Veolia Environment

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Permalink Reply by Tim Dymond on August 25, 2011 at 1:41

Veolia also operates bus services to illegal West Bank settlements, and operates a light rail project on seized Palestinian lands:

 

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/adri-nieuwhof/veolia-keeps-silen...

Permalink Reply by Tammy Murphy on August 25, 2011 at 6:13

Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Asbjørn Wahl on August 25, 2011 at 8:26

Here is an extract from my forthcoming book, "The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State" (Pluto Press, November 2011):

            One of the largest actors on these markets is Veolia Environment, an international giant in the fields of water supply, waste disposal (where it was formerly known as Onyx), energy supply (Dalkia) and public transport (formerly Connex). The company is the largest private employer in France, and has specialized in taking over public services in all the areas mentioned and in all parts of the world. It has more than 320,000 employees in more than 70 countries, and a worldwide turnover of €45 billion (2007).

            Along with another French company, Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux), Veolia controls no less than 70 per cent of all the privatized water supply in the world (Hall, 2002, p. 6)! Both belong to a small cluster of multinational companies that seek to take over public companies over a broad spectrum. There is, however, not always the cut-throat competition between these two competing giants that one might expect. They cooperate on tenders within a number of areas by establishing joint ventures. How they cooperate on the same board in one town, yet keep tenders a secret from each other when competitors in the next town, is a problem we are not going to investigate further here.

            In waste disposal, the world market is dominated by only four companies – including subsidiaries of the two French companies mentioned. A few years ago, the figure was eight, but the four others have been taken over by the remaining giants. In both energy supply and public transport, the same concentration is taking place. From scarcely owning a single bus outside France in the early 1990s, Veolia Transport has advanced to being the world’s largest private company in the public transport sector (Hall 2002, p. 7).

            Just recently (in March 2011), Veolia Transport merged with another French-based major international actor in the field of public transport, Transdev. After the merger, this transport company has become a real giant, with 124,000 employees in about 30 countries and an annual turnover of just over €8 billion. The markets are systematically monopolized, something that naturally helps to weaken the competition the neoliberals are so eager to emphasize. The result is of course increased market control by these companies. Despite all rhetoric in the opposite direction, maximum competition is not precisely what the companies are yearning for. They want maximum profits – and monopoly profit does not differ from any other profit except that it is often larger.

Asbjørn Wahl

Director, Campaign for the Welfare State, Norway

Adviser, Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees

Permalink Reply by Tammy Murphy on August 25, 2011 at 22:10

Thank you!

Permalink Reply by Mark Gregory on October 5, 2011 at 23:29

In Australia in August the Transport Workers stopped work for safety reasons

Release date: 20/07/2011

 

Bus drivers in Queensland's southeast are speeding and working 60-hour weeks to deal with tight timetables and low pay, their union says.

 

 

AAP Newswire

About 100 Veolia Transport drivers are planning to take industrial action from 4am (AEST) on Thursday until 8am on Friday, affecting services in Redland Bay and Brisbane.

Transport Workers Union (TWU) bus coordinator Bob Giddens said conditions for Veolia drivers were poor.

"The timetables are so tight that the drivers are constantly running late and the concern there is that the drivers tend to speed up and work hard to try and stay on time," he told AAP.

"They're putting their licence at risk every day they're out there."

Veolia bus driver and union delegate Greg Packer said staff were working excessive hours to supplement earnings of $760 per week before tax.

"They'd be doing anything from 20 to 25 hours on top of their 38 hours, it's pretty common," he said.

Drivers didn't have toilet or lunch facilities, and were forced to eat and relieve themselves by the side of the road, he said.

"If you've got 25 people or 30 people on your bus, and you have to say to them 'excuse me I need to pull over at a service station', it's hard. It's embarrassing. And it also makes you run late."

He said he'd heard a story of a female driver who had gone to the toilet in bushes and been interrupted by a black snake.

Supervisors were not sympathetic when she complained, he said.

"She was told that maybe she should have used a bottle like the guys do," he said.

But Veolia Transport managing director Colin Jennings said the package being offered to workers, including a pay rise of about four per cent, was fair.

"We believe ... that's a fair outcome given the economic conditions that we're facing here in Queensland and Australia at the moment," he told AAP.

The Transport Workers Union will meet with Veolia Transport on Wednesday afternoon in a last-ditch bid to avert the strike.

Thousands of passengers, including students at 60 schools, will be inconvenienced if the strike goes ahead.

Veolia school buses in the Redlands and Capalaba area won't run on Thursday and Friday.

Commuter services to Brisbane from Redlands and the bayside suburbs will run as normal between 5am and 9am, and 4pm and 6pm (AEST), and a Saturday timetable will apply for local and off-peak services.

 

according to their websitehttp://www.veoliawater.com.au/

Providing water to up to three million people

Across Australia and New Zealand, Veolia Water has 21 long term operations contracts, involving more than 35 water and wastewater treatment plants either under operation, or under construction for future operation, and responsibility for water, wastewater and stormwater networks.

Including its subsidiary, United Water, Veolia Water has more than 400 employees providing water and wastewater services to up to three million people in Australia and New Zealand.

 

also they claim

Veolia Environnement in 77 countries

From its solid French roots, Veolia Environnement has experienced tremendous, but selective, growth in other countries. It has focused on areas of rapid economic development and countries where its business model and capacity to meet long-term commitments are well established.

After western Europe, Veolia Environnement concentrates on eastern and central European countries, a few carefully selected Asian countries, such as China, and large markets with considerable potential that have so far not been very receptive to management by private environmental service providers (especially the United States).

 

Permalink Reply by Jemmy Hope on January 6, 2012 at 20:36

Veolia also has contracts for removal of toxic waste from Israel. It does this by dumping the waste in Palestinian territory.

http://http://electronicintifada.net/blog/adri-nieuwhof/veolia-dump...