LARGE CORPORATIONS VIEW LITIGATION AS MERELY THE COST OF MAKING HUGE PROFITS

The title above is certainly a broad statement and I have no doubt that there are numerous exceptions. That said an article in today's Waterloo Region Record does leave a sour taste in one's mouth. Firstly though I need to point out the following: often articles in the on-line Record do not show up in my morning edition hard copy Record delivered to my door and equally as often articles show up in my hard copy Record that do not get into the on-line Record copy. This is simply to explain why I include a link to some of the articles in the Record newspaper (& others) that I am commenting on and not to others. There simply isn't a link to do so with.

The article today in my hard copy Record is titled "Bayer chair steps down amid Roundup battle" and is written by Ruth Bender of the Wall Street Journal. The chair is Mr. Werner Wenning and he has made some disconcerting comments regarding his and the company's attitude and approach to lawsuits against them for the popular (and profitable) herbicide known as Roundup. To date Bayer has lost three of these lawsuits as the jury believed that Roundup was the cause of cancer in the plaintiffs. Mr. Wenning's statements to me reflect good corporate thinking (versus human decency) when he advises that Bayer are making progress "...from managing the legal battle to integrating Monsanto and restructuring its other businesses.". Mr. Wenning further states "We have made and continue to make progress in handling the legal issues in the U.S.".

Maybe I'm just an old stick in the mud. There was a time when companies at least went through the motions of pretending that their businesses had something to do with the public good. That those companies valued their customers and would never, ever introduce products that could possibly harm them or their families. Maybe it's not all bad that those hypocritical days are behind us?