distribute or sell their products.

In August 2003, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights took historic action by adopting “Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights.”(www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/NormsApril2003.html)

RESOLVED: shareholders request the Board of Directors to review and amend, where applicable, Caterpillar’s policies related to human rights that guide international and U.S. operations, extending policies to include franchisees, licensees and agents that market, distribute or sell its products, to conform more fully with international human rights and humanitarian standards, and that a summary of this review be posted on Caterpillar’s website by October 2011.

Supporting Statement of Proponent

Caterpillar’s current policy, the Worldwide Code of Conduct, contains no references to existing international human rights codes except for a corporate policy of non-discrimination, and aspirational goals to maintain employee health and safety. It does not apply to company dealers whose activities can carry extensive reputational risks for Caterpillar. We believe company policies should reflect more robust, comprehensive understanding of human rights.

We recommend the review include policies designed to protect human rights-civil, political, social, environmental, cultural and economic-based on internationally recognized human rights standards, i.e., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fourth Geneva Convention, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, core labor standards of the International Labor Organization, International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, and United Nations resolutions and reports of UN special rapporteurs on countries where Caterpillar does business.

This review and report will assure shareholders that Caterpillar policies and practices reflect or conform to human rights conventions and guidelines and international law. We are not recommending specific provisions of the above-named international conventions. We believe significant commercial advantages may accrue to Caterpillar by adopting a comprehensive policy based on UN Human Rights Norms serving to enhance corporate reputation, improve employee recruitment and retention, improve community and stakeholder relations and reduce risk of adverse publicity, consumer boycotts, divestment campaigns and lawsuits.