Africa/Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
Veolia Group’s 2018 Annual Report boasted almost 171,495 employees; control of 95 million people’s drinking water and 43 million people’s waste collection service worldwide; the production of almost 46 million megawatt hours of energy and 49 million metric tons of treated waste. Veolia operates 3,603 drinking water facilities and 2,667 wastewater treatment plants; 655 waste processing facilities and 2,389 industrial sites. The Group ended the year with a consolidated revenue of €25.911 million. ➝.
Bluefield Research, “Veolia Water Strategy: Break Down Global Market Positions,” March 12, 2019, ➝.
Patrick Bond, “Durban’s Water Wars, Sewage Spills, Fish Kills and Blue Flag Beaches,” in Durban’s Climate Gamble: Trading Carbon, Betting the Earth (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2011), 77.
Veolia, “160 Years of History,” ➝.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Fifteenth Edition, 1991, 513.
Ibid.
Veolia, “160 Years of History.”
Encyclopedia Britannica, 513.
Veolia, “The history of Veolia: 1950–2000,” ➝.
Veolia maintained ownership until 2000. VINCI has been involved in a number of scandals globally, most prominently the 2016 demolition of a refugee encampment in Northern France of asylum seekers attempting to cross into Britain associated with their contract to build a £2.3 million-pound border wall. See “VINCI, Company Profile,” Corporate Watch, ➝; Matt Broomfield, “Calais Jungle wall is completed two months after all the refugees were driven out,” The Independent, December 13, 2016, ➝.
Abigail Phillips, “Top 10 Construction Companies in the World,” Construction Global, January 3, 2015, ➝.
Water for All Campaign, “Veolia Environment: A Corporate Profile,” Public Citizen (February 2005), 1, ➝.
Veolia, “The history of Veolia: 1950–2000.”
Veolia, “Our History,” ➝.
Vivendi’s 1999 multibillion-dollar purchase of US Filter was the corporation’s most significant move into North American water privatization; at the time, it was the largest French acquisition of a US company in history. See Food and Water Watch, “Veolia Water North America: A Corporate Profile,” July 30, 2013, ➝.
“Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), the country’s top law enforcement agency, said Bruno Roche, Apa Nova’s French CEO from 2008 to 2013, set up secret bank accounts and created fictitious contracts. These were then used to transfer millions of euros to senior Bucharest officials, who in return approved steep hikes in water bills,” Luke Dale-Harris, “French Water Executive Charged in Romania Corruption Probe: Romanian Corruption Fights Lands French Businessmen,” Politico, October 9, 2015, ➝.
Food and Water Watch, “Veolia Water North America.”
Meera Karunananthan, “Blue Planet Projects Opposes Veolia in South Korea,” The Council of Canadians, April 15, 2015, ➝.
Veolia Environnement. “2012 Annual and Sustainability Report,” ➝.
“Under the British government’s support for the international mission led by the United Nations to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, Veolia was chosen to destroy 150 metric tons of hazardous materials. The batches of ‘Class B precursor’ chemicals were treated at Veolia’s Ellesmere Port high temperature incinerator (HTi) in the United Kingdom, near Liverpool, under the existing hazardous waste treatment contract between Veolia and the Disposal Services Authority, a part of the UK Ministry of Defense,” from Veolia’s “2013 Annual and Sustainability Report,” 43, ➝. Ironically, a company in breach of international law in its operations on occupied Palestinian land (discussed further later in this article) was awarded a contract to a UN body.
Veolia, “2013 Annual and Sustainability Report.”
Hydrocarbons Technology, “Carmon Creek Heavy Oil Project, Alberta,” ➝.
See Food and Water Watch, “Money Down the Drain: How Private Control of Water Wastes Public Resources,” 2009, ➝; Food and Water Watch, “A Closer Look: Veolia Environnement,” 2010, ➝; Food and Water Watch, “Veolia Environnement: A Profile of the World’s Largest Water Service Corporation,” 2011, ➝; Novato Friends of Locally Operated Wastewater, “Veolia and the Environment: A Bad Fit for Novato,” ➝.
Food and Water Watch, “Veolia Water North America.”
Christina Lane, “City takes steps to end Veolia contract,” Longview News-Journal, September 4, 2012, ➝.
Sui-Lee Wee, “Chairman of Lanzhou Veolia Apologizes After Water Pollution in China,” Reuters, April 22, 2014, ➝. For an additional public statement, see: "China: Chinese NGO Justice For All protests at Veolia Paris headquarter over benzene contamination in drinking water to 3.6 million people by Lanzhou Veolia," Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, ➝.
Department of Attorney General, “Schuette Files Civil Suit Against Veolia and LAN for Role in Flint Water Poisoning;” Sharon Lerner and Leana Hosea, “From Pittsburgh to Flint, the Dire Consequences of Giving Private Companies Responsibility for Ailing Public Water Systems,” The Intercept, May 20, 2018, ➝. Public comment by Veolia in response to criticism has been minimal, but in a statement provided to BuzzFeed they asserted: "Veolia has consistently maintained that the crisis in Flint is a tragedy, and we find it disappointing that certain news organizations continue to recklessly portray the extent of the company’s work there." Monica Mark, "A Company at the Center of Flint Water Crisis is on the Shortlist to Serve Millions in Africa," BuzzFeed News, August 9, 2018, ➝.
Veolia, “Integrated Utilities Management,” ➝.
Veolia, “Nuclear Solutions,” ➝. A part of Veolia’s consulting strategy, Seureca describes itself on its website: “Seureca is part of the Veolia Group, global leader in resource management. We provide expert solutions for utilities, public organizations, and industries to efficiently manage their water, waste, and energy services,” ➝. Major water subsidiaries specializing in laboratory and maritime water treatment as well as drinking water, industrial wastewater, and sludge include, Elga, Sidem & Entropie, RWO, and OTV: “Veolia Water Technologies – Water and Wastewater Treatment,” ➝. Part of Veolia’s Development, Innovation & Sales Division, 2EI targets city governments with promises of “sustainable solutions” and “anticipating and responding to environmental, economic and social crises” in the urban landscape using “public-private partnerships to innovate,” ➝.
Veolia, “Our Locations Around the World,” ➝.
Chris Hedges, “Sweatshops on Wheels,” Truthdig, April 15, 2013, ➝.
Transdev North America. “Why Contract with Transdev North America: The Leader in Public-Private Contracting in Transit,” ➝.
“Veolia’s Other Offenses,” Global Exchange, ➝.
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2007).
Benjamin Kabak, “NICE BUS, $7.3 million in the red, already threatening service cuts,” Second Avenue Gas, February 16, 2012, ➝.
Ironically, while Veolia took on a majority share of the paratransit contract in Seattle, the company was battling major debt and assuring its shareholders that it was getting out of the transportation sector entirely.
Larry Lange. “Metro’s Union Files Labor Complaint,” The Seattle Post Intelligencer, August 12, 2008, ➝.
Transdev North America, “Veolia Transportation Awarded Seven Year Extension in Seattle,” Mass Transit, December 6, 2011, ➝.
See ➝.
At our height, SVS’s core was made up of a Metro bus driver and ATU member, two Access users, a seasoned water justice activist, an organizer in the early Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle, and members of the Northwest BDS Coalition including Students for Palestinian Equal Rights. Veolia drivers were never involved due to fear of retaliation. BAYAN, an alliance of progressive Filipino organizations, and the Transit Riders Union had written solidarity statements and were close collaborators. See Transit Riders Union statement of solidarity with Stop Veolia Seattle’s demand that King County terminate its contract with Veolia and restore jobs to union drivers: “In this age of austerity, working and poor people have been made to pay for the under-funding of public transit again and again...As bus riders, we understand the importance of standing up for the rights of our drivers...We will not stand by and watch as stable, family-supporting union jobs are replaced with poorly paid, precarious jobs,” and BAYAN Pacific Northwest’s solidarity statement: “We join Filipino Americans and allies globally in resisting Veolia’s attempts to profit from water and sanitation.” See Stop Veolia Seattle, “Solidarity Statements,” ➝.
Marseilles Declaration for Palestinian Water Rights, April 10, 2012, ➝.
“Who Profits? Veolia’s Involvement in the Occupied Jordan Valley,” Jordan Valley Solidarity, November 2011, ➝.
ATU Local 587 President highlighted the unions goal to “defend transit workers from predatory private contractors such as Veolia and First Transit.” Paul J. Bachtel, “The President’s Report” ATU Local 587 News Review XXXVII, no. 1 January 2014.
Stop Veolia Seattle, “The Zine,” ➝.
“WHEREAS MLKCLC has made a commitment nationally to make common cause with struggles for social justice and workers’ rights around the world, building global solidarity to strengthen worker and union power everywhere; and WHEREAS MLKCLC knows that privatization undermines that effort and puts workers and users of public transport at risk,” ➝.
Contract Change No. 3 was signed on July 19, 2010 included a reduction in minimal oil changes for the fleet and annual driver training from 24 to 12 hours.
“Veolia/Transdev has Attempted to Divide our Coalition Because we call Attention to their Role in Israeli Apartheid,” Stop Veolia Seattle Zine Project (2012), 88, ➝.
In 2011, Veolia Environnement completed a deal with French state-owned bank, Caisse des Dépôts, merging their respective French-owned transportation subsidiaries to create a new French transnational transportation company that is jointly owned by the two. The new company is presently called Transdev and is 50% owned by the Veolia Group (until February 2015, Veolia Group was Veolia Environnement) and 50% owned by Caisse des Depots. In 2011, Veolia Transport ceased to exist in France, but the US subsidiary Veolia Transportation Services Inc continued to operate in the US until July 2014, when the US subsidiary changed its name to Transdev Services Inc. This name change reflects a definite change in ownership, as Veolia Transportation Services Inc was wholly owned by Veolia Environnement, while Transdev Services Inc is wholly owned by Transdev, which is only 50% owned by the Veolia Group. See “Veolia Transdev: Creation of the World’s Leading Private-sector Company in sustainable Mobility, Completion of the Merger of Veolia Transport and Transdev,” March 3, 2011, ➝.
In King County’s contract, Veolia Transportation Services, Inc., was identified as a “wholly owned subsidiary of Veolia Environnement,” Veolia Transportation never issued the county documentation that its parent company had changed.
Stop Veolia Seattle, “King County Councilmembers Raise Concerns About Veolia’s Bad Practices, While Evidence that Veolia May Have Committed Fraud in King County is Surfacing,” ➝.
Stop Veolia Seattle Zine Project (2012), 100.
Ibid., 101.
Paul Zilly, “New Transdev Contract will Transform Lives of 260 Teamsters and Their Families,” Teamsters Local 117, June 26, 2016, ➝.
Jeff Switzer, “Metro Amends Future Access Paratransit Contract Requirements,” Metro Matters, June 12, 2018, ➝.
Ibid.
Sarah Rupp, “Metro Begins Negotiations with Top Proposer for new Access Contract,” Metro Matters, January 4, 2019, ➝.
Correspondence with Kergan Street. Transit Planner at King County Metro Transit, February 19, 2019.
“Company Overview of MV Transportation, Inc,” Bloomberg, ➝.
“With Strike Looming, Union and MV Transportation Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract,” Teamsters Local 727, September 28, 2018, ➝.
Anna Baltzer, “Veolia BDS Victories!,” US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, November 14, 2013. Adri Nieuwhof, “Veolia Suffering ‘Expensive’ Damage Due to Palestine Campaigners’ Publicity, Says Financial Expert,” Electronic Intifada, February 19, 2013, ➝.
One Veolia official anonymously commented, "This has earned us boycott threats and lost us important contracts." "Jerusalem's long-awaited light rail finally ready to roll," RTE, November 22, 2010, ➝.
Palestinian BDS National Committee, “BDS Marks Another Victory as Veolia Sells Off all Israeli Operations,” September 1, 2015, ➝.
Patrick Bond, “Durban’s Water Wars,” 77.
Veolia seems to have begun using these taglines heavily in their publications between 2014 and 2015.
“Veolia Releases Annual Sustainability Performance Report,” May 24, 2018, ➝.
“Factsheet: Protect Water: Boycott Nestle,” The Council of Canadians, January 2019, ➝.
Ken Ward Jr., “Residents Wary of Antero’s Answer to Fracking Wastewater Problem,” Charleston Gazette-Mail, September 17, 2016, ➝.
“Veolia to Provide Utilities for DuPont’s Manufacturing Site in Virginia, USA,” Business Wire, April 18, 2018, ➝.
Veolia, “The Essentials 2018,” ➝.
Veolia Chairman & CEO, Antoine Frérot summarized the strategic plan this way: “Our 2018 objectives are ambitious: Revenue should grow by more than €2 billion during the period, current net income should exceed €800 million and net free cash flow should nearly double to €1 billion. Confidence in our plan allows the Group to return to a dividend growth policy beginning this year, with the 2015 fiscal year dividend expected to be €0.73 per share, and annual dividend growth around 10% per year expected for the next three years.” Veolia, “Investor Day, Veolia reveals its new strategic plan for the 2016-2018 period,” ➝.
Veolia, “Integrated Report 2018,” ➝.
“About Our Water Campaign,” Corporate Accountability, ➝.
Bin Veolia Campaign, “Veolia Campaign Victories 2006-2012,” ➝.
“Veolia’s Other Offenses.”
Ben McPartland, “Fired for Refusing to Cut Off Poor Families’ Water,” The Local: France’s News in English, April 19, 2013, ➝.
Food and Water Watch, “Veolia Water North America.”
Ibid.
Moncton H₂0.
Patrick Bond, “Durban’s Water Wars,” 111.