Corporate Accountability International, which is devoted to slamming big corporations over a variety of issues, is conducting an online poll to allow visitors to choose between several big names: Coca-Cola; Exxon; Ford; Halliburton; Kimberly-Clark; Nestle; Wal-Mart and Merck.

Online visitors can vote for up to three of the nominees, which were chosen based on what the groups claims are documented abuses, influence peddling and practices that harm people and the environment, or they can write-in nominees. Online voting begins Wednesday and will take place through May. The top three vote-getters will be announced in June.

The goal of the Hall of Shame is to publicly challenge corporations and expose their abuses, political influence and manipulation of public policy. Here are this year’s nominees and the reasons CAI pulled them out of the hat:

Ø Merck, for keeping Vioxx on the shelves for four years after learning that the pain medication was causing heart attacks, fighting government efforts in Thailand and Brazil to allow generic versions of AIDS meds, and using political contributions to open markets for Gardasil.

Ø Coca-Cola, for draining local water supplies in drought prone areas in India, allowing harassment of workers fighting for labor rights in Colombia, undermining public confidence in local water utilities, and falsely promoting itself as a socially responsible corporation.

Ø ExxonMobil, for refusing to pay $4.5 billion in damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and spending millions to delay action on global warming, including funding “junk science” to confuse the issue.

Ø Ford, for awful fuel efficiency and pollution ratings, blocking government efforts to improve auto emissions, thwarting efforts by workers to unionize, and paying its CEO $28 million (for only four months of work) as they plan to cut 30,000 jobs.

Ø Halliburton, the nation’s leading war profiteer, for grossly under-delivering — and shortchanging our troops — on more than $20 billion in lucrative government contracts and for planning to move its headquarters to Dubai, enabling them to shirk paying their full share of U.S. taxes.

Ø Kimberly-Clark, for using the same tree fiber suppliers — after years of denial — for its tissues that have contributed to the destruction of the world’s remaining ancient forests in North America.

Ø Nestlé, for numerous abuses — including use of child labor on cocoa farms, skirting responsibility for its role in the obesity epidemic, and draining community water supplies for its bottled water products.

Ø Wal-Mart, for failing to support its workers, who live close to the poverty line and often are not covered by the corporation’s health plan, for displacing local businesses and for massive claims of sexual discrimination.

[tags]Corporate Accountability International, Corporate Hall Of Shame, Merck[/tags]