Union Carbide Case StudyEssay Preview: Union Carbide Case StudyReport this essayKarishma PatelManagement 4500Union Carbide Case StudyThe tragedy that unfolded at the Union Carbide in Bhopal on December 3,1894 is one of the most remembered industrial accident recorded in the history. It is still unresolved due to a number of hasty and ill-informed judgments and it is indeed one of the most complex cases. Most of all, it not only deals with complex legal issues but also moral issues. Brining it down to responsibilities of Union Carbide U.S.A, it is somewhat partial. The accident was mainly occurred due to irresponsible employees that worked for Union Carbide India, which is a quasi-independent Indian firm. It is clear that Union Carbide India was the cause of a large number of deaths and injuries. However, Warren Anderson, the chairman of Board directors of Union Carbide, stated that they were “morally responsible”. Being the Parent Corporation it was negligent with respect to the safety of people in the plants environment and by not exercising control over the Indian plant that it should have exercised. The Corporation is liable for some damages being the parent company and therefore it would be their responsibility to pay some compensation to those affected. Moreover, It did own 50.9 percent of the plant in India and the basic design of the plant was conducted by American engineers who worked for Union Carbide, makes the Corporation responsible for the incident to a certain extent. They did face losses due to the bankruptcy of the company in India and on top of that they paid millions for the damages. In India, the 1973 Foreign Exchange Regulation Act specified that foreign companies in India are to share technology and use Indian resources; therefore local labor built the plant using Indian equipments/materials. The MIC unit was based on a process design provided by Union Carbides engineers in the US and elaborated by engineers in India. The regulation also required that the plants to be run by Indian personnel therefore it limited Union Carbide (US) control over the Bhopal plant.
The number of victims that were severely affected were high in numbers and it would require a lot of care/money for their recovery. Thousands had died; millions were injured and lost their homes. The company did send some doctors with knowledge of MIC to Bhopal to treat the victims and gave 1 millions to the emergency refund. Since the Indian government hopped into legal issues right away and took the matter to the court, it lacked in compensating its victims adequately. If they worked with the corporation in the United States and its CEO, it probably would have saved more lives. Instead the first thing they did was arrested the CEO, managers and blamed it all on the American corporation. However, the legal actions taken by the Indian government had failed and it was left with $470
Some of the injured workers had been treated and the rest of the workers were in good health. Some of them were sent packing in the Indian border police station. Another 1,200 people were left stranded as a result of the incident.
This was all to the delight of the American companies as only a mere 7 workers had been injured. But it only added to the misery of millions of Indian laborers.
All this to say that this is a good case to review when you are working at your own expense. There is no better example of how government should be able to intervene with a company’s right to choose. At the time of the case I was working with a new company for about a few years and was told we could no longer rely on it. I wanted to have my own business and this year I decided to go back to work for the United States. I had taken the decision to join a company that has a very high profile in this country, and since their decision of not filing a lawsuit I was allowed to go back to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now at that time it would come as no surprise that an entire department of law enforcement was in the company. At first I was afraid of what would unfold, and in fact did nothing because I did not want to put my family and friends in harm’s way. I felt that being the boss to one’s bosses and not working hard to help others will cause many people to lose the confidence of many others, and so I felt my conscience was questioned. As it turned out that my employer refused to help me pay for school, and now that I left there was an increased sense of fear in my heart. I was very worried about what could happen if I tried to leave. On the 19th of July 1988, I told the local security guards in Bhopal that I would leave for work, and in their haste I managed to leave the country in a matter of days. Some of my fellow workers were able to escape with the help of security and took refuge in a nearby town where I could stay for a month. So when I had returned to my work to pay my way back to home I was told to go to my supervisor and said that no, I was not there so I did not make anything of it. This infuriated them. If I had made any mistakes that had to be rectified then they would have probably tried to take me away from the family and friends that came to work day or night in my place just hoping I could get away. Unfortunately for me there was not a single American employee that I could meet. Even when I left the place I would spend more time in some of the shops in Bhopal, and I became more and more isolated than ever. I had no idea what to do because I was afraid it would do me harm. I decided to come and live on my own. As soon as I left Bhopal, I received a letter from the National Bureau of Investigation informing me that the Bureau had been informed that my case was not yet handled well. I immediately went to the bureau’s