Analysing Abuse Of Migrant Domestic Worker Social Work Essay

Analysing Abuse Of Migrant Domestic Worker Social Work Essay In year 2004, the first ever recorded of the nation worst abused and tortured of migrant worker, Nirmala Bonat. The news has brought to light the sad and painful incidents as a 19th year old Indonesian maid told a harrowing story of how she was repeatedly burnt with an iron and scalded with boiling water by her Malaysian employer. The Malaysian image of a caring nation has been tarnished when pictures of abused Indonesian domestic workers were featured in major newspapers. The reports made great impact as it drew series of reaction from disgusted and angry Malaysians who could not believe the fact that members of our very own community could commit such cruel acts. I just could not bear by looking at the images of Nirmala Bonat being brutalized by her employer. What has she done to deserve such severe punishment from her employer? If indeed, Nirmala Bonat is incompetent in her daily routines work, she should have been returned to her agent for replacement. Manhandling a human being or soul, who is here to earn a better life and living is like committing a merciless crime. Five years later in 2009, another similar Nirmala Bonat case making the headlines once again. An Indonesian maid by the name, Siti Hajar was tortured by an old Malaysian lady without any sense of humanity at all towards her. Abusing migrant domestic worker or helper is no longer something new in the society. Siti Hajars plight made the Malaysian and Indonesian media a headlines once more. News says that she being allegedly scalded with boiling water, tortured and starved. The worst still she is only fed with plain rice and occasionally her employer have asked the maid who is a Muslim to digest pork meat is merely unforgivable at all. One after another, Siti Hajar cases has led to an alleged rape, physical abuse, denial of salaries and basic rights of three Indonesian women by their employer in Sungai Siput, Perak. Such acts are simply inhumane. Up to dated, statistics shows more than hundred of thousand Indonesian women are believed to work in Malaysian homes as hoping to earn a better life. Malaysia as the second largest destination for Indonesian maid after Saudi Arabia besides Kuwait, Jordan, Hong Kong and some other countries including maid working in the United States of America. There are few question that I would like to raise up here; are the Indonesian maids working aboard under a good condition? Do they have the right for their salaries or even getting a freedom of human right? Never, I do understand why the Philippines maids were not abused or even being tortured physically. Is it due to the communication breakdown between the maid and the employer? By having a maid or migrant domestic helper, would it make things much easier or difficult for us? Not to forget, most maid from Indonesia which are brought into the country, merely are from a lower grade. This is because a much more skilled and quality ones would be sent to other countries which offer a greater lucrative sum of money, countries like Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. This would lead to Malaysian employer felt that they are being cheated as they have to be prepared to accept those lower grades migrant domestic worker. While the agents are allowed to capitalize on a lucrative business as they often wash their hands off as soon as the workers are delivered to the employers. Such situation left no option for the employer as they would need to train the lower grades domestic worker in household management from basic; How to get the laundry done? Cleaning up the bathrooms? Getting the rubbish out of the house? Baby-sitting? Helping our wives in the kitchen or even thinking of he lping you and your family with cooking? With all this situations, the employer would end up with lots of burden and misery. Before I go any further in discussing the possible measures that can be taken as to curb these issues effectively, let us take a glance at the Malaysian law and policies on migrant workers. The system that is being practice in Malaysia has put migrant domestic workers at complete disadvantage as far as seeking for justice is concerned. This is because the migrant domestic workers are at a bigger disadvantage as they are not even considered workers and as such do not fall under the provisions of the Employment Act. Laws and policies are enforced with great speed and efficiency when migrant workers violate these laws and the situation is different when the employer does the same offences. Even tough, migrant workers make complaints against their employers, they will be subjected to various form of abuses including verbal and physical threats. This again causes them to live under severe stress and fear. I have seen and heard many cases where workers are immediately got their contract terminated and being repatriated back to their home country where they are laden with huge debts and poverty. Therefore, domestic workers especially would put up with the abuses and torture rather than returning to their countries empty handed. The next point that I would like to include in this essay is the forms of abuses endured by migrant domestic workers in Malaysia. Press reports merely stated that the wages to workers are not paid as per the contract even after they have fulfilled all the contract terms. Nevertheless, migrant domestic workers spend a lot of money to come to this country and most of the wages earned are often used to pay up loans and debts, which they have secured and as to feed their families back home. When employers do not pay the wages, the workers suffer the most. Beside that, migrant domestic workers are often forced to live in cramped, dirty and badly furnished shacks or crowded into houses meant for a small family. Some even sleep on the kitchen floor with just a piece of thin mattress. To be exact, domestic workers are not given a proper rooms of their own and such housing facilities that are not fit for living would lead to promote unhealthy conditions. The situation, which I have pointed out, brought an environment where employers feel they have the immunity power. Hence migrant domestic workers are virtually at the mercy of their employers who are confident that they would be able to get away with almost anything. Some employers are fully aware that even if the matter is brought to the attention of the authorities such as the civil courts or industrial court, the immigrant policies in Malaysia would make it almost impossible for the migrant worker to successfully seek justice or redress without first either running out of money or time both which is completely controlled the policies stipulated by the Immigration Department. It is not until the sole reason of Nirmala Bonats case received so much attention and quick redress was given because the severity of her injuries making the headlines of every local newspaper front page. Public outcry on her case has prompted the Malaysian authorities to swing into immediate action. The responds show that Malaysian can administer justice swiftly and effectively when it chooses to do so. It is pertinent to note that many cases go unreported in the media. High profile cases that drew attention has forced Malaysia taking up the measures to check on maid abuses by inspecting on homes, interviews of maids and employers and also by introducing a helpline. Therefore, as to curb the problems effectively, I call on the government to grant swift action to migrant workers in seeking justice and protection. Employers who break the law must be made accountable. The government should impose heavier punishment to maid abusers. Law and policies that impede or delaying the justice system must be either amended or removed together. The Malaysian government need to ensure that enforcement agencies such as the Immigration Department, Civil or Industrial Court and the Police Force to enforce the law without bias and prejudice. Whereby there are cases been brought to my attention that migrant workers have often been subjected to extortion by enforcement personnel. Enforcement personnel have also been known to take the employers side in coercing workers to comply with unfair terms of employment. These allegations of extortion and gross misconduct by enforcement personnel must be investigated. Enforcement must be carried out swiftly and impartially against employers who do not obey the law. The authorities must not wait till there is a public outrage as to get into action. In other words, all relevant authorities are to stop all type of harassment on migrant domestic workers immediately. I personally think that the government should set minimum work and living environment standards that employers must adhere to. These can be achieved effectively as the government must ratify the International Convention on Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990 and ensure its full implementation. The cultural differences in Malaysia as for a domestic worker to work 24 hours, seven days a week with no off day while being paid wages below the national poverty line. I would like to urge all migrant domestic workers who have been abused to bravely step forward and expose their employers as to put a stop of mistreating them. The agents too should be accountable for their carelessness and irresponsibility as most Muslims maids who work in non-Muslim homes were required to bath dogs and handled pork. Such act would utterly insensitive on the part of the employers and the agents. The solution would be that non-Muslim employers should be allowed only to hire non-Muslim maids while Muslim employers to bring in Muslim maids. The phrase Learn to live without maids struck my mind as I was watching Nanny 911, a television series of a Nanny assigned to homes as to help out American couples in handling and managing their families. I would like to state that men and children should also do housework. House chores are not as easy as you think it would be. We Malaysian are a lucky lot as we can afford to have maids with affordable rates and yet there are complaints of Indonesian maids now are asking for a little more. Therefore, I would say we should do the daily chores, home and outside ourselves. I have seen how typical it can be as only the women do everything at home as the men and children just laze around. Mind you there are tones of work to be done in the house besides caring for the children. There is the sweeping and mopping, cleaning the toilets, washing dishes, the laundry, the ironing, the cooking, dusting the windows and cabinets and the list goes on. This is not fair to women especially, we should have a balance and as for the men and children should lend a helping hands in assisting with the household chores. I think it is about time for us to learn to do something ourselves as this is something that we should ponder over. I would like to suggest that we should not solely depend on maids from aboard. We could train our local women especially the single mothers or purely a fulltime housewife. We could have them to come over on daily basis or even by the hours as another alternative in curbing the problems. This will lead to a cost effective and less risk of domestic helper or maid being abuse as they are not require to stay with the employer. Career women with families to take care of should change their mindset as placing the whole responsibility of the household works solely to the maid as their servant. Therefore to ease their worries especially those having children could send them to a nursing or a childcare center during the days and pick them up after work. The aspects of managing time with work and household duties are really hard to manage. I would say, why not we do it ourselves as life has become much more easier with new inventions with the latest technology of electrical appliances in doing household works. Children are very much a fast pace learner in everything if they were taught on how to do handle household chores. We should train our children to be more discipline and independent from a younger age as to get rid off the sole hope on maids. Parents can start by telling them how to keep their space clean and tidy, like make up their beds as they got up from sleep, wash their own plates or even get the rubbish out of the house. I would love to Live a life without the maid, the wife should ask the male spouse for assistance, cooperation and shares the responsibility in managing the house and their children. In most develop countries especially the westerner, we could see that the male gender does not feel ashamed when come to household works. The husband and wife would take turns and share equal responsibilities in raising and taking care of the family. It is about time as the long-standing issue on the supply of maids is finally nearing a conclusion between Malaysia and Indonesia with the signing of the Letter of Intent (Lol) on amendments to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Recruitment and Placement of Maids from Indonesia on the 18th May 2010. The Indonesian government is expected to lift its ban since June last year as to allow its citizen to work in Malaysia again. Both government officials have been holding meetings to resolve issues in relation to the maids issue. Among the issues agreed to is that maids in Malaysia will be given one day off weekly and their right to hold on to their passports. However, employer and the maid concern could agree to forego the day off in lieu of compensation and an employer could also hold onto a maids passport if both parties agreed. The only issue that is still pending is the wage paid to migrant domestic workers as it requires more discussions. Finally, I hope the government would recognize Migrant Domestic Workers as workers and grant them all the rights that come with the status. This hopefully will resolve the problem. Perhaps the employers should also be required to sign an undertaking not to physically abuse the maid and if they are unhappy, the maids are to be returned to the agency for further training or getting a new replacement. BIBLIOGRAFI 1. Prof Datuk Dr. Nik Safiah Karim, Head of PERTIWI (2009). The Maids: Ease vs Burden. Pertubuhan Tindakan Wanita Islam (PERTIWI). 2. Prof Madya Dr. Rusinah Siron, Social Analysis. (2009). Overcome your life without Indonesian maid. Universiti Tenaga Malaysia (UNITEN), Kuala Lumpur. 3. Article Maid deal soon, The Star, 19th May 2010. 4. Article Learn to live without maids, The Star, 24th May 2010. 5. Immigration Department of Malaysia. 6. Malaysian Employment Act. 7. http://thestar.com.my/news/story/ Nirmala Bonat case: Housewife found guilty, 18 years jail.

The Impact of Immigration on The United States Essay -- American Econo

The United States is a country that was built on immigration. The first settlers, Native Americans, represent less than 2% of the total population; the remaining 98% of the population are immigrants or decedents of immigrants. Today, the US still has the highest immigration rate in the world with 757,434 naturalizations in the 2012 fiscal year only (US Naturalizations 2012, Department of Homeland security). People try to immigrate to the United States for many reasons. Some people immigrate because they have been granted a refugee status or asylum and other people immigrate to fulfill their dreams. Immigration has an effect on the American society and economy. The US cannot survive without immigrants. Every year, many people immigrate to the US for several reasons. There are those who come to look for a safe place to stay because their countries are in war. Some immigrants have left their home countries to escape war or fear of persecution. They are refugees and have a legal right to remain the United States. Others come to the US to seek protection; they are granted an asylum and are also lawful residents. Besides that, most immigrants leave their countries and come to the US to fulfill their dreams. More so, the majority of the immigrants are unauthorized immigrants who are all foreign born nonresidents. According to Population Estimates, Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security (2011): 4. The number of unauthorized immigrants in US was estimated to 11,510,000.Regarding only to this large number of the unauthorized immigrants we can think about an eventual impact of immigration on US. First of all immigration has a huge impact on demography and social change because it raises the US population. M... ...ates: January 2010." Population Estimates, Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security (2011): 4. Kica, Matos. "13 years is too long for people to wait." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Laura Parker ‘’US just wouldn’t work without immigrant labor’’USATODAY’’7/22/2001 updated 11:21 PM ET http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/july01/2001-07-23-immigrant.htm Melanie Oubre Population ‘’Growth Fueled by Immigration Puts U.S. on Fast-Track to Depletion of Natural Resources’’Number USA Friday, December 28, 2012, 11:40 AM EST https://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/moubre/december-28-2012/population-growth-fueled-immigration-puts-us-fast-track-depletion-n Murphy,Dean E ``Imagining Life Without Illegal Immigrants’’ New York Times January 11,2004 http://www.wright.edu/~tdung/ Immigrants.htm

Industry Life Cycle of Nokia Company

Social Sustainability Process Industry Social Sustainability Social Indicators for Sustainable Project and Technology Life Cycle Management in the Process Industry Carin Labuschagne1 and Alan C. Brent1* 1 Chair of Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Engineering & Technology Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa * Corresponding author (alan. [email  protected] ac. za) DOI: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1065/lca2006. 01. 233 Abstract Goal, Scope and Background.The importance of the social dimension of sustainable development increased significantly during the last decade of the twentieth century. Industry has subsequently experienced a shift in stakeholder pressures from environmental to social-related concerns, where new developments in the form of projects and technologies are undertaken. However, the measurement of social impacts and the calculation of suitable indicators are less well developed compared to environmental indicators in order to assess the pot ential liabilities associated with undertaken projects and technologies.The aim of this paper is to propose a Social Impact Indicator (SII) calculation procedure based on a previously introduced Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) calculation procedure for environmental Resource Impact Indicators (RIIs), and to demonstrate the practicability of the SII procedure in the context of the process industry in South Africa. Methods. A framework of social sustainability criteria has been introduced for the South African process industry.The social sub-criteria of the framework are further analyzed, based on project and technology management expertise in the South African process industry, to determine whether the criteria should be addressed at project or technology management level or whether they should rather form part of an overall corporate governance policy for new projects and technologies. Furthermore, the proposed indicators for criteria that are considered appropriate for project or technology evaluation purposes are constrained by the type of information that is available, i. e. he calculation methodology relies on the availability of regional or national social information where the project will be implemented, as well as the availability of project- or technology-specific social information during the various phases of the project or technology development life cycle. Case studies in the process industry and statistical information for South Africa are subsequently used to establish information availability for the SII calculation procedure, demonstrate the SII method together with the RII method, and determine the practical use of the SII method.Results and Conclusion. The case studies establish that social footprint information as well as project- and technology social data are not readily available in the South African process industry. Consequently, the number of mid-point categories that can be evaluated are minimal, which results in an impaired soci al picture when compared to the environmental dimension. It is concluded that a quantitative social impact assessment method cannot be applied for project and technology life cycle management purposes in industry at present.Recommendation and Perspective. Following the outcomes of the case studies in the South African process industry, it is recommended that checklists and guidelines be used during project and technology life cycle management practices. Similar to the environmental dimension, it is envisaged that such checklists and guidelines would improve the availability of quantitative data in time, and would therefore make the SII procedure more practical in the future.Keywords: Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA); Life Cycle Management (LCM); process industry; Resource Impact Indicator (RII); Social Impact Indicator (SII); social sustainability Introduction The last decade of the twentieth century marked significant steps to draw the social dimension of sustainable development into the open [1]. The inclusion of social aspects in the sustainability debate and practice has nevertheless been marginal compared to the attention given to the other two dimensions, especially from a business perspective [1,2,3].However, stakeholders are forcing companies to address the inclusion of social sustainability by shifting pressure from environmental to social related concerns [4,5]. The social dimension is commonly recognised as the ‘weakest' pillar of sustainable development due to a lack of analytical and theoretical underpinnings [5] and it is believed that the state of development of indicators or measurements for social business sustainability parallels that of environmental performances about 20 years ago [6].Nevertheless, there is a definite need for practical tools to introduce social sustainability into business evaluation processes [1,7,8]. This paper proposes a methodology to assess the social sustainability of projects and technologies in the process industry by calculating social impact indicators, and addresses the following two questions: 1) What social criteria must such an assessment methodology consider and measure? 2) How must these criteria be addressed and measured?To address the first question, a framework of social business sustainability criteria is defined, which is relevant for operational initiatives in the process industry. Social sustainable development indicators are then introduced, demonstrated and discussed, based on the defined framework. Int J LCA 11 (1) 3 – 15 (2006)  © 2006 ecomed publishers (Verlagsgruppe Huthig Jehle Rehm GmbH), D-86899 Landsberg and Tokyo †¢ Mumbai †¢ Seoul †¢ Melbourne †¢ Paris 3 Process Industry Social Sustainability Responsibility (CSR) literature and guidelines, and other international guidelines were undertaken (Table 1) [9].The analysis showed that a comprehensive social sustainability framework should define appropriate criteria to address the comp any's impacts on the social systems in which it operates, as well as the company's relationship with its various stakeholders. A sustainable development framework for operational initiatives was subsequently developed and proposed, the social dimension of which is shown in Fig. 1. Table 2 provides the definitions of the criteria at the different levels of the framework, which are described in detail elsewhere [9]. 1 1. 1 Social Sustainability Criteria FrameworkDevelopment of a framework for business management purposes in the process industry The current indicator frameworks that are available to measure overall business sustainability do not effectively address social aspects of sustainability at operational level in the process industry, especially in developing countries such as South Africa [9]. The question arises what the exact scope of social sustainability should entail from a business management perspective. An analysis of current available frameworks, Social Impact Assessm ent (SIA) guidelines, Corporate SocialTable 1: Analysis of the social criteria addressed by current frameworks and guidelines [9] Name and type of literature Health Education Environment Housing / Living conditions ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Criteria Society Security / Crime Facilities & Services Population characteristics Community characteristics Economic welfare / Employment ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Indicator frameworks United Nations 1 ? ? 3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Global Reporting Intitiative2 IchemE Sustainability Metrics Wuppertal Indicators 4 European Conceptual Framework for Social Ind. SIA literature Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles6 Socioeconomic impacts for Energy Efficiency Project for Climate Change Mitigation7 South Sydney Council SIA 8 checklist SIA categories for development 9 projects in South Africa South African social criteria for CDM project evaluation10 Classification of social impacts 11 according to Vanclay Classification of social impacts 11 according to Juslen Classification of social impacts according to Gramling and 11 Freudenburg SIA Series’ Guide to Social Assessment12 Government actions European Greenpaper on CSR World Bank’s Social Analysis 14 Sourcebook SRI Indexes Dow Jones Sustainability Index FTSE 4 GOOD16 JSE SRI Index 17 18 15 13 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Pressures from international financing organisations ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Dominini 400 Index Global Compact19 International standards and guidelines Global Sullivan Principles20 Caux Round Table OECD Guidelines SA 8000 23 21 22 AA 100024 Investors in People CSR standards Ethos Indicators 27 25 26 Ethical Trading Initiative ? 29 ? ? ? ? ? Standards of CSR28 Danish Social Index 4 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability Process IndustryTable 1: Analysis of the social criteria addressed by current frameworks and guidelines [9] (cont'd) Name and type of literature Society Community cohesion Indicator frameworks 1 United Nations 2 Global Reporting Intitiative ? 3 IchemE Sustainability Metrics 4 Wuppertal Indicators European Conceptual Framework ? 5 for Social Ind. SIA literature Interorganizational Committee on ? 6 Guidelines and Principles Socioeconomic impacts for ? Energy Efficiency Project for 7 Climate Change Mitigation 8 South Sydney Council SIA checklist ? SIA categories for development ? 9 projects in South Africa South African social criteria for CDM project evaluation10 Classification of social impacts ? 11 according to Vanclay Classification of social impacts ? 1 according to Juslen Classification of social impacts ? according to Gramling and 11 Freudenburg SIA Series' Guide to Social ? Assessment12 Government actions 13 European Greenpaper on CSR ? Pressures from international financing organisations World Bank's Social Analysis ? 14 Sourcebook SRI Indexes 15 Dow Jones Sustainability Index FTSE 4 GOOD16 17 J SE SRI Index 18 Dominini 400 Index International standards and guidelines 19 Global Compact 20 Global Sullivan Principles Caux Round Table21 22 OECD Guidelines 23 SA 8000 ? AA 100024 ? 25 Investors in People ? 26 Ethical Trading Initiative ? CSR standards 27 Ethos Indicators 28 Standards of CSR Danish Social Index29 1Criteria Society and company (interlinkage) Product Community Stakeholder Training, responsibility involvement participation / education of of company Engagement staff Equity Company internal Fair Human labour rights practices Employee health and safety ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (2001): Indicators of susta inable development: guidelines and methodologies. United Nations. Available from ;http://www. un. rg/esa/sustdev/ natlinfo/indicators/indisd/indisd-mg2001. pdf;, visited on 19 November 2003 Global Reporting Initiative (2002): Sustainability Reporting Guidelines 2002. Global Reporting Initiative, Boston Institution of Chemical Engineers, (2002): The Sustainability Metrics: Sustainable Development Progress Metrics recommend for use in the Process Industries. Institution of Chemical Engineers. Rugby Spangenberg JH, Bonniot O (1998): Sustainability Indicators – A Compass on the Road Towards Sustainability. Wuppertal Paper 81 Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) (2000): Conceptual Framework and Structure of a European System of Social Indicators.EuReporting Working Paper no 9, Mannheim Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment (1995): Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment R eview 15 (1) 11–43 Vine E, Sathaye J (1999): Guidelines for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Verification and Certification of Energy-Efficiency Projects for Climate Change Mitigation. US Environmental Protection Agency through the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098 South Sydney Council (2004): The South Sydney Plan: Social Impact Assessment Checklist. ;http://www. sscc. nsw. gov. au/router? model=c=1704;, visited on 21 January 2004. Khosa M (2000): Social Impact Assessment of Development Projects. In: Khosa M (ed), Infrastructure Mandate for Change 1994–1999.Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Publishers, Pretoria Brent AC, Heuberger R, Manzini D (2005): Evaluating projects that are potentially eligible for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) funding in the South African context: A case study to establish weighting values for sustainable development criteria. Environment and Development Economics 10 (5) 631–649 Vanclay F (200 2): Conceptualising social impacts. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 22 (3) 183–211 Branch K, Hooper DA, Thompson J, Creighton J (1984): Guide to Social Assessment: A framework for assessing social change. Westview Press, London European Commission: Employment and Social Affairs (2001): Promoting a European framework for corporate social responsibility. European Communities, Luxembourg Social Analysis and Policy Team (2003): Social Analysis Sourcebook: Incorporating Social Dimensions into Bank-supported projects.Washington DC, The World Bank: Social Development Department SAM Indexes (2003): Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes Guide, Version 5. 0. SAM Indexes GmbH, Zollikon-Zurich FTSE (2003): FTSE4Good Index Series: Inclusion Criteria. FTSE The Independent Global Index Company, London Johannesburg Stock Exchange (2004): JSE SRI Index: Background and Selection Criteria. ;http://www. jse. co. za/sri/docs/;, visited on 9 January 2004 Domini Social Investments (2003): T he Domini 400 Social IndexSM. Available from ;http://www. domini. com/Social-screening/creation_maintenance. doc_cvt. htm;, visited on 31 December 2003 Kell G (2003): The global compact: origins, operations, progress and challenges.The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Autumn, 35–49 Global Sullivan Principles (2003): The Global Sullivan Principles of Social Responsibility. Available from ;http://www. globalsullivanprinciples. org;, visited on 27 December 2003 Caux Round Table (2003): Caux Round Table Principles for Business, English Translation. Available from: ;http://www. cauxroundtable. org/ENGLISH. htm;, visited on 20 January 2003 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2000): The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises 2000 Revision. OECD Publication, Paris Social Accountability International (2003): Overview of SA8000. Available from ;http://www. cepaa. org/SA8000/SA8000. tm;, visited on 4 March 2003 AccountAbility (1999): Overview of the AA1000 fr amework. AccountAbility Publication, London, available from ;http://www. accountability. org. uk/uploadstore/cms/docs/AA1000%20Overview. pdf;, visited on 29 December 2003 Investors in People UK (2003): The Standard. Available from ;http://iipuk. co. uk/IIP/Internet/InvestorsinPeople/TheStandard/default. htm;, visited on 29 December 2003 Ethical Trading Initiative (2003): Ethical Trading Initiative Homepage. Available from ;http://www. ethicaltrade. org;, visited on 29 December 2003 Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility (2001): ETHOS Corporate Social Responsibility INDICATORS.Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabillidade Social, Sao Paulo Goodell E (ed) (1999): Social Venture Networks: Standards of Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Venture Networks, San Fransisco Danish Ministry of Social Affairs, KPMG, Socialforskningsinstituttet (2000): Social Index: Measuring a Company's social responsibility, Danish Ministry of Social Affairs, Copenhagen Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 5 Process Industry Social Sustainability Social Sustainability Internal Human Resources External Population Macro Social Performance Stakeholder Participation Employment Stability Human Capital Socio- Economic Performance Information Provision Employment Opportunities Employment Renumeration Employment Practices Health Economic Welfare Trading Opportunities Socio- Environmental Performance Collective Audience Selected Audience Stakeholder Influence Education Productive Capital Disciplinary & Security Practices Employee Contracts Equity Housing MonitoringDecision Influence Potential Stakeholder Empowerment Service Infrastructure Mobility Infrastructure Regulatory & Public Services Community Capital Legislation Enforcement Labour Sources Health & Safety Health & Safety Practices Health & Safety Incidents Capacity Development Sensory Stimuli Cultural Properties Social Pathologies Security Economic Welfare Social Cohesion Research & Development Career Development Fig. 1: Framework to assess the social sustainability of engineering projects and technologies [9] Table 2: Definitions of Social Criteria [9] Internal Human Resources focuses on the social responsibility of the company towards its workforce and includes all aspects of employment.The criterion addresses a business initiative's impact on work opportunities within the company, the stability thereof as well as Employment Stability evaluating the fairness of compensation. Disciplinary and secrecy practices as well as employee contracts are addressed under this criterion. These are evaluated to Employment Practices ensure that it complies with the laws of the country, international human rights declarations as well as other human rights and fair employment practice standards. The criterion focuses on the health and safety of the workforce and evaluates preventive measures as well as the occurrence Health & Safety and handling of health and/or safety incidents. Capacity Development The criterion addresses two different, aspects namely research and development, and career development.External Population focuses on the external impacts of the company’s operational initiatives on a society, e. g. impacts External Population on the availability of services, community cohesion, economic welfare, etc. Human Capital refers to an individual's ability to work in order to generate an income and encompasses aspects such as health, Human Capital psychological wellbeing, education, training and skills levels. The criterion addresses Health and Education separately. Productive capital entails the assets and infrastructure an individual needs in order to maintain a productive life. The criterion Productive Capital measures the strain placed on these assets and infrastructure availability by the business initiative.This criterion takes into account the effect of an operational initiative on the social and institutional relationships and networks of Community Capital trust, reciprocity and sup port as well as the typical characteristics of the community. Macro Social Performance focuses on the contribution of an organisation to the environmental and financial Macro Social Performance performance of a region or nation, e. g. contribution to exports. Socio-Economic Performance This criterion addresses the external economic impact of the company's business initiatives. Economic welfare (contribution to GDP, taxes, etc. ) as well as trading opportunities (contribution to foreign currency savings, etc. ) are addressed separately.Socio-Environmental This criterion considers the contributions of an operational initiative to the improvement of the environment for society on a Performance community, regional and national level. The extension of the environmental monitoring abilities of society, as well as the enhancement of legislation and the enforcement thereof, are included in this criterion. Stakeholder Participation focuses on the relationships between the company and ALL its stakeholders (internally and Stakeholder Participation externally) by assessing the standard of information sharing and the degree of stakeholder influence on decision-making. The quantity and quality of information shared with stakeholders are measured.Information can either be shared openly with all Information Provisioning stakeholders (Collective Audience) or shared with targeted, specific groups of stakeholders (Selected Audience). The degree to which the company actually listens to the stakeholders' opinion should also be evaluated. Two separate subStakeholder Influence criteria are included: Decision Influence Potential and Stakeholder Empowerment. Internal Human Resources 6 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability Process Industry The conclusion was reached that no social aspect of the ten projects could be found that could not be classified into the criteria framework. In addition, all of the social criteria did not manifest in each asset life cycle phase. However, ther e may be social aspects that did not manifest in either the case studies or the framework.Nevertheless, the basis on which the individual case studies were chosen makes these cases adequately representative of the current social environment in which construction, operation, and decommissioning occurs in the process industry. It is subsequently concluded that the framework is complete enough to be used as an initial basis to develop a social assessment methodology, which can incorporate social sustainability into project and technology management practices. The social sustainability framework was further validated by means of a Delphi Technique survey [12]. The survey focused on the relevance of the proposed social criteria for the evaluation of projects or technologies and attempted to answer whether the project team, a functional unit within an organisation, or an organisation's corporate governance framework should address the different social aspects.A total of 23 project managem ent experts in a process industry company in South Africa participated in the survey, which established the suitability of the social criteria, as well as the relevance of the criteria in terms of sustainable business practices. The outcomes of the survey support the conclusion reached by the case studies, but also suggest, according to the opinion of project management experts, that all the criteria are not relevant to project and technology management, but should rather manifest as part of corporate policy (Table 3) [11]. 1. 2 Verification and validation of the completeness and relevance of the social criteria of the framework The social sustainability framework was verified by means of case studies testing the completeness and relevance of its criteria.Since the aim of the framework is to assess the social sustainability of projects and technologies in the process industry, ten case studies were chosen that represent the three phases of the asset, or technology, life cycle with t he greatest potential to cause social impacts, i. e. the Construction Phase, the Operation Phase, and the Decommissioning Phase. The rationale for focussing on the three asset life cycle phases, as well as the interaction between asset and project life cycles, can be found in literature [10]. The case studies aimed to describe the significant social impacts that may occur during the life cycle phases in relation to the proposed framework, and to identify any social impacts that cannot be classified into the framework [11]: †¢ The construction of three process industry facilities: an incinerator, a mine, and a gas pipeline. The operation of four chemical manufacturing facilities, one in Germany, one in the USA, and two in different provinces in South Africa. †¢ The decommissioning of three process industry facilities: a cyanide manufacturing plant, an acrylic fibre manufacturing plant, and a mine. Project related documentation, pertaining to each of the case studies, was ev aluated and personal interviews were held with project responsible individuals [11]. It must be noted that in case study research it is not easy to generalise results, since statistical analysis cannot necessarily be applied. Cases are not sampling units and cannot be treated as such. Table 3: Delphi Technique survey results [11]Criterion Employment Opportunities Employment Remuneration Disciplinary & Security Practices Employee Contracts Equity & Diversity Labour Sources Health & Safety Practices Health & Safety Incidents Research Development Career Development Health Education Housing Service Infrastructure Mobility Infrastructure Regulatory & Public Services/ Institutional Services Sensory Stimuli Security Cultural Properties Economic Welfare Social Pathologies Social Cohesion Economic Welfare Trading Opportunities Monitoring Legislation Enforcement Information Provisioning Stakeholder Influence Project x The criterion should be addressed by†¦ Business Strategy x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Functional Department x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 7 Process Industry Social Sustainability CC = Characterisation factor for an impact category (of intervention X) within the pathway. As a first approximation no characterisation factors are assumed and social LCI constituents are considered separately.NC = Normalisation factor for the impact category based on the social objectives in the region of assessment, i. e. the inverse of the target state of the impact category. The information is obtained from social footprint data in the region of the assessment. And, Significance (or relative importance) of the impact category in a social group based on the distance-to-target method, i. e. current social state divided by the target social state (see section 1. 2). 2 Social Impact Indicator (SII) Calculation Procedure The main focus of this paper is the development and testing of a quantitative so cial sustainable development indicator calculation method.A life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) approach has been proposed before for the evaluation of the social impacts of life cycle systems from compiled LCIs [13,14]. An introduced LCIA methodology developed specifically for the South African context, termed the Resource Impact Indicator (RII) approach [15], is thereby used as basis for the development of social indicators. The environmental RII approach considers the current and target ambient state or ecological footprint through a conventional distance-to-target normalisation and weighting calculation procedure [15]. A similar calculation procedure is proposed for Social Impact Indicators (SII), using the four main social criteria (shown in Fig. 1) as Areas of Protection (AoP).Three of these criteria represent the main groups of social resources on which the company can have an impact, while the fourth criterion represents all relationships between the company and stakeholders . The general SII calculation procedure is described through Eq. 1. (1) Where: SIIG = Social Impact Indicator calculated for a main social resource group through the summation of all impact pathways of all categorised social interventions of an evaluated life cycle system. QX = Quantifiable social intervention (X) of a life cycle system in a midpoint impact category C, i. e. project or technology specific information with regards to social impacts. Table 4: Midpoint categories and evaluation methods [17] Social Impact Indicators (SIIs) Internal Human Resources Midpoint category SC = CS = TSTo develop the calculation method, the same case studies used for the verification of the social criteria (see section 1. 2) were used to compile a list of possible social interventions, i. e. a social Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of assessed operational initiatives in the process industry. However, the RII method makes use of mid-point categories. To define midpoint categories, the list of social i nterventions was mapped against the social criteria at various levels within the proposed social sustainability framework. A causal relationship diagram was consequently established for each of the four main social criteria, which define the midpoint categories. These causal diagrams are shown in the Appendix [16].Three measurement methods are proposed to express the defined midpoint categories in equivalence units (Table 4) [17]: †¢ Established risk assessment approaches, which require a subjective evaluation of the probability of occurrence, the projected frequency of the occurrence, and the potential intensity thereof; Measurement methods to establish equivalence units Quantitative Risk Quantitative Quantitative Risk Qualitative Quantitative Qualitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Quantitative Qualitative Quantitative Qualitative/Quantitative Quantitative External Population Stakeholder Participation Macro-Social PerformancePermanent internal employment positions Internal Health and Safety situation Knowledge level / Career development Internal Research and Development capacity Comfort level / Nuisances Perceived aesthetics Local employment Local population migration Access to health facilities Access to education Availability of acceptable housing Availability of water services Availability of energy services Availability of waste services Pressure on public transport services Pressure on the transport network / People and goods movement Access to regulatory and public services Change in relationships with stakeholders External value of purchases / supply chain value/Nature of Purchases Migration of clients / Changes in the product value chain/Nature of Sales Improvement of socio-environmental services 8 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability Process IndustryTable 5: Proposed Midpoint Categories for the four main social criteria together with proposed units of equivalence Social AoP Internal Human Resources Midpoint Category Permanent Internal Employment Positions Possible Health and Safety Incidents Internal Research & Development Capacity External Population Comfort Level/Nuisances Units of equivalence Number of employment opportunities equivalent to a specific position Fatality or Disability Injury Rate Cost spend on R capacity Risk of uncomfort/ Kilo tons of pollutants emitted per annum Intervention Information, i. e. project Social Footprint Information needed or technology information Number and type of employment Employment by type, i. e. osition and opportunities created or destroyed full-time/part-time, for municipality Risk of health and safety incidents with prediction of number based on similar previous undertakings Investment by project in R as part of project budget Predicted emissions that can smell or risk of emissions Industry fatal accident or disability injury rate Municipality budget on R or industry budget Emissions and noise le vel of municipality as well as acceptable levels by standards, e. g. SABS standards Predicted noise levels or risk of noise Aesthetics Level of perceived acceptability Risk of structure and location having a negative impact on aesthetics of community Perceived level of aesthetic acceptability by community Local Employment Fraction of employable community hours Number of permanent job type equivalents Calculation: permanent positions multiplied by conversion factor Employment by type for community or municipality Local Population Migration Access to health facilities Level of short-term demographic changes People per qualified doctorPredicted change in local population Predicted increase or decrease in ratio, focus only on public health sector Predicted impact on the number of literate adults The predicted need for houses which must be build multiplied by the average size Quantity of water used or supplied Quantity of electricity used or supplied Quantity of waste generated and/or qu antity of waste removed from municipal area Number of additional public transport seats required Tons of good transported on roads and or kilometre of road infrastructure provided Percentage of turnover or expenses spend locally Monetary amount spend on services, resources or information that will improve macro environmental performance Predicted Percentage improvement or deterioration in perceived stakeholder trust Demographic profile of community or municipal area National ratio of people per qualified doctor or international ratio Literate adults in municipality area or region Size of municipality area Access to Education Availability of acceptable houses Availability of water services Availability of energy services Availability of waste services Pressure on public transport services Pressure on transport network/ People and goods movement Macro Social Performance Literate adults Zoned residential area per capita Water of drinking quality per capita kWh of electricity per capita Capita per G:h landfill siteWater of drinking quality used by municipality Electricity usage by municipality Landfill sites (type and size) used by municipality Public Transport seats available in municipal area Ton kilometres per capita (in region or nationally) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per region and/or per industry. Monetary amount spent on Environmental Services by the region, i. e. provincial government or municipal council Perceived stakeholder trust based on community questionnaires or surveys Seat kilometres per capita Ton kilometres per capita External value of purchases Fraction of purchased locallymanufactures goods Improvement of SocioEnvironmental Services Cost spent on SE services per capita Stakeholder Participation Change in relationships with stakeholders Level of stakeholder trust Quantitative evaluation approaches, including, but not limited to, costs and direct measurements in society; and †¢ Qualitative evaluation approaches, which require appropriate subjective scales and associated guidelines, and have been proposed for the industrial ecology and streamlined LCA disciplines (see section 1. 2). The defined midpoint categories, which, from the validation survey (see section 1. 2), are considered appropriate at project or technology management level, together with pro- posed units of equivalence for evaluation purposes are shown in Table 5. The units of equivalence were determined from the characteristics of the social interventions identified from the ten case studies.The definitions of the midpoint categories make it evident that the normalisation and significance steps will be constrained by what is practicably measurable within a society where an operational initiative, i. e. project or technology (from an industry perspective), will typically occur. The availability of information is likely to differ be- Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 9 Process Industry tween developed and developing countries. Furthermore, the projection of the socia l interventions of a project or technology may be problematic or at least differ from case to case. Separate studies may be required for some of the social sustainability criteria, e. g. stakeholder participation, even at project-specific level, which may be problematic. Case Studies to Demonstrate and Test the SII Calculation Method Social Sustainability 3. 1 Construction of an open cast mine 3. 1. 1 Background The SII calculation method was applied to three case studies to determine the current feasibility thereof in terms of data availability. In the third case study, environmental Resource Impact Indicators were also calculated using the RII method [15]. All case studies are set in South Africa and project information was obtained from Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies as well as interviews with members of the respective project teams. Due to the hindsight application of the SII method no additional data could be collected from a project perspective.Social footprint information was obtained from: †¢ Statistics South Africa [18]; †¢ South African Department of Transport [19]; †¢ South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) [20]; †¢ South African Department of Health [21]; †¢ South African Department of Labour [22]; †¢ NOSA International [23]; and †¢ Municipal Demarcation Board South Africa [24] and individual municipalities, e. g. some municipalities have undertaken Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in certain regions of South Africa. In the case studies, mid-point categories were evaluated in respect of whether both project and social footprint information are available, and if the respective information is comparable. It is noted that whereas LCA normally considers a product's life cycle, these case studies focus on the asset, or technology, life cycle (as described in section 1. 2) with the functional unit being one operational year of the asset.However, since the asset life c ycle and the associate product life cycle interact through the asset’s operational phase [10], the indicators could be translated to a typical product-manufactured functional unit. In 1996 a petrochemical company in South Africa announced its intention to develop an Open Cast Strip Mine on the banks of the Vaal River between the Gauteng and Free State Provinces. The project was motivated on the basis that the reserves of the company's main mine in the area had reached the end of its economic life and that this posed a threat to the future of a large chemical manufacturer in a nearby town, which was supplied by the mine from 1952.Ultimately, a threat to the existence of the chemical manufacturer is a direct threat to the existence of the town and in a sense the province since the manufacturer contributes 12% to the geographical economy of the region. The project was met with a lot of resistance from the public, especially owners of riverside properties. The project was stopped after a non-governmental organisation took the company to court and won a legal battle, which changed the mining legislation of South Africa. 3. 1. 2 Available project and social footprint information Tables 6 and 7 summarise the available project information and social footprint information that have been obtained from the Environmental Management Programme Report [25] and the specialist study on the macro social economic impacts [26]. 3. 1. 3 SIIs for the projectThe information presented in Tables 6 and 7 highlights the mismatch between available project and social footprint information. SIIs were calculated as far as possible where both appropriate project and social footprint information was available for midpoint categories (Table 8) using Eq. 1. The project will have an overall positive social impact, although job creation could not outweigh the negative impact on the comfort level on the neighbourhoods in a close vicinity to the plant. The overall positive impact is mainly d ue to the large contribution the project will make to the Gross Geographic Product (GGP) of a relative small area, which relies strongly on mining.Table 6: Available project social intervention information for the proposed mine Construction Employment Opportunities created Employment Opportunities destroyed Indirect Employment Opportunities Contribution to GDP (added or lost) Reduction in property values Increases in Ambient Noise levels (dBa) on Average Dust (mg/day/m2) 450 people [24:138] Operation 300a employment opportunities over a 20 year life span [24:121] Multiplier effect of 2. 8: 840a a 20 employment opportunities on farmsa [24: 267] Multiplier effect of 2. 8: 1260 R52 million per annum (in 1999/2000) [25:32] 9-19% (year 1–10) [24: 258] ;2 [24: 195] Between ;50–250 [24: 187] 2–6% (after year 10 till mine closure) [24:258] ; 2 [24: 238–239] ;100a [24: 231] a a These values are used as quantifiable social interventions (Qx) in the SII calculation procedure. The South African Rand is equal to approximately 0. 12 Euros (as at the end of October 2005). 10 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability Process IndustryTable 7: Available social footprint information for the region of the proposed mine Labour Force: Potentially Economically Active [25: 55] Total 736,721 100% Estimated ambient noise level (dBA) [24: 97] Time of day Morning Midday Evening Night Over 24 hours Sasolburg GDP (1991) due to kind of activity [25: 59] Mining & Quarrying Dust Pattern [25] March–July August–December January–February Dust Figures [25] September October (2 x sites) November (1 site) a b c Employed 308,826 41. 9% a Unemployed 149,335 20. 3% a Not-economically active 278,560 37. 8% Typical weekday 50. 9 46. 9 41. 4 34. 7 44. 6 b Typical weekend 49. 2 48. 0 46. 9 42. 3 46. 8 b R 259 677 000 per annumc Low Higher Lower 251–500 mg/day/m2 501–1200 mg/day/m 501–1200 mg/day/m 2 2 Moderate Heavy Heavy The sum of t hese values are the target state for the region. The current tate refers to only the value 308,826. The average of these two values are used as the target state for the region. The current state is assumed equal to the target state. Value used for target and current state for the region. The South African Rand is equal to approximately 0. 12 Euros (as at the end of October 2005) 3. 2 Operation of a chemical facility 3. 2. 1 Background The chemical facility is located on a 6,798 ha industrial site in South Africa. The construction of the site started in the early 1970s and was finished in 1980. It employs approximately 7000 permanent employees. The facility contributes 13% to the economy of the geographic region. 3. 2. Available operation and social footprint information †¢ A Strategic Environmental Assessment of the area; †¢ South African Census Information; and †¢ South Africa’s Compensation Fund Statistics. References of these sources are withheld to protect the company's identity. Table 9 summarises the available plant information and social footprint information that were obtained. 3. 2. 3 SIIs for the operation The following sources of information were used to calculate SIIs: †¢ The company's Sustainable Development Report; Table 10 shows the calculated SIIs using Eq. 1. Table 10 shows that the operation of the plant has in total a negative social impact. The positive contribution to GDPTable 8: Calculated Social Impact Indicators for the proposed open cast mine from the available case study information Area of Protection Internal Human Resources External Population Intervent. Employment Creation Permanent Positions b Noise & Dust 1 Generated 2 Nature of Sales Midpoint Category Permanent Positions Local Employment Comfort Level Intervent. Value 300 in total 2195200 hrs a Normalisation Value (Ts–1) –06 2. 183 x 10 1. 11 x 10 –09 Significance Value (Cs/Ts) 0. 674 0. 674 1 1 1 Midpoint Indicator Value 4. 41 x 1 0 –04 SII Value 4. 4 x10 –04 1. 65 x 10 –03 –7. 5 x10 –02 –01 External Value of 2. 0 x 10 Macro Social Purchases Performance No information available Stakeholder Participation –01 Final Social Impact Value 1. 5 x10 a Total of 1140 permanent positions at 40 hours per week assumed for 49 weeks (three weeks vacation, etc. ). b A target (and current) state is taken as the weighted average for the region, i. e. 916 mg/day/m2. 1 Since no characterisation factors for noise to dust or dust to noise is available, the midpoint. category was calculated as a weighted average with equal weights to each constituent. 2 The units of equivalence have been changed to contribution to GDP due to the information available. 2 dBA 2 100 mg/d/m R 52 mil. 2. 19 x 10 –03 1. 09 x 10 –03 3. 85 x10 –02 –4. 38 x 10 –01 –1. 09 x 10 –01 2. 0 x 10 –02 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 11 Process Industry Social Sustainabili tyTable 9: Available operational and social footprint information for the region of the chemical facility Interventiona Employees Plant Informationb  ± 7,000 Social Footprint Information Target: To have everyone employed excluding people who prefer to be not economically active. Govan Mbeki Municipality: Employed: 60,681 Unemployed: 40,189; Total Labour Force: 100,870. Employable Community Work hours – assuming all full-time employees – 40 hours – 49 weeks (3 weeks leave). 13 019 (target and current state assumed equal). Not available Not available Not available 197 kilo ton 138. 8 kilo ton 394 kilo ton 90 kilo ton (Permit: 101) 44,109. 2 kilo ton Atmospheric Emissions (concentration information from SEA) NOx 1 Hour Maximum NO2 concentration Average of 5 3 receptor points: 539.  µg/m Acceptable Target (WHO guideline): 200  µg/m3 (1-hour NOx average) Current State: 1 Hour Maximum NO2 concentration based on maximum predicted concentration: 801  µg/m3 Accep table Target (WHO guideline): 125  µg/m3 Current State: 24 Hour Maximum SO2 Concentration based on based on maximum 3 predicted concentration: 152  µg/m Target: (1:200 year firm yield) 150 million m per annum Current (predicted 1998/2000 average) 183. 6 million m3 per annum R 49,707 million Not available Not available 3 Indirect Employment Creation  ± 21,000 (applying the rule of 3 used in SIAs) Total Injuries Disabling Injury Rate (no/200,000 hours) Health & Safety Incidents (Spillages) Atmospheric Emissions: SO2 NOx VOC H2S CO2 541 0. 59 70 Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available SO2 24 Hour Maximum SO2 Concentration based on average of 5 receptor points: 127. 4  µg/m3 Water Usage – River Water 89,963 m 3 Financial Turnoverc Transportation Incidents Complaints a b R 7835 million 12 36 cOnly those quantifiable social interventions for which plant and social footprint information is available, are used in the SII calculation procedure. Al l plant information has been obtained from the Sustainable Development Report where the average of data available has been used unless otherwise stated. The South African Rand is equal to approximately 0. 12 Euros (as at the end of October 2005). Table 10: Calculated Social Impact Indicators for the chemical facility from the available case study information Area of Protection Internal Human Resources Intervent. Midpoint Category Permanent Positions Possible Health and Safety Incidents Local Employment Comfort Level Availability of water services External Value of Purchases Intervent.Value 7,000 541 Normalisation Value (Ts–1) 9. 91 x 10–06 7. 68 x 10 –05 Significance Value (Cs/Ts) 0. 602 1 Midpoint Indicator Value 4. 17 x 10–02 –4. 16 x 10 –02 SII Value Employment Creation Health & Safety Incidents 1. 9 x10–04 External Population Permanent Positions Atmospheric Emissions (SO2) Water Usage 41,167,000 hrs 127. 4  µg/m 89. 963 m 3 3 5. 06 x 10 0. 008 0. 007 –09 0. 602 1. 216 1. 224 0. 125 –1. 239 –0. 734 0. 158 –1. 85 Macro Social Performance Stakeholder Participation Nature of Sales R 7835 mil. 2. 01 x 10 –05 1 0. 158 No information available –1. 69 x10 –01 Final Social Impact Value 12 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability nd employment cannot outweigh the negative impacts on comfort level, people (in the form of health and safety accidents), and the water usage. The biggest social impact is the impact on comfort level due to atmospheric emissions, i. e. secondary environmental impacts. 3. 3 Decommissioning of a fibre manufacturing plant Process Industry In addition, environmental RIIs were calculated using standard RII values, which were calculated for selected process parameters [27]. Table 11 shows the available project and social footprint information. 3. 3. 3 Environmental and social impact indicators 3. 3. 1 Background Tables 12 and 13 show the calcula ted Social and Environmental Impact Indicators.The values in Tables 12 and 13 show that although a similar methodology was followed to calculate SIIs compared to RIIs, the indicator outcomes are vastly different. This highlights that the interpretation of indicators remains challenging. Assessing the overall sustainability performance of a project or technology by allowing trade-offs between the contributions and damages should be seriously considered before it is applied. Ultimately, the trade-offs between the different dimensions would be the responsibility of the specific decision-makers, and therefore reflect the preferences of the decision-makers. 3. 4 Conclusions from the case studies In the early 1990s a second-hand acrylic fibre plant from a manufacturing facility in France was dismantled and relocated in the KwaZulu Province of South Africa.However, the decreasing acrylic fibre market in South Africa, combined with a lack of import protection, led to the decision to decommi ssion the plant in March 2002. The plant manufactured its last products in May 2002, which were sold in August 2002. The plant was dismantled and the site rehabilitated by March 2003. 3. 3. 2 Available project and social footprint information Using the company's sustainable development report, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the region, as well as the sustainable development indicator data of the municipal area in which the plant operated, the SII calculation procedure was applied to calculate the social impacts. As stated before it is not easy to generalise from case study research.However, the case studies showed that it is not possible to calculate all social midpoint category indicators, Table 11: Available project and social footprint information for the region of the fibres plant Interventiona Nature of Jobs Project Information 250 employment opportunities lost (5% relocated = 12 ) Social Footprint Information eThekwini unemployment: 591,024 eThekwini employmen t: 782,933 Target: To have everyone employed excluding people who prefer to be not economically active. Employable Community Work hours – assuming all full-time employees – 40 hours – 49 weeks (3 weeks leave). Indirect Employment Destruction  ± 750 (applying the rule of 3 used in SIAs) Work-hours lost due to injuries Disabling Injuries 475. 25 hours 6. Although social footprint information is available the definition of disabling injuries is not given and therefore information is not comparable. Not available Not available eThekwini Emissions 0. 488 kilo ton per annum 0. 111 kilo ton per annum 0. 005 kilo ton per annum 1,429,200 kilo litre per annum 54. 50 kilo ton per annum 54. 50 kilo ton per annum No information available eThekwini – with water loss: 168,090 ML – without water loss: 280,149 ML eThekwini: 9098 GWh per annum Not available Durban South Basin: 45,000 ton per annum Not available GDP of Kwa Zulu Natal: R 113,047 million Disabling In jury Rate (no per 200 000 hours) Health & Safety Incidents (Spillages) Atmospheric Emissions: SO2 NOx VOC Water Usage 2. 375 0. 75 per annumEnergy Usage Solid Waste: General/Domestic Non-Hazardous Industrial Nature of Sales c 48. 384 GWh per annum 5. 25 x 10 m per annum 2. 575 x 10 m per annum b 1,545 tons per annum 2. 675 x 10 m per annum Annual turnover of R 500 million 0. 5 per annum 3 3 3 3 3 3 Stakeholder Complaints a b c Only those quantifiable social interventions for which plant and social footprint information is available, are used in the SII calculation procedure. The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's minimum requirements for waste density was used for the conversion. The South African Rand is equal to approximately 0. 12 Euros (as at the end of October 2005). Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 13 Process Industry Social SustainabilityTable 12: Calculated Social Impact Indicators for the decommissioning of the fibres plant from the available case study informati on Area of Protection Internal Human Resources Intervent. Employment Creation Permanent Positions Energy Usage External Population Water Usage Waste a Generated Atmospheric Emissions (SO2 & NOx)b Macro Social Performance Stakeholder Participation Final Social Impact Value a b c Midpoint Category Permanent Positions Local Employment Availability of energy services Availability of water services Availability of waste services Comfort Level External Value of Purchases Intervent. Value 262 1,983,520 hrs 48. 384 GWh 1,429,200 kl 1 545 t 0. 65 kt SO2 eq. R 500 mil. Normalisation Value (Ts–1) 7. 28 x 10–07 3. 71 x 10 –10 Significance Value (Cs/Ts) 0. 570 0. 570 1 1 1 Midpoint Indicator Value –1. 09 x 10–04 –4. 20 x 10 –04 SII Value –1. 1 x10–04 1. 1 x 10–04 3. 57 x 10 –09 5. 32 x 10–03 5. 10 x 10 –03 5. 47 x10–04 2. 22 x 10–05 2. 84 x 10–02 7. 98 x 10–06 3. 43 x 10– 02 1. 04 x 10–02 –3. 99 x 10–03 –4. 0 x10–03 a Nature of Salesc 1 No information available 5. 06 x10 –02 Based on information available the units of equivalence have been changed to domestic waste generated in tons. Comfort level is measured quantitatively in kilo tons SO2 per annum using CML characterisation factors.The units of equivalence have been changed to contribution to GDP due to the information available. The South African Rand is equal to approximately 0. 12 Euros (as at the end of October 2005). Table 13: Calculated environmental Resource Impact Indicators for the decommissioning of the fibres plant from the available case study information Process Parameter (annual quantities) Waste Electricity used Coal Used Steam used Water used 1,545,000 kg 174,182,400 MJ 46,368,000 kg 354,960,000 kg 1,429,200,000 kg Resource Impact Indicator Water 7. 29 x 10–02 7. 88 x 10 0 2. 60 x 10 7. 00 x 10 8. 84 x 10 4 4 5 Air 2. 33 x 10– 06 1. 79 x 10 0 2. 51 x 10 0 1. 81 x10 +04 2 4 Land 4. 2 x 10–02 1. 68 x 10 0 4. 41 0 1. 72 x 10 +02 2 Mined 0 8. 81 x 10 1 1. 67 x 102 1. 52 x 10 0 4. 07 x 10 +02 2 +05 either because of a lack of project information, or because of a lack of social footprint information. In addition, the units of equivalence cannot be fixed since they depend on the available information. This complicates indicator comparisons between various projects. The limitation of available social footprint information results in the fact that only some midpoint category indicators are possible, i. e. permanent positions, water usage, energy usage, nature of sales, and comfort level, which leads to an impaired social picture.In addition, the midpoint category indicators for water usage, energy usage and comfort level are much higher than permanent positions, thus resulting in a net negative social impact for any proposed development, which may not be a representation of the true social influence of the project or technology. 4 Conclusions and Recommendations sions of sustainable development [29]. The research therefore concludes that a quantitative social impact assessment method cannot be applied for project and technology life cycle management purposes in industry at present. It is emphasised that these conclusions were reached from a process LCA perspective, which is industry sector-wide.Research with a product LCA focus may lead to different outcomes. Although a comprehensive top-down approach was followed, a bottom-up approach may be more appropriate for product LCAs [30], as the selection of suitable criteria would be constrained to the specific scope of a LCA study. 4. 1 Further steps to quantify social impact indicators A case study independent analysis of available social footprint information in South Africa confirmed the main finding of this paper that social footprint information is not available for all midpoint categories [28]. It is regarded as an international prob lem that current available statistics are incapable of providing an integrated view of various dimen-It is proposed that social sustainability should be incorporated into project and technology life cycle management by means of guidelines and checklists. Similar to the environmental dimension, it is envisaged that such checklists and guidelines would improve the availability of quantitative data in time, and would therefore make the SII procedure more practical in the future. Although such guidelines and checklists have been developed from a theoretical perspective [28], practical guidelines and checklists from a project or technology life cycle management perspective are yet to be dem- 14 Int J LCA 11 (1) 2006 Social Sustainability onstrated. Further cases are subsequently required for demonstration and analysis purposes.While the guidelines and checklists may lead to a paradigm shift in industry towards obtaining and evaluating social impact-related information, it is also suggest ed that a lesscomprehensive list of social criteria is used as a starting point to develop social LCA-specific methodologies, possibly using those midpoint category indicators that were quantifiable in the case studies of this research, i. e. permanent positions, water usage, energy usage, nature of sales, and comfort level, or other midpoint categories that are currently proposed [30]. However, social issues are highly influenced by cultural perceptions, and it would be best to undertake such a task at national level.National indicator sets can then be compared and combined on an international level. 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Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3228 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/05/13 Category Politics Essay Level High school Tags: John F Kennedy Essay Did you like this example? Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the last Reagan appointee, was on the United States Supreme Court since 1988, until his recent retirement in 2018. During Kennedys time, he has been viewed as the swing vote placing him in the middle of the two wings of the Supreme Court. Prior to being on the Supreme Court, Kennedy was on the U.S. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy" essay for you Create order Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, appointed by former president, Gerald R. Ford. Kennedy was only 38 years old when appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which made him the youngest federal appellate judge in the country. During his time on the U.S. court of Appeals, he established himself to be a distinguished candidate to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Lewis Powell in 1987. During his time on the Supreme Court, it is safe to say that Kennedys voting pattern was generally conservative. He tended to join conservatives in cases about religious liberty, civil rights, voting rights, and campaign finances. Although, Kennedy frequently cast the deciding vote in cases advancing socially liberal causes that ?discovered new rights in the Constitution, such as gay rights, abortion, restricting capital punishment, and eliminating life sentences for teenage killers. For many of the highest profile cases of his time on the Supreme Court, Kennedy has been the deciding vote. Kennedy once said the cases swing, I dont. He took a case-by-case approach, so he approached every issue individually, regardless of being conservative or liberal, ultimately coining him the swing vote. Some would say Kennedy was a very fair man, although he often clashed with himself. When looking at similar cases, his vote would not replicate a vote he made in a previous case. Kennedy was the deciding factor on many cases during his time and in this paper, I will be analyzing many cases where he played a crucial role in the outcome of the case. Obergefell v. Hodges is a very recent case that took place in 2015. This case is about how a group of same-sex couples sued their relevant state agencies in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They sued these states because they wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the states bans on same-sex marriage and refusal to recognize legal same-sex marriages. The plaintiffs argued that the states statutes violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. This was a huge case in terms of Kennedys decision. Kennedy wrote the majority decision in which the vote was 5-4. Kennedy was ultimately the deciding vote and in conclusion he said same-sex couples respect marriage and ask for equal dignity in the eye of the law. He claimed that right was granted by the Constitution. He says in the case, No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. He also acknowledged that there will always be a debate between people that think marriage should be only between a man and a woman and people who think otherwise. He says how that debate should continue, but the same-sex marriages must be allowed. Kennedy refers to marriage as dignity and he depicts the married state as essential to our most profound hopes and aspirations. He also makes his case that an interest in dignity is central in due process clause of the 14th Amendment. This Amendment states that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process law. He argues how dignity is a part of that statement. He also explained the Bill of Rights and how this an evolving document. There is no rule saying deciding what goes on or off it, so this same-sex marriage dispute is protected by that. All in all, he explains how this is an urgent matter, not only for the people today, but also how it will protect the upcoming generations and their freedom to marry the same-sex. The history and significance of Kennedys decision will go down in history, because his decision essentially legalized same-sex marriage. This furthered the case of him being the swing vote. Throughout his career he was mainly conservative, but in this case, he was sided by four liberal justices making the majority vote 5-4. Without Kennedy in this case and his individual approach to each issue, same-sex marriage may not be legal today. Another Supreme Court case where Kennedy made a huge impact is in the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. This case took place in 1992 and Kennedy played a huge role in the decision of this case. During this time, the Pennsylvania legislature amended its abortion control law in 1988 and 1989, and among the new provisions, the law required a 24-hour waiting period before the procedure can happen. Minors were required to get consent of at least one parent if seeking an abortion. A married woman had to indicate that she notified her husband that she wanted to get an abortion. These rules and provisions were challenged by several physicians and abortion clinics. This case is directly related to Roe v. Wade (1973) because in this case, they were given the right to abortion. The question in this case is whether a state can require women who want an abortion to obtain informed consent, wait 24 hours, if married, notify their husbands, and, if minors, obtain parental co nsent, without violating their right to abortion as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade? Kennedy was a part of the majority opinion and the ruling was 5-4, in affirmation of Roe v. Wade. They declared that a womans decision to get an abortion implicates important liberty interests and privacy interests that the Constitutions Due Process Clause protects against state interference. These interests form a substantive right to privacy that is protected from state interference in marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education. The court argued that these rights also protect the abortion decision. They then reaffirmed that states could not ban abortions before the viability point, and in no case, may states ban abortions that help preserve the life or health of the mother. When looking at Pennsylvanias provisions on abortion, they only determined that the requirement to notify the husband is unconstitutional. The other provisions were deemed constitutional. Kennedy co-authored this opinion with Justices Sandra Day OConnor and David Souter. As Kennedy is mainly conservative, choosing this majority side is another example of him being the controversial swing vote. Kennedy did choose in affirmation of Roe v. Wade in this case, but his record on abortion-related matters has varied. He consistently voted in favor of pro-life protestors and against laws aimed at protecting women seeking abortions from harassment. He also had some controversial decisions when siding with abortion opponents dealing with partial-birth abortions. Although, in this case specifically, his swing vote was the decisive vote. Many were outraged, but because of his case-by-case approach and his ideology, he chose what he believed was best. Fisher v. University of Texas was another case where Kennedy played a crucial role. Kennedy delivered the opinion for the 7-1 majority. The Texas legislature had previously enacted a law that required the University of Texas to admit all high school seniors who ranked in the top ten percent of their high school classes. The University of Texas found differences in in the racial and ethnic makeup of the universitys undergraduate population and the states population. The university then decided to modify their race-neutral admissions policy which said that they will continue to allow students in the top ten percent of their high school classes in, but for the remainder of students who are outside of that range; the university would consider race as a factor in admission. Abigail Fisher, a Caucasian female, applied to the University of Texas and was not in the top ten percent of her high school class. She was denied by the university. She then filed suit against the university because s he claimed that the use of race as a consideration in admission decision was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Kennedy played a major role in this case. His decision was very unexpected which made it that much more impactful. His vote, along with the other justices, essentially denied a challenge to a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas. Kennedy had never voted previously to uphold an affirmative action plan. In fact, he has dissented in prior cases about affirmative action. He explained how universities are owed considerable deference when defining those characteristics, like the study body diversity. I believe that decision is odd on his part, due to him not ever voting for affirmative action, but I personally agree with this statement in that universities should have the right to decide who gets accepted. If the university wants to make it more diverse, then they should be allowed to reject people they want and accept different race and ethnic backgrounds. I believe that is a huge problem in todays society. LVC is a predominant white school and it lacks diversity. LVC has taken steps forward to try to get more culture and diversity, but not much has worked. In my opinion, it all depends on the environment which you grew up in and where you grew up. These factors are usually determinants in if you will value higher education. I believe Kennedy upheld the affirmative action because he believes that diversity is a problem in the education system. He once said, it remains an enduring challenge to our nations education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity. Bush v. Gore is one of the most important cases in U.S. history because it essentially decided the presidency. Some say that Kennedy was the swing vote that allowed this to happen, although this case was a per curiam decision. During the election, there were demanded recounts ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, that all counties in Florida must immediately begin manually recounting all under votes. At the time Governor George Bush, filed a request for review in the Supreme Court and sought an emergency petition for a stay of the Floridas Supreme Courts decision. The per curiam decision held that the recounting ballot was unconstitutional, and they said that no constitutional recount could be done in the time remaining. Kennedy is controversial in this case because along with Justice Sandra Day OConnor, were the only two justices whose names did not appear separately on any of the other opinions, signaling that one or either wrote the unsigned majority opinion. I agree with the court in their decision to write the opinon per curiam. I agree with this because having your name linked to going against the potential president of the United States does not look good for you. Although, it is known and there is a very high chance that Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that basically sent George Bush into office. Kennedy was the decisive vote from the bench that made this happen. Capital punishment is a subject that Kennedy did not shy away from. He has had some very important votes and rulings in capital punishment cases. I will be discussing his impact on Kennedy v. Louisiana and Roper v. Simmons. In both of these cases, Kennedy was thoughtful towards capital punishment. Kennedy v. Louisiana found Patrick Kennedy guilty of raping his eight-year-old step daughter. Louisiana law states that the death penalty can be enforced to those found guilty in the raping of children under the age of twelve. Patrick Kennedy was given the death sentence and he appealed the decision. Louisiana believed that their sentence of the death penalty was justified due to similar laws in five other states and because of the vulnerability of a child. Patrick Kennedy argued that five states do not constitute a national consensus for the purposes of the Eighth Amendment, and he believed the law was singling out black child rapists as opposed to white child rapists. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion which was a 5-4 decision. This decision was in favor of overturning the death penalty laws in Louisiana and the five other states. In the majority opinion Kennedy said there was a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and non-homicide crimes against individual persons even devastating crimes like the rape of a child, on the other. Kennedy believes that the courts jurisprudence on the death penalty remains sound. Kennedy reasons for voting against the death penalty had to do with how the five other states laws were, as in they had to have a prior rape conviction in order to be subject to the death penalty. Also, he said how the death penalty presented problems when dealing with children. The problem was with special risks of an unreliable testimony by children and that crime often happens within the family. This could lead to the problem of underreporting of these crimes because they know the punishment; they mig ht want to protect a family member since the penalty is so severe. Being in Kennedys position here would be very tough for many people. Everyone wants justice, but many problems arise when enacting a death penalty sentence. Personally, in this situation with the rape of a child, I believe the death penalty is appropriate. I think keeping someone through the prison system would ultimately cost more money as opposed to their death. Especially since laws were already in place, I believe they should have been followed through. Kennedys impact on this case decided the life of a man. If that is not impactful, then I do not know what is. The other capital punishment case I am going to talk about is Roper v. Simmons. This case took place before the previous case discussed. This case is about a 17-year-old boy named Christopher Simmons, who was sentenced to death in 1993. Then, in 2002, the Missouri Supreme Court reconsidered Simmons execution after ruling that sentencing the mentally disabled to death was against the 8th and 14th Amendment. Missouri saw that national opinion has changed and they decided to say these laws that allows the sentence of the death penalty to a minor is unconstitutional. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the government argued that allowing a state to overturn the Supreme Court due to evolving standards is very dangerous. In a 5-4 majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy, he was again the deciding factor on another controversial case. He sided with the liberal bloc on this and said that standards of decency have evolved so that executing minors is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. The court also looked out the international opinion against the death penalty. The U.S. was the last country to put this law into place. Although Kennedy voting against capital punishment here, he once before voted for it against juvenile offenders, but he is a believer of the evolving standards. Kennedys views and rulings on capital punishment will go far beyond his years. His swing vote in this case was another decisive vote that essentially made another law preventing the death penalty being places on minors. I am in full acceptance of this because I am with Kennedy in the fact that young people are still developing and should not be held accountable at that level. I do believe in justice, but executing a minor would be against what I would want and now because of the evolving standards; against what Kennedy wants. The next case I will talk about is a gun rights case that took place in 2008, District of Columbia v. Heller. In this case, Kennedy was the swing vote yet again. This case was about how the District of Columbia made it illegal to carry an unregistered firearm and prohibited the registrations of handguns, so essentially there was no compromise to be able to carry a handgun. The only exception is if the chief of police authorized you a one-year license to carry. The law also said how if you did legally own one, it had to be unloaded and disassembled. Dick Anthony Heller was a District of Columbia special police officer who was authorized to carry a gun on duty. He applied for a one-year personal handgun that he could keep at home and was denied. He sued the District of Columbia. He argued that these laws violated his Second Amendment. He wanted one for self-defense at home and since the gun had to be disassembled, he argued that violated his rights. Kennedys role in this case was crucial in the 5-4 majority opinion. He was the swing vote that essentially lifted the ban on guns in D.C. He believed, just like the four other justices that citizens should have the right to bear arms and that they should have the right to self-defense at home. The court made references to a militia but these justices agree that should not be confined to just people in the military because the term once referred to all able-bodied men who were capable of being called to such service. Kennedy was the ultimate swing vote during his time when dealing with gun rights. Other than this case, Kennedy was also in support of the McDonald decision that recognized an individual to bear arms both in and outside the home. However, since that case in 2010, the Supreme Court has declined to take any Second Amendment cases in almost a decade. Many think, that Kennedy had lost his appetite for future gun rights cases. I believe this could have been since Kennedy knew he was nearing his retirement, he would not vote to hear these cases because of the controversy they cause. Gun rights is a huge and sensitive subject in the United States today. All the mass shootings and other shootings going on today, make this subject very sensitive to many Americans. I do not agree with them almost ignoring the subject and not hearing these cases, but I do understand why Kennedy does not want to hear these cases. Also, with Kennedy being the swing vote so much backlash would come back on him in whatever decision he would make. If he goes for stronger gun rights, it upsets people and if he is against it, it upsets people. There is really no good choice for Kennedy in gun rights cases. The last case I will be writing about where Kennedy played a major role is Citizens United v. FEC. In this case, Citizens United sought an injunction against the FEC to prevent the application of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform to its film Hillary: The Movie. This movie basically explains how she would be a good president. Federal law sets strict limits on the ability of corporations and unions to spend and attempt to influence elections. This case put campaign finance restrictions against Citizens Uniteds claim that businesses have First Amendment free speech rights. Kennedy wrote the majority decision which was 5-4. Kennedy sided with the company and put down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. Kennedy in writing for the majority said, when government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command