Why corporations are still fighting unions
By Adam Lashinsky / Special To The Washington Post
We supposedly live in the age of the virtuous corporation, where issues from inclusion to the environment to “stakeholder” rights hold maximum sway. At the same time, the mindful American corporation is under attack from the right, which argues that its environmental-social-governance focus amounts to little more than disingenuous woke-signaling.
Yet there’s one big exception to this veneer of virtue: Even the most progressive-minded executive teams are opposed to organized labor. It’s a disconnect that portends an increasingly contentious era between management and employees, enhanced by worker shortages not seen during the lifetime of today’s CEOs.
Despite their surging popularity, labor unions remain the bete noire of C-suites everywhere. From Walmart to Starbucks to Apple — all corporations whose CEOs have been celebrated for beneficent-sounding policies — constructive dialogue with organized labor is a non-starter. Most of the biggest corporations that haven’t traditionally had relationships with organized labor are dead set against starting one now.
Indeed, to the extent that corporate America talks about its relationship with its employees, it ignores unions altogether. In 2019, when the Business Roundtable, the collective voice of supersized U.S. companies, loudly updated its Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, it committed to “investing in our employees” as well as “compensating them fairly and providing important benefits.” It included a promise to “foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect.” But it made no mention of unions, collective bargaining or the rights of workers to organize and advocate for themselves.
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