Amazon, Tesla, and Meta Accused of Undermining Democracy

Today, world leaders are meeting at the United Nations Future Summit in New York on September 22 and 23, giving organisations a chance to present solutions to today’s workplace challenges. One of them is the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which has released a report that shows some of the world’s largest companies are undermining democracy around the world by financially supporting far-right political movements, funding and worsening the climate crisis, and violating trade union and human rights.

Among the accused companies are: Amazon, Tesla, TargetExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore.

What the Amazon Report Says

The report notes that the company’s size and role as the world’s fifth-largest employer and the largest online retailer and cloud computing service have had a profound impact on the industries and communities in which it operates.

However, “the company has become notorious for its union-busting and low wages on several continents, its e-commerce monopoly, its egregious carbon emissions through its AWS data centers, its corporate tax avoidance, and its national and international lobbying,” the report says.

What the Tesla Report Says

Tesla’s report cites the company’s anti-union opposition in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden; human rights abuses in its supply chains; and Elon Musk’s personal opposition to labor unions and democracy, challenges to the NLRB in the U.S., and his support for political leaders Donald Trump, Javier Miley in Argentina, and Narendra Modi in India.

What the Meta report says

The report singled out the world’s largest social media company, Meta, for its critical role in enabling far-right propaganda and movements to use its platforms to grow their membership and support in the U.S. and abroad. It also cited the companies’ responses to regulatory measures in Canada and their costly lobbying efforts to pass data privacy laws.

Todd Brogan, the ITUC’s director of campaigns and organising, commented on the report’s findings that “even in ‘strong democracies’ workers’ demands are ‘suppressed by corporate lobbying operations, whether in policy formulation or at the elections themselves’.”

“It’s about power, who has it and who sets the agenda. As unionists, we know that if we’re not organized, the boss sets the agenda in the workplace, and we know as citizens in our countries that if we’re not organized and demanding responsive governments that actually meet the needs of the people, it’s corporate power that’s going to set the agenda.

“They are playing a long-term game, and that is a game about taking power away from democracy at all levels and turning it into one where they are not concerned with the consequences for workers, but rather with maximizing their influence, their extractive power and their profits,” Brogan added. “Now is the time for international and multi-sector strategies, because in many cases, multinational companies are more powerful than states, and they have no democratic accountability except for organized labor.”