Article 20: Freedom of peaceful assembly and association; no one compelled to belong to an association
Pivotal
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
Freedom of association is, in practice, mostly a workplace right, and in the United States its exercise depends heavily on how employers behave when workers try to organize. Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and Delta Air Lines have each faced shareholder proposals asking them to stop anti-union campaigning or commission independent assessments of whether their conduct matches their stated commitment to organizing rights. Support for these proposals has run as high as 47 percent of independent shares at Amazon and won outright majority approval at Starbucks, and Apple reached a negotiated agreement with an investor coalition holding about 7 billion dollars in shares to commission its own review. At the same time, business associations led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying and advertising against the PRO Act, the main federal bill meant to strengthen these protections, making corporate political spending a direct obstacle to legislative reform as well as to conduct on the shop floor.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Employer conduct is the main practical barrier private-sector workers face when they try to organize: surveillance, captive-audience meetings, retaliation and anti-union consultant campaigns. Labor law, enforcement funding and legal penalties set by government still bound what changed conduct can achieve.
Business lobbying groups spent close to 90 million dollars defeating the PRO Act, the main federal bill meant to strengthen organizing rights, which independent reporting identifies as a central obstacle to legal reform.
2 and 2, higher of the two, gives Pivotal
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Starbucks shareholders want more information about the company's anti-union efforts, CNN Business, 2023-03-30
- Freedom of association proposal receives historic 47% independent vote at Amazon, SHARE, 2022-05
- New York City Comptroller, Pension Funds and Coalition of Investors Announce Agreement with Apple on the Rights of Workers to Organize, NYC Comptroller, 2022
- Delta shareholders decline to prohibit anti-union campaigns by management, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2024-06
- Business and labor groups battle over PRO Act, OpenSecrets, 2021-03
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed the 2022 and 2023 freedom-of-association shareholder proposals at Amazon with the Catherine Donnelly Foundation.
Employee-related resolutions garner support at Amazon AGM, Governance Intelligence, 2022
Co-sponsored the 2023 Starbucks proposal for an independent third-party assessment of the company's adherence to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Part of the investor coalition (roughly 53 million Apple shares, about 7 billion dollars) that secured Apple's 2022 commitment to a board-overseen assessment of its respect for organizing rights, and filed a 2024 disclosure proposal at Delta on anti-union spending.
Filed the 2023 and 2024 Delta Air Lines proposals asking the board to adopt and disclose a non-interference policy upholding freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Delta Air Lines Inc Receives Shareholder Proposal from As you Sow, MarketScreener, 2024
4 campaigns on record
Adopt and disclose a non-interference policy upholding freedom of association and collective bargaining, and report on internal and outside spending meant to dissuade employees from unionizing.
With SOC Investment Group
Result: The non-interference proposal drew 33% support in 2023 and 26% in 2024; a related measure to bar anti-union campaigning was voted down with about 74% opposed.
Delta rejected both proposals and said it would continue its anti-union communications with employees
Commission an independent third-party assessment of Starbucks' adherence to workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, with remedies if violations are found.
With New York City Comptroller Brad Lander
Result: Approved by a majority of shareholders.
Starbucks committed to an independent, third-party human rights impact assessment, which it described as broader than the proposal requested, though critics said the commitment lacked specifics on remedies and standards
Starbucks shareholders want more information about the company's anti-union efforts, CNN Business
Conduct a board-overseen, independent third-party assessment of Apple's compliance with its Human Rights Policy on freedom of association and non-interference with organizing, and publicly release the report.
With Trillium Asset Management, SOC Investment Group, Parnassus Investments, SEIU Master Trust, Greater Manchester Pension Fund
Result: Apple agreed to conduct the assessment and release a public report by the end of 2023.
Apple published an assessment, but the same investor coalition later said the resulting report 'lacks rigor, expertise and worker input'
Commission an independent, third-party assessment of Amazon's adherence to its stated commitment to workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.
With Catherine Donnelly Foundation
Result: Received 47% support among independent shares, described as a historic result for a North American workforce-practice proposal.
we found no documented change to Amazon's labor-relations practices following the vote
Freedom of association proposal receives historic 47% independent vote at Amazon, SHARE
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Universal Declaration of Human Rights's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.