Talk:Nortel Networks
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This article is inaccurate. Nortel is now known simply as "Nortel" not as "Nortel Networks." The "Networks" part of the name was dropped in 2004. ContivityGoddess 02:46, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
The company name remains Nortel Networks, although for branding purposes, it chooses to refer to itself as Nortel. Isaac Lin 04:29, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
This article contradicts itself, with regards to the number of employees at a minimum. As well, few sources are cited for most events and facts, as well, the article does not stand up to WP:REF -- 47.248.0.45 14:48, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
I have added a reference to Macdonald's book on Nortel, which is a reasonable summary for the period 1895 to 2000. This may help with cleanup. ZygmuntLozinski 08 Aug 2006.
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This article has been cited as a source by a media organization. See the 2005 press source article for details.
The citation is in: Dave Pizer (February 20, 2005). "[N/A Names of the Game.]". Ottawa Sun. |
This article needs massive reorganization dave 23:46, May 22, 2004 (UTC)
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[edit] An accurate summary from my recollection
[Please note: Since writing these comments, the original article has been considerably reduced in detail]
I worked for what was then STC plc. starting in 1990 in New Southgate, London , UK, selected as a (mature) graduate entrant, on what was called, if I remember correctly, the "GIP" - "Graduate Induction Program". STC plc. became Northern Telecom (Europe) and eventually Nortel Networks, I finished in 2001, by which time I was based in Maidenhead, initially Meridian house, ultimately MOP. I actually loved Nortel, a brilliant company who managed people in a positive way, with processes to track personal performance, highlight personal skills, reward innovation, a truly rewarding company with many strong, even striking personalities, some good, some strikenly bad. As a "general rule of thumb" sadly the UK "managers" had a lot of ground to make it to the standard of their US and Canadian 'equals'. I worked on DMS as a 'Building Studies Engineer' producing floor plans, training for that role in Canada in 1991, before moving on to hardware provisioning, then finally, working as a translations Engineer. I did many "odd" jobs in-between in that eleven years, including provisioning mux. Fibrespan, IBDN and more.....
Forward looking in so many ways, using (possibly the biggest corporate user of) Apple Macintosh PCs on the desktop, about a decade before the IBM PC (MS) people even had an equal (in my opinion) plus a global data network back in the days of NCSA Mosaic, you really nearly had it Nortel, so close..... and yet the PC people called Macs, "toys". I took a lot of pleasure telephoning my Canadian co-workers from the UK in the afternoon and greeting them with "good-morning" to which they would reply "good afternoon"- such is the power of telecoms to span the globe.
A key observation that stands out, is that Nortel as a technology company had many non-technical people, I have no figures or facts, but I would hazard a guess that for every Engineer, you had two non-techs, what did they do for Nortel?
Sadly, I'm not really in touch with anyone who works at Nortel anymore as most of those I worked with are now gone. Good luck to all who made it what it was, I hope you have been able to use your skills elsewhere, and can I ask HR where did my ten year service badge go missing?
What can I say? - well, Dillbert, by Scott Adams possibly..... or contact me at [1]
[edit] ==
Question: Between New Southgate being STC and Northern Telecom, wasn't there a period where it was run as "BNR" i.e. Bell Northern Research, which was the R&D arm of Northern Telecom?
[edit] Nortel The financial scandal
The following text was posted on my talk page is response to my reversion of unsourced claims about the purpored scandal. I am moving it here for discussion. --Ryan Delaney talk 08:35, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
Hello
My contribution is not perfect regarding Nortel, but at less some one like you could correct and please add more information about this financial scandal.
In Canada we have: Bre-X, Nortel, ... In USA they have : Enron, WorldCom, ...
Therefore Nortel definition need information regarding the IMPORTANCE of that scandal.
Best regards
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND OF RECOMMENDED REMEDIAL MEASURES OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW SUBMITTED TO THE AUDIT COMMITTEE OF THE BOARDS OF DIRECTORS OF NORTEL NETWORKS CORPORATION AND NORTEL NETWORKS LIMITED Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP 2445 M Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 Huron Consulting Services LLC 99 High Street Boston, Massachusetts 02110
January 12, 2005
Nortel Unveils New Accounting Flubs
Company Details Mistakes, Says Executives Will Return Millions in Bonus Payments By MARK HEINZL and KEN BROWN Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 12, 2005; Page A3
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.) Details of accounting problems can be found at http://a1712.g.akamai.net/7/1712/5107/20050112070930/www.nortel.com/corporate/news/newsreleases/collateral/independent_review_summary.pdf
Nortel Networks Corp. unveiled details of additional accounting errors involving billions of dollars and said that a dozen executives will return millions of dollars of bonuses as the telecom-equipment maker attempts to put a major financial scandal behind it.
The Brampton, Ontario, company also said five directors, including Chairman Lynton Wilson and former ambassador James Blanchard, who is also a former Michigan governor, will step down. Nortel's board has faced criticism for allowing the company's accounting fiasco to go on and approving the bonus plans, but none of the five directors was accused of wrongdoing in a company investigation, details of which were announced yesterday.
Nortel said 12 of the company's most senior executives will take the unusual step of returning $8.6 million in bonuses they were paid based on the erroneous accounting. Already, Nortel's accounting problems led to the ouster of 10 top executives last year.
It is very rare for senior executives to voluntarily refund bonuses following an earnings restatement, several pay specialists said. "This is something very, very new," said Robert Fields, an attorney and executive-compensation consultant in South Salem, N.Y. An increased emphasis on corporate governanceby boards "is really putting executives' feet to the fire," said Mr. Fields, adding that the voluntary return of executive bonuses "should see a lot more play in the future."
Nortel executives said the board also will seek repayment of bonuses paid to executives who have already been ousted. People familiar with the company say that there may be additional disciplinary actions taken against current employees.
Nortel's actions came as the company filed with regulators its financial statements for 2003 and restated, for the second time, its results from earlier years.
Nortel shares soared in the late 1990s and collapsed along with the technology bubble. But Nortel then made good on a promise by former Chief Executive Frank Dunn to return to profitability in early 2003.
Mr. Dunn and six other top executives were fired in April. He and his lawyer didn't return calls seeking comment.
But that early 2003 profit and the gains in subsequent quarters turned out to be illusory. Investigators hired by Nortel's directors determined the company improperly employed a financial maneuver, known as "cookie-jar accounting," that turned a loss into a profit. The profits triggered millions in bonuses for senior executives, but eventually unraveled. The board later brought in outside investigators, who uncovered details of the improper accounting.
Investors appeared relieved Nortel is getting a handle on its accounting scandal. Shares of Nortel rose 14 cents, or 4.2%, to $3.48 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. Yesterday's filing detailed a different set of accounting issues beyond the cookie-jar accounting originally uncovered by investigators. The company said the newly reported errors resulted in higher revenues and profits for Nortel in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
In addition, Nortel said its 2003 financial statements show net income of $434 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $10.2 billion. Before announcing its revisions, Nortel originally had reported net income of $732 million, or 17 cents, on revenue of $9.8 billion.
The latest findings were made by Nortel personnel. The company has hired Washington law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, which also conducted an earlier investigation for the company's board, to investigate the revenue-recognition issues. The inquiry into the revenue-recognition issue is continuing to look into questions of potential misconduct among Nortel executives.
At Nortel, while some of the revenue-recognition problem appears to be due to ignorance, there are some situations, people with knowledge of the company say, where the intentions are questionable.
In one situation, people with knowledge of the company say, Nortel sold $200 million worth of equipment to Qwest Communications International Inc., the regional Bell company based in Denver, and booked the revenue right before the end of 2000, boosting that year's results. But Nortel booked the revenue too soon, the company later determined, because Qwest hadn't taken title to the equipment. In yesterday's restatement, Nortel shifted the revenue to 2001. A Qwest spokesman declined to comment.
At Nortel, investigators ultimately found about $3 billion in revenue had been booked improperly in 1998, 1999 and 2000. More than $2 billion was moved into later years, about $750 million was pushed forward beyond 2003 and about $250 million was wiped away completely.
The company has mentioned the revenue-recognition issues for several months, but this is the first time it has released details of them.
The board members stepping down are: Mr. Wilson, the chairman; Yves Fortier; Sherwood Smith; Guylaine Saucier; and Mr. Blanchard, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada.
Joann S. Lublin contributed to this article
Write to Mark Heinzl at mark.heinzl@wsj.com1 and Ken Brown at ken.brown@wsj.com2
Corrections & Amplifications:
Nortel Networks Corp. personnel have uncovered and corrected accounting errors involving revenue recognition at the company. This article incorrectly said that law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP investigated these issues. The firm conducted an earlier inquiry into another accounting issue at Nortel and has been hired to look further into the revenue-recognition issues.
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110544849421122680,00.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) mailto:mark.heinzl@wsj.com
(3) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108872684123653733,00.html
(4) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108388763264804774,00.html
(5) http://online.wsj.com/documents/nortel_independent_review_summary20050111.pdf
(6) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110545208531122717,00.html
(7) http://online.wsj.com/documents/transcript-NT-20050111.pdf
(8) http://www.streetevents.com
(9) http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
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I think it's fairly clear that comeone from the company eliminated multiple referneces to the financial scandal, which is, unfortunately, the most notable thing about nortel. If no one will put up a section about the scandal than I will, but it will not be as good.
[edit] Nortel and Colombia
Shareholder Challenges Nortels Ethics.
Question to the Acting Chair of Nortel John Alan MacNaughton in absence of Harry Jonathan Pearce at the 2006 AGM in Toronto Canada, June 29, 2006 for direction to
Chief Ethics Officer –Susan E. Shepard
Mr. Chairperson, as a stockholder, who inherited these mentioned stocks from a long time employee of Bell Canada who participated in the employee stock option plan, and looking around this audience today seeing many BCE and Nortel employees who earned their stock in a similar manner by working in a company they wanted to be proud of, I want to welcome the new leadership team brought to Nortel this years and through you ask them what measures they will be taking to move Nortel from its past reputation as an unethical player in Canada and the world stage. I am pleased to hear of the Board and Management’s measures being taken to eliminate questionalble financial reportin practices. In addition to the clamor raised by stockholders over recent years about Nortel’s financial accountability to shareholders, I want to add my concerns about Nortel’s past business dealings on the world stage and in particular Colombia and Nortel’s business practices as published in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor in October 2004 and the recent news that the liquefaction of Colombia’s Public Telephone Utility has now resulted in its privatization and sale to Telephonia of Spain. Thus insuring more flow of capital out of an impoverished nation, when ethical hard working employees of Nortel and small shareholders like myself, , ordinary Canadians and the Government of Canada ( and I note the presence here today of a past Foreign Minister of Canada, and of the current Chair of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, both on the Board of Directors) all want to help develop, not further impoverish, such nations through, our Export Development Corporation loans (of which Nortel has received many in the past), our direct foreign investment and our “fair trade practices”
My question is threefold today with more to follow in years to come.
1. Will Nortel direct its Chief Ethics Officer to cause an investigation and report back to next years AGM into Nortel’s past business dealings with Telecom in Colombia including 1) the signing of agreements that included the so called “risk shared clauses” that demanded Telecom pay the projected value of Nortel’s products, not just their actual billed value, 2) the alleged alliance with the United States government to force the impoverished nation to liquefy Telecom, and the collection of the outstanding difference in the “risk shared clauses” even though Nortel had allegedly received more than three times the value of its product already and 3) the alleged use of Canadian taxpayers money through the Export Development Corporation to subsidize these transactions.
2) Will Nortel take positive remedial action and have its Chief Ethics Officer report directly to the board, instead of the CEO, on all ethical compliance matters and make an annual report to the stockholders at the AGM that Nortel is in compliance with the United Nations Norms on Business, The Export Development Corporations Code of Business Ethics and Due Diligence Statements and especially their statements that “EDC views social and human rights issues as key variables in determining the level of political risk to projects... EDC has decided not to support certain projects for reasons purely related to human rights and other social impacts. EDC is concerned about the violations of human rights in Colombia. EDC values human rights and promotes the protection of internationally recognized human rights, consistent with the policies of the Government of Canada."
And 3) If these allegations prove correct, will NortelLearnIT create a- Digital Ethics Module on the theme of how “Nortel has learned from its errors in Colombia and how it now assists (with specific examples), not impedes, The United Nations Millennium Development Goals.”
Mr. Chairman, I welcome the new leadership and urge them to take these measures to help Nortel to become a leader in World Corporate Citizenship and I look forward to your response.
-William Sparks, Shareholder.
NORTEL IMPLICATED IN DISASTROUS LIQUIDATION OF COLOMBIA'S TELECOM Published in:Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, October 2004 www.policyalternatives.ca
Nortel Networks, Canada's largest high-tech corporation, has helped bring about the liquidation of TELECOM, Colombia's biggest telecommunications company, and the likely privatization of its successor.Brampton-based Nortel has assets of U.S.$15.8 billion, 37,000 employees and a presence in 150 countries. Plummeting global demand for telecommunications equipment and poor management have devastated Nortel during the past two years cutting its assets by more than half and the number of its employees by 60%. Nortel's share price has fallen by 90%; the company is burdened with a $4.8 billion debt and had its credit rating cut to junk. In March 2004, Nortel suspended both its chief financial officer and controller after warning that it would "likely" have to restate its financial results for the second time in six months. In reaction, the company's shares fell by 23%. The U.S. government's Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Nortel.Colombia is one of Nortel's fastest growing markets in Latin America and its sales and service here are carried out by Nortel Networks de Colombia (NNC) established in 1993. Based in the capital Bogota, NNC has 185 employees. According to Nortel, it has "become a leader in the implementation of shared risk agreements in Colombia."Since 1997, Nortel has contracted for the construction of close to 800,000 telephone lines and has built more than 550,000 lines in 17 different regions of Colombia under four association agreements with Colombia's Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (TELECOM). TELECOM has signed more association agreements with Nortel than with any other supplier.EDCIn its Colombian venture, Nortel has received considerable financial assistance from the Canadian government. During 2002-04, Export Development Canada (EDC), a Crown corporation, gave $130 million in total financing for nine different sales by Nortel of telecommunications equipment to Sercotel S.A. de C.V. in Colombia. Sercotel is owned by Mexico-based America Movil, the largest cell phone company in Latin America which has operations in ten countries. In 1996, EDC gave $65 million to support Nortel's sale of telecommunications equipment to the Colombia Telecommunications Funding Corporation. EDC has also financed about U.S.$90 million of Nortel's cellular business including $17.3 million for its supply of equipment to OCCEL in 1995.EDC support (and thus that of the Canadian taxpayer) is crucial to Nortel's ability to generate international sales. As one observer put it "Nortel Networks Corp. and Bombardier did not become multi-billion dollar global leaders just by making cuttingedge products; they also helped many of their biggest customers to buy them using big loans from Export Development Canada." Almost half of EDC's $21 billion loan portfolio is to Nortel and Bombardier clients. EDC financing for Nortel sales is particularly important given the weak state of the telecom industry worldwide highlighted by the fact that Nortel's foreign buyers have not repaid $4.1 billion of its loans to them (Nortel lent this money between 1997 and 2000 to finance its sales). Cash-strapped foreign telecom companies are unlikely to buy Nortel products without EDC financing.Nortel and The Liquidation/Privatization of Colombia's TELECOMAs noted above, Nortel calls itself "a leader in the implementation of shared risk agreements in Colombia." Through the enforcement of such agreements, Nortel has played a significant role in bringing about the liquidation of TELECOM, Colombia's largest telecommunications company, and the likely privatization of its replacement, Telecom Colombia Telecomunicaciones S.A ESP, (TCT), the new state-owned company. The liquidation which was carried out by the Colombian government in June 2003 means the layoff of 8,000 workers and the sale of TELECOM's assets to TCT which was created to assure transnational corporations, (including Nortel) that there would be payment on shared risk contracts. According to Jorge Lerma, President of the Communication Workers Union (USTC), Multinational companies want to take over the powerful state enterprise telecommunications infrastructure and are using pressure on the shared risk contracts to do so. "I see the government selling this company off in the short-term, maybe to some foreign company," said Lerma.Nortel has a very positive view of privatization and associates it with the expansion of markets for its products. As Gary Donahee, president, Service Provider Solutions for Nortel Networks, Americas, said "Privatization and deregulation that has swept through the region has resulted in a greater number of people with access to some of the most advanced telecommunications services available anywhere. This makes Latin America one of the fastest growing markets for the Internet." According to Nortel, "After the privatization of Tel�fonos de M�xico (Telmex), the state-owned telephone company, Mexico has embarked on a rapid expansion of the country's telecommunications capabilities. Nortel Networks has been an active participant in this expansion, supplying major carriers with switching equipment, wireless and broadband network solutions, and businesses with enterprise network solutions." The privatization of TELECOM in Colombia can be expected to yield similar benefits for Nortel.Between 1993 and 1998, TELECOM signed contracts with Nortel, Alcatel (France), Siemens (Germany), Ericsson (Sweden), NEC and Itochu (both Japan) to install 1.6 million fixed telephone lines. 1.3 million of these lines were sold. The agreements included shared risk clauses stipulating that TELECOM would pay the total value of the projected lines, and not just those that were being billed; paying out the difference between the profit levels it guaranteed the companies and realized profits. It is hard to see why such a clause is labelled "shared risk" since all the risk is on TELECOM's side. Semana, Colombia's business magazine, called this agreement "possibly the worst deal in history" because TELECOM enormously inflated the profits it expected to get from the lines. The foreign companies claimed that they had invested $2.8 billion but earned only $1 billion in revenues. Under the terms of TELECOM's deal with Nortel, the latter was to install 200,000 fixed telephone lines for which it was guaranteed profits of $143 million by 1999. This magnified level of profits was never achieved and the same was true for the other companies, all of whom then sued TELECOM for a total of $1.8 billion in damages. Nortel claimed that TELECOM owed it $73 million. An arbitration panel ruled in Nortel's favour in early 2001.TELECOM responded that the contracts were illegal and called for their renegotiation. The company also maintained that the joint venture contracts were badly negotiated and left it with most of the risk. Due to a lawsuit filed by the Association of Telecommunications Workers (ATT �now the USTC), the Attorney-General of Colombia launched an investigation into "suspected irregularities" involving three former TELECOM presidents in a contract with Nortel. The executives are Clara Elsa Villalba,(who first signed the contract with Nortel in 1993), Jose Blackburn and Julio Molano (both of whom later altered the agreement in 1996 and 1997). Another four former TELECOM employees are also being investigated. An arbitrator is presently reviewing the matter and is supposed to make a decision by October 2004.The Pastrana government offered the six companies $600 million (which it had to borrow) but they rejected this and Nortel put political pressure on the Colombian government to force full payment. In April 2002, William Lash, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance, stated on a visit to Colombia that the U.S. government could block Colombia's benefits under the Andean Trade Preferences Act, (ATPA), unless progress was made toward paying TELECOM's $73 million debt to Nortel. "Close to one tenth of our Congress in both parties have sent me letters stressing that they are very concerned about ATPA benefits being sent to Colombia, that they have not honored arbitral awards and haven't met criteria," Lash said. ATPA and its renewal by the U.S. Congress (which was pending at the time) are crucial to Colombia's flower, leather and textile industries. The Act allows these goods dutyfree access to the U.S. market. Passed in 1991, ATPA has been presented by the U.S. government as complimenting its regional anti-cocaine program; the Act is supposed to encourage legal industries in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.Thus, the Nortel-TELECOM dispute had now "become an increasingly tough problem in U.S.Colombian relations" which showed the extent of Nortel's political influence in Washington. By this time a Colombian court had ruled that TELECOM had to pay Nortel the $73 million. TELECOM appealed this decision and Colombia's highest appellate court ruled in June 2002 that the Colombian company had to pay Nortel $64 million in compensation. At this point, The U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) set up a "NortelColombia Group" made up of its officials, to resolve the dispute. As the ITA describes it: "The NortelColombia group, combining elements of five ITA units, solved a key commercial dispute involving nonpayment of a $54 million arbitral award owed to Nortel. Demonstrating dedication, judgement and teamwork, the group succeeded where other interagency efforts had failed, resulting in payment of one of the largest amounts ever achieved by ITA." On August 2, 2002, TELECOM announced that it had paid Nortel $56.7 million in compensation. This did not end Nortel's legal pursuit of monetary claims against TELECOM; several such claims remain in arbitration.Nortel's political influence in the U.S. then is powerful enough to not only make its dispute with TELECOM a foreign policy issue but also to ensure that Washington gets the company's claimed debt repaid.Estimating that it may have to pay $800 million to the multinationals, TELECOM appealed for official aid to avoid collapse. This was refused by the Pastrana government and that of Alvaro Uribe (who replaced Pastrana in 2002). Samuel Velasquez, Pastrana's deputy communications minister made it clear that the government would not help TELECOM even if the debt burden destroyed the firm. "Telecom is an autonomous entity, which does not have its loans guaranteed by the government," Velasquez said, " The government doesn't have any reason to pay these debts. The government is not going to give loans to TELECOM because it doesn't have it (the money)." Uribe, who has been linked to death squads by Human Rights Watch, has an extensive privatization agenda stemming from IMF demands to halve the fiscal deficit. He moved to liquidate TELECOM less than a year after taking office.Union ResistanceThe Colombian government has been trying to privatize TELECOM and the associated municipal telephone companies (known as Teleasociados or Tele-Associates) for thirteen years without success due to fierce resistance from the company's union and unionized workers in general. The ATT and the TELECOM Workers' Union (SITTELECOM), both today part of the USTC, as well as the Central Union of Workers (CUT) and its sister federation, the General Confederation of Democratic Workers (CGTD), have launched strikes, held demonstrations and carried out work stoppages and occupations to block privatization. The response has been the murder and arrest of unionists. In October 1998, 800,000 state employees went on strike partly to protest the attempted privatization of TELECOM. Seven union leaders were killed during the strike including Jorge Luis Ortega Garcia, Vice-President of the CUT. Union representatives and Colombian human rights groups held the state responsible for the deaths. In a legal dispute in 1993, 13 members of the ATT were tried on terrorism charges and arbitrarily detained for almost a year after they called a strike in 1992 to oppose privatization.In the same spirit, the Colombian unions have vigorously opposed the joint venture contracts TELECOM signed with the six foreign companies. The CUT, CGTD and the USTC called the deals "a pact of corruption between six transnational companies and the Colombian state." They pointed out that the financial demands of the multinationals were driving TELECOM into bankruptcy and that the firms had already received three times the sum of money they would have got if they had sold the telephone lines at market prices and not imposed surcharges on TELECOM. The unions called for the cancellation of the contracts and the investigation of those responsible for perpetrating the "fraud...and embezzlement."The USTC objected when the Pastrana government took out the $600 million loan to pay the multinationals. In February 2002, the union presented formal demands and denounced the one-sided joint venture contracts. "The union argued that the loan should be blocked, and that the equipment installed by the multinationals be taken over. The union was very concerned that conceding to the multinationals' demand would mean a defacto privatization, with dire consequences for workers rights as well as for services to the community." The government ignored the USTC's demands and the union was not able to gain anything through negotiations. As a result, the USTC launched "a wave of occupations" across Colombia on May 14 confronting security forces. On May 17, the Colombian army threatened to use force to end the workers' occupation in Buenaventura. The workers contacted the Colombia Solidarity Campaign in England which immediately put out an international alert to protect them from a massacre. The police broke up the Bucaramanga occupation by force on May 20, throwing out the workers and arresting 85 of them.In reaction to the liquidation of TELECOM, the CUT called a one-day general strike on June 19, 2003 in which 600,000 state sector workers marched through Bogota. The workers were also protesting the privatization of ECOPETROL, the national oil company, and health and security agencies. Altogether, the privatizations mean the imminent loss of 40,000 jobs. There were four marches in Bogot�, watched by 4,000 armed police. Nine days before the strike, riot police attacked TELECOM workers in Bogot� who were protesting the dismissal of 12 of the company's workers in Bucaramanga. The police beat some of the protestors severely while others were injured by tear gas and pepper spray. Four workers were arrested after being badly hurt. On the same day, the police assaulted Jorge Lerma, president of the Communications Workers Union (USTC), in front of the TELECOM building. They also pepper sprayed him in the eyes before dragging him, almost unconscious, into the building's basement.Subsidizing DestructionThe liquidation and impending privatization of TELECOM are a national disaster for Colombia and a clear violation of workers' rights. The likely ownership of this precious national resource by foreigners will mean that the wealth generated by it will leave the country; it will also mean that Colombians will not be able to use TELECOM to further national development by generating employment and stimulating local industry. The loss of 8,000 well-paid jobs is a devastating blow to workers in a country already suffering from massive unemployment, enormous poverty and a 40-year old civil war. The layoffs considerably worsen the social polarization that is the main cause of the civil war. The government had the responsibility to negotiate any changes it wanted in TELECOM with the workers who were willing to engage in a dialogue. Nortel has contributed significantly to causing this national disaster through its intransigent attitude and coercive actions. Nortel's collection of $56 million from TELECOM when the latter was on the verge of collapse clearly drove the Colombian company towards liquidation. The manner in which Nortel obtained this money could be construed as blackmail and extortion. Using the enormous economic power of the United States against a poor, vulnerable country is reprehensible. Obviously, a corporation that does such social damage does not meet the ethical guidelines of the EDC and should not be heavily subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer. According to the Crown corporation's due diligence statement, "EDC views social and human rights issues as key variables in determining the level of political risk to projects... EDC has decided not to support certain projects for reasons purely related to human rights and other social impacts. EDC is concerned about the violations of human rights in Colombia. EDC values human rights and promotes the protection of internationally recognized human rights, consistent with the policies of the Government of Canada." In the TELECOM case, the workers' social and human rights were both violated as they were dismissed without negotiation by the government and attacked by the police. Therefore, EDC needs to examine the role of Nortel in bringing about this crisis and take steps to ensure that the company does not have the Canadian public's financial backing for its detrimental conduct. Canada should be helping to alleviate the incredible suffering of the Colombian people instead of adding to their oppression.Nortel's behaviour also contradicts its own code of conduct contained in the company's "Guide to Ethical Business Practices." This guide emphasizes that "integrity is our foundation" and that "Nortel Networks long-term interests, and the interests of everyone who has a stake in the company, depend on our total commitment to doing business with integrity." Nortel explains"When we say we value integrity, we mean "We compete vigorously and fairly in the marketplace. We treat others with dignity and respect... We strive to do the right thing for individuals, organizations and society in general." ,Published in:Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, October 2004 www.policyalternatives.ca
[edit] Correction on Nortels Ethics
Correction on Nortel's Ethics July 6, 2006 My apologies to Asad Ismi, the author of the CCPA Monitor article of October 2004 for not crediting him as such. He points out to me the following corrections. The term is "liquidate" not "liquefy" regarding what happened to Colombia Telecom. Also, the company that has bought the majority shares in Colombia Telecom is "Telefonica Spain" not "Telephonia (From "Colombia This Week", April 18, 2006 www.abcolombia.org.uk). You can get more info at Asad's website. http://www.ckln.fm/~asadismi/index.html
-Bill.
[edit] Oct 30, 2006 revisions come straight from Nortel press materials
The changes on October 30, 2006, have replaced the entire article with information from Nortel press releases, primarily http://www.nortel.com/corporate/pressroom/collateral/corporate_backgrounder_feb2006.pdf and http://www.nortel.com/corporate/index.html . This doesn't seem appropriate for an encyclopedia entry, particular the tone which is always trying to generate positive feelings about Nortel's operations, rather than just stating what they are. Although it has provided a good deal of more current information, and filled in some historical milestones, the previous history information and discussion of the financial issues have been lost. Isaac Lin 07:41, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I have reverted the article since it seems inappropriate for the article to be essentially the same as Nortel PR. Please integrate any updates with the existing article, which contains valuable information that should not be lost. Isaac Lin 14:23, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Start of TV production.
I just added the old 1950's logo, which I scaned from a Service manual dated April 1951 for a Model NT101 Tv Set, which used a round 10BP4A picture tube, the article says they started making TV sets in 1953. What is the real date? cmacd 01:34, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
