Union Carbide Corporation and Bhopal case

Company Analysis

The Union Carbide Corporation is an American Organization that has established different branches globally, such as the India Corporation that was began in the 1970s because of the government relaxation of its laws to gain more international investments (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). The American and the India government joined up to form an organization based on an agreement that results in the formation of the Union Carbide Company within the Bhopal area in India. There were various reasons as to why the United States decided to establish its operations at Bhopal. One of these reasons includes an excellent communication and transport network within the location, which has assisted in the free movement of products and services globally (Steiner & Steiner, 2012).

Consequently, it is vital to note that the India government had critically ignored the threats posed by establishing an organization in a location with a considerable margin population. First of all, this region is a slum that has a vast number of residential employees, which increases the possibility of an occurrence of an accident that could result in massive injuries and fatalities. But still, the India government chose to ignore all these crucial facts to get profits from the corporation.

Case Summary

Bhopal disaster is considered one of the globe’s worst industrial disasters. Subsequent events are leading up to the disaster. There are two main concepts that argument the incidents involving the disaster. These two concepts include corporate negligence and worker sabotage. Based on the “Corporate Negligence” argument, the causes of the disaster was due to a potent combination of decaying and under-maintained facilities, undertrained workforce, a weak attitude towards safety, and culminating in employee actions that inadvertently enabled water to penetrate the MIC tanks in the absence of properly working safeguards (Chouhan, 2005). Also, based on the “Worker Sabotage” argumentation is that the cause of the disaster was generally not sponsored by a natural occurrence and that the Indian government has hidden the possibility of such in order to attach the blame to Union Carbide Corporation (UCC).

Prior to the incident of the disaster, in 1976, there were early leakages that the unions began to complain about, particularly pollution within the plant. According to the investigation by journalist Rajkumar Keswani, the plant was on the verge of a great volcano since there was a prior incident that happened in the year 1981, where an employee on his duty of maintaining the plants pipe, he was splashed with phosgene that leads to his death after 72hours (Chouhan, 2005). Additionally, another leakage happened in the year 1982 that caused 24 employees to be hospitalized, and after one month later, a MIC leak affected 18 employees. Furthermore, there were high leakages of carbon tetrachloride, phosgene, monomethyl amine, and chlorine (Broughton, 2005).

On December 2 and 3, 1984, a toxic gas known as methyl isocyanate gas explored in the UCIL plant that resulted in the death of 15,000 people. Additionally, millions of people were left injured, sick, and those exposed to the harmful effects of the gas passed it to the next generation. During the night of the incident, the gas began to leak heavily, causing the death of over 500,000 people. Most of these people were exposed to methyl isocyanate. Based on the estimated death toll after the incident, reveal that the highly toxic gas also affected the surrounding area caused a total of 3,787 deaths, 558,125 injuries, 38,478 temporary partial deaths, and about 3,900 permanently and severely disabling injuries. Additionally, within two weeks of the disaster, another 8,000 died from gas-related diseases (Broughton, 2005).

The cause of the disaster is yet under investigation and remains under debate. It is argued by the local activists and the Indian government that deferred maintenance and slack management created a situation where routine pipe maintenance caused a backflow of water into a MIC tank, triggering the disaster. Furthermore, the UCC argues that the main cause of the disaster was due to the water entering the MIC via an act of sabotage. The UCC was forced to pay $470 million in 1989, in order to settle litigation stemming from the incident. In 2001, seventeen years later, after the disaster, the UCC was bought by Dow Chemical Company (Broughton, 2005).

The ethical issues identified

Based on the case above, various unethical problems are surrounding the organization’s operations. Even though this organization had an agreement with other governing agencies in India to engage in the multiple activities outlined originally solely, the organization changed its course by embracing a new goods of focus (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). This, among other problems, has been compiled and presented in the following sections as either being ecologically, socially, also economical unethical as far as the processes of a company are concerned. Additionally, another ethical problem is the exposure of the surrounding citizens based on the pollution released by the company, causing millions of deaths.

Social Implications

The organization had established various measures that sought to take care of the affairs of the workers as well as the surrounding people who resided in the area of establishment of the organization. Consequently, after the organization had transformed its general processes, it did not care about the effects that the failure to set up the other safety measures that were associated with the newly adopted activities (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). This negligence has been associated with the complete dishonor of the people working within the company and also to the people who resided outside the company`s establishment. If the company were ethical enough, it would have established various measures that would be used to counter any possible risks that would have related to the failure of any given component within the company, which would have translated to a clean and conducive working environment for the workers.

Economic Implications

The organization had expectations that it would offer revenue to the government through the various taxes that the government would impose. However, the changing of the form of production and the final products as opposed to the initially agreed on products may have played an enormous role in the experienced reduced farm produce within the area (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). The UCC was forced to pay $470 million in 1989, in order to settle litigation stemming from the incident. In 2001, seventeen years later, after the disaster, the UCC was bought by Dow Chemical Company (Broughton, 2005).

Alternatively, one would assume that the organization changed the course on purpose having planned for the plant and crop failure due to the possibility based on the notion that the original end product which was pesticides fetched low income for the company while the adopted products fetched high revenue (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). Consequently, following the court orders to compensate the affected families and individuals, the Indian government had to adjust its operating budgets to cater for various forms of compensations towards the affected people. This money would have been useful in other vital activities of the company.

Ecological implications

The explosion led to the degradation of the environment at a high rate. With the destruction of the air, the animals that were being reared and formed a basic form of economic income to many families were killed, which resulted in environmental degradation. It was the responsibility of the company to ensure that even after the disaster happened, it cleared the area contaminated by the toxic substances and action that has been seen to be entirely deserted, thus acting unethically.

Possible courses of action

Developing good relations between UCIL and UCC.

The Indian government pushed to have UCIL detached from the primary company, UCC, on claims that the firm could manage to operate independently. Following pressure from the Indian government, UCC had to curb and minimize their control of UCIL. Instead, the two companies should have maintained close contact with UCC to seek professional advice and clarification whenever they were in a crisis or needed assistance (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). UCC could have, on the other hand, increased the number of visits to India where they would conduct an assessment of the condition and performance of UCIL and give a report proposing where changes and amendments that were necessary. Additionally, UCC understood the international standards for the production of pesticides and would have, therefore, advised UCIL to produce small amounts of MIC, which they would only use at that moment.

Government Intervention through the right protocols

The government is solely responsible for ensuring the safety and security of its citizens at all times. Some activities include issuing evacuation notices to everyone who has set a residential settlement in an area where there is a production plant that emits toxic gases or any other form of dangerous and harmful waste. There was an earlier move by the city administrator to relocate all manufacturing and production areas to a remote area that was at least 15 miles of residential regions (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). It was a critical precautionary measure, although it did not come to pass. The government should have initiated such a project that established an industrial zone where all production plants could operate at a place away from residential homes. The government should also have deviated from intervening in the relationship between UCIL and the primary company, UCC because the Indian subsidiary should have been free from and independent of external influence.

Educating employees and members of the public on how to respond to emergencies

The organization workers and residents that lived in areas surrounding the pesticide plant were massively affected by the aftermath of the gas leak. The majority of them did not know what to do, especially employees who opted to run for their lives rather than using emergency buses to evacuate the area (Steiner & Steiner, 2012). Additionally, all those who lived in proximity to the Bhopal plant should have relocated to far off areas as a precautionary measure for such an event that happened. Many people were stranded when a cloud of gas formed above them, and they did not know what to do or go to a secure place. Research shows that breathing through a wet piece of cloth could have saved the lives of many people involved in the incident.

The best-recommended resolution that the company should have adopted an Accident and emergency management unit within UCIL

Risks are inevitable, but the preparedness to mitigate and address an emergency is crucial for every organization. Preparation, in this case, could have started with maintenance checkups to ensure that in the case of a gas leak, it could be managed and contained before it spread to the atmosphere. People living near industrial plants are generally faced with a high risk of been exposed to poisonous gases and substances that can affect their health status. These can lead to further damages causing more harm to the health of the Bhopal residents. For instance, it can affect their water quality, environmental pollution, and contamination of water supplies (Dhara & Dhara, 2002).  Therefore, as a high-ranking official in the local government in Bhopal, based on the current information I know concerning the area, there are several actions I would take in this case.

First and foremost, I will ask the industrial plant to use more environmentally-friendly substances that do not affect the environmental surrounding. Additionally, I will put restrictions governing the industrial areas restricting the residents from living near the plant. Although it will be more expensive to vacate those large numbers of people who have settled near the plant over the past few years, reducing and restricting further encroachment would be crucial in this case.

Besides, the number of workers and shift operators should have been increased to ensure that there were enough personnel to handle an emergency when it occurred. Bhopal should have had enough emergency kits and facilities to evacuate workers from the premises and give them the medical attention they deserved. The question that one can ask include: What did the company do to mitigate the gas from escaping into the atmosphere, and what procedures were deployed to ensure the safety of the workers and all individuals living within the areas surrounding the facility? Throughout this whole case, it is evident can widely be seen how the level of negligence was much more significant than what it should have been. Ultimately, had this negligence been avoided, there most likely would have been a very different outcome than the incident that killed several thousands of people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the company is one of the most affect organizations in the world today following the incident that killed thousands of lives due to negligence. From the incident that happened concerning the Bhopal disaster, there is a lesson that I believe is the most important. The lesson learned in this case is that it is significant to take precautions and measures prior to seeing small occurrences of issues before they escalate. This is because due to the negligence of the plant lead to the Bhopal disaster that occurred in the year. It would have been good practice for the organization to take the responsibility resulting from the catastrophe to compensate the victims fully. As a precautionary action, the company ought to have set in place adequate risk management and disaster recovery programs. These plans would have made it possible for the company to act ethically following the set laws. The various laws governing the operations of the company and also the safety standards revolving around the activities of the company should have been organized in the right way and observed as a high priority.