We've won some big ones together | Indymedia Australia

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 26/06/2012 - 1:51pm

Ever bought a Kit-Kat (made by Nestle), a Band-Aid (made by Johnson & Johnson), an iPod (made by Apple), opened a bank account, or joined Facebook?

I’m guessing the answer to at least one of those questions is "yes". And that’s the basis for SumOfUs.org. We have relationships with thousands of corporations in our daily lives -- which also means that we have power over them: The power to hold them accountable.

Our tiny team (just 5 people!) can’t take on these corporations on our own. But when the whole SumOfUs.org community -- over 680,000 conscientious consumers around the world -- comes together, corporations sit up and take notice, and magical things can happen.

All told, we’ve taken an astounding 2,655,793 actions since our inception just six months ago. And lately we’ve won some big campaigns -- like driving out more than half of all corporate funding for the climate-denying Heartland Institute.

So, read on below and see more of what we’ve accomplished together!

Thanks for all that you do,

Taren, SumOfUs.org Founder & Executive Director

Campaign updates

Pfizer and others: Stop supporting climate change deniers

Background: The Heartland Institute, a right-wing group that has worked for years to undermine climate science, ran billboard ads equating those concerned about climate change to terrorists and mass murderers.

Partners: Forecast the Facts; 350

What we want: Members of SumOfUs.org called on Heartland’s sponsors -- including Pfizer, Comcast and Microsoft -- to withdraw their funding, and we raised money to run ads on the back of bikes that circled Heartland's annual climate-denial conference.

Current status: Together with our partners, we got over 160,000 people to call on Heartland’s corporate donors to pull their support. Twenty corporations representing over $1.1 million in funding -- over half of Heartland’s estimated 2012 corporate funding -- have ended relationships with the Heartland Institute. At the most recent Heartland climate-denial conference in Chicago, SumOfUs.org and allies tried to run billboards in the same place that Heartland ran its own ill-fated ads -- only this time, billboard owner and media conglomerate Clear Channel refused to run our ads, telling us we couldn't use them to criticize corporations. Our community responded by funding people-powered bike billboards to circle Heartland's conference. At the conference's closing speech, Heartland’s President announced that, due to the sudden drop in funding, this year’s conference would be their last!

Press coverage: Politico | Huffington Post | ThinkProgress

Stop the Big Four's big greed
(Australia-only campaign)

Background: In the fallout of the Global Financial Crisis, Australia's four major banks -- Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac -- strengthened their stranglehold on the banking sector. In recent years, the "Big Four" as they're collectively known have begun to use their oligopoly power to build up their collective bottom line, delaying in passing on rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia, and then keeping part of the cuts for themselves as pure profit to be redistributed to shareholders and to plump record CEO salaries.

What we want: We demanded that the big four Australian banks pass along 100% of the most recent rate cuts to their customers.

Curent status: For the most recent rate cut, ANZ was alone in passing on the full rate cut of 25 basis points. NAB and CBA cut rates by 21 points, while Westpac only cut its rate by 20 points. We will continue to pressure the Big Four to be more consumer-friendly and less driven to maximize shareholder profits at the country's expense.

Walmart: Stop human rights abuses in your factories

Background: Reports surfaced that workers at a large Thailand shrimp supplier for Walmart was holding workers in debt bondage -- paying workers less than they needed to survive while keeping them in debt to the company and withholding their passports. A similar situation occurred at a pineapple factory in Thailand that also supplied to Walmart.

Partners: United Food and Commercial Workers Union; Change to Win

What we wanted: Members of SumOfUs.org called for Walmart to allow independent monitors into its factories in order to prevent debt bondage and other forms of human trafficking in its supply chain.

Update: The workers held in debt bondage have been freed! Nearly 100,000 of us signed the petition, and our allies will deliver it to Walmart representatives in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

Read more: The original petition

Press coverage: Bankok Post

Tim Hortons: Stop using cruel gestation crates
(Canadian/Northeast US-only campaign)

Background: Tim Hortons, Canada’s beloved coffee-and-donut restaurant that is expanding into the Northeast United States, gets its pork from suppliers that use gestation crates on their pigs. This cruel confinement practice prevents a sow from turning around or even lying down, for years.

Partners: Humane Society of the United States; Change.org

What we want: The SumOfUs.org community prodded Tim Hortons to join McDonalds, Burger King, and other major retailers in committing to purchasing 100% of its pork from suppliers that humanely house their pigs, ceasing the use of gestation crates.

Current status: Collectively, we gathered over 55,000 petition signatures. We crossed Canada to deliver the petitions to Tim Hortons shareholder meeting, and before we arrived, Tim Hortons contacted us to tell us they were listening. Tim Hortons has called upon its suppliers to submit plans by the end of the year for phasing out gestation crates. We will continue to monitor Tim Hortons to make sure it follows through on its promise. If Tim Hortons fully follows through, your actions will have led to a big victory for animal rights.

Press coverage: The Toronto Star

Johnson & Johnson and ALEC and Trayvon

Background: ALEC The American Legislative Exchange Council gained notoriety earlier this year when it was connected to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which George Zimmerman has infamously used as his defense for the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. As the public began to learn more about ALEC's work in partnering corporate lobbyists with state legislatures to craft harmful legislation, a call went out for corporations to stop associating with the organization.

Partner: ColorOfChange

What we want: SumOfUs.org members called upon Johnson & Johnson, along with other corporations, to leave ALEC over its support for harmful legislation.

Current status: In recent weeks, Johnson & Johnson and Dell have become the latest corporations to announce that they will not be renewing their membership with ALEC, joining more than twenty corporations and organizations that have fled in recent months. The corporate lobbying group has become toxic for many big businesses. In April, ALEC announced that it was dropping its Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which previously had worked to restrict voting rights.

Read More: Original petition

Press coverage: Triple Pundit | Policy Mic | International Business Times

Hyatt: Hire back unjustly-fired housekeepers

Background: Housekeepers Martha and Lorena Reyes were fired from the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency just a few weeks after Martha tore down a humiliating picture of her head plastered over a bikini body, put up for “Employee Appreciation Week”. This seems to be par for the course for Hyatt, which has a history of treating employees poorly.

Partner: UNITE HERE

What we want: The SumOfUs.org community called upon Hyatt to reinstate the Reyes sisters to their old jobs with full back pay.

Current status: Martha and Lorena delivered nearly 100,000 of your signatures to their old employer. For the moment, the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency has not given the sisters their jobs back. The Reyes sisters are taking legal action and we're continuing to monitor the situation. In the future, keep an eye out for more campaigns on Hyatt's terrible company-wide treatment of its workers.

Read More: Original petition | Petition delivery

Shell: You break it, you pay for it

Background: Shell’s history of carelessness in the Nigerian Delta has resulted in the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every year, for the past fifty years, destroying habitats and rendering large expanses of the country unlivable. Shell has never made a serious effort to clean it up, but recently admitted responsibility for two major spills near the town of Bodo in the Ogoniland region. Now the United Nations is pushing for $1 billion as an initial contribution to a cleanup fund for Ogoniland.

Partners: Friends of the Earth International; Amnesty International

What we want: SumOfUs.org members are pushing for Shell to provide $1 billion to start the fund that would clean up the mess it made.

Current status: We worked with partners to create huge public pressure on Shell. Our allies are currently in negotiations with the company right now -- and they delivered our petition at the Shell shareholder meeting and Shell’s office in Nigeria, and plan to deliver it soon at Shell’s headquarters in the Netherlands with hopes of meeting Shell's CEO. Our contribution of over 73,000 signatures has given considerable heft to their message that consumers are aware of, and care about, Shell’s actions as they continue negotiations with Shell executives.

Read More: Original petition | Press release

Thank you JCPenney

Background: two-dad ad JCPenney has been under continuous assault and boycott threats from homophobic right-wing organizations for months, first for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman, then for a Mother's Day ad that featured a real-life two mom family. So how has JCPenney responded? By doubling down with the adorable Father's Day ad to the left, featuring real-life dads Todd and Cooper playing with their children.

What we want: The SumOfUs.org community thanked JCPenney for standing strong in defense of same-sex families, to encourage more corporations to support the LGBT community in national advertising campaigns.

Current status: We received over 110,000 signatures from SumOfUs.org members, drowning out the letter-writing campaign by the American Family Association's branch, One Million Moms, and we will deliver your thank you card to JCPenney in the coming weeks.

Read More: Original petition

Bank of America: Get out of our elections
(US-only campaign)

Background: Over the past decade, Bank of America has been at the nexus of money and politics, spending millions in elections and lobbying while receiving billions in bailouts from Washington. Working with activist shareholders, we used a united consumer voice to call on Bank of America shareholders to pass a resultion to stop ALL political donations. This groundbreaking resolution was a shot across the bow for corporate America.

What we want: SumOfUs.org members called for Bank of America to adopt the shareholder resolution barring any political contributions from the corporate treasury, either from the bank directly or channelled through third parties.

Curent status: Given the historic nature of what we were trying to accomplish, we did not expect an easy nor an early victory. With Bank of America advising its institutional shareholders to vote against the measure, we were hoping for 3% to be voting in favor of adopting the resolution, enough for the measure to be refiled next year. Achieving a majority vote for such far-reaching measures is a long process, and we broke important ground in introducing the language of the ask to major institutions. The final vote was 5% -- nearly double our baseline goal -- and ensured that this proposal is not going away. In the coming months and years, we will continue to press Bank of America and its shareholders to stay away from the political process.

Press coverage: StarTribune | Triple Pundit

Apple: Make your products ethically

Background: In January 2012, the New York Times reported that workers at iPhone factories in China faced harsh working conditions, illegal overtime requirements, and were paid a pittance. Since then, Apple has hired the Fair Labor Association, which confirmed what we already knew -- things are really bad for workers at factories in Apple’s Chinese supply chain. And just this month, our partners at SACOM -- Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, a Hong Kong-based research organization -- released a report showing that instead of improving working conditions like Apple promised, many workers are now being forced to work unpaid overtime, and are making even less -- a direct contradiction with what Apple committed to do.

Partner: Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour

What we want: The SumOfUs.org community wants Apple to treat its workers ethically, ensuring good wages, legal overtime hours, humane working conditions and the freedom of association. As an industry leader and one of the most profitable companies in the world, Apple should also be a leader in the way it treats the men and women who make its products.

Current status: After getting Apple to acknowledge its problems and pledge to fix them, we moved to the next step of the campaign: Getting Apple to make good on its word. To that end, we launched a website to track Apple’s progress towards its commitment to make its products ethically. Check EthicaliPhone.org to see Apple's progress towards keeping its promise, as well as facts on Apple's treatment of workers. As for now, conditions for workers have either remained the same or, for many workers, gotten even worse. Several days ago, international attention was again drawn to iPhone factories, as workers in Chengdu rioted, followed by another worker suicide. SumOfUs.org members have helped raise enough money for us to purchase a full page ad Apple's hometown paper, the San Jose Mercury News, to publish our open letter to Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, highlighting continued mistreatment of workers at iPhone factories.

Read More: Original petition | EthicaliPhone.org | Press release

Press coverage: CBS News | LA Times | Talking Points Memo

Beyond all of this, we’ve been waging a number of shorter-term campaigns you may have seen that aren’t included here in this big round-up. If you have specific questions about what is happening with any campaigns, let us know through our contact form.

Onwards!

As you can tell, we’ve been busy! But we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are excited to build a movement together, and we’re honored that you’re a part of it.

We have some incredible campaigns in the works that we’re excited to share with you. As we are still a tiny organization, with just five full-time staff members, every dollar counts. If you want to help support our movement, please consider becoming a donor. We don’t take any money from corporations or governments, which allows us to be truly independent and able to run campaigns like the ones above. But that also means we depend on our members. Any donation -- even $5 -- that you can make not only improves our ability to campaign for corporate accountability, but also energizes us, knowing that you are invested in what the SumOfUs can do.

Thanks for reading, and for continuing to support our growing movement for corporate accountability.

Geography:

Global/International