Unocal, one of the largest oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States, is the only U.S.-based company with significant direct investments in the Burmese oil and gas industry. Lawyers representing several Burmese citizens and two human rights groups filed a lawsuit in 1996 accusing Unocal of using forced labor and contributing to other human rights violations in Burma. This lawsuit challenged Unocal's and other U.S. corporations' efforts to seek competitive advantage through conducting business with governments that oppress their populations, according to Earth Rights International and International Labor Rights Fund, which represented the Burmese plaintiffs.

In 2001, As You Sow joined with other concerned shareholders in co-filing a resolution asking the company to link executive compensation with the Company's ethical and social performance. In 2002 another resolution asking Unocal to comply with the International Labor Organization's declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, including bans on forced labor and child labor was supported by 34% of shareholders.

In April 2004, Unocal settled the lawsuit and agreed to compensate Burmese villagers for complicity in atrocities carried out by soldiers providing security for their pipeline in Southern Burma during the 1990s.

In addition to providing compensation, the case broke significant new legal ground that other companies will need to heed. A 1997 ruling upheld the idea that a corporation, like an individual, can be held liable under the Alien Tort Claims Act for complicity in egregious human rights abuses. Other courts have since followed that decision in cases against other multinational corporations. In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Unocal could be held liable for the allegations.