Corporate Power and the Fight For Democracy in Global Institutions

PSI joined ITUC's webinar to discuss how multinational's are corrupting multilateralism - and how we make global policy that services people over profit.

Agenda

Welcome:

Time: 5 minutes
Delivered by: Jordania Urena, ITUC 

Panel 1: How do unions use international institutions to build worker power?

Time: 15 mins
Moderator: Philippe Gousenbourger, ITUC

Key message: Union work in global institutions yields material wins and is crucial to countermanding the undemocratic influence of employers and multinational corporations in those spaces.

• Setting standards and definitions (platform, living wages) (Maite Llanos, ITUC)

• Expanding and protecting fundamental rights (OHS, right to strike) (Zuzanna Muskat-Gorska, ITUC)

• Steering governments to meet workers’ needs (development, social protection, Just Transition) (Evelyn Astor, ITUC) 

Panel 2: Who are Corporate Underminers of Democracy and how do they undermine democracy at work, in societies, and in global institutions?

Time: 40 mins
Introduced by: Todd Brogan, ITUC

Panel Moderator: Natalie Swan, Business and Human Rights Resource Center

Key message: These seven companies are emblematic of the anti-democratic practice and influence of global corporations and their financing of the anti-democratic far-right.

• How do ExxonMobil, Glencore, and Tesla undermine democracy? (Walton Pantland, IndustriAll)

• How do Amazon, Meta, and Vanguard undermine democracy? (Nick Rudikoff, UNI)

• How are they supporting the far-right? (David Adler, Progressive International)

• How does all of this impact global institutions? (Todd Brogan, ITUC) 

Panel 3: How can we strengthen global institutions to rein in corporate power and expand democracy?

Time: 35 mins
Moderator: Todd Brogan, ITUC

Key message: One way to overcome corporate power and the far-right is by reforming global institutions to ensure they reflect the democratic will of all working people.

• Implementing minimum living wages (Plamen Dimitrov, CITUB)

• Reforming the global tax system to win universal social protection (Daniel Bertossa, PSI)

• Reforming the sovereign debt system and winning debt cancellation (Fanny Sequeira Mata, General Secretary, CTRN Costa Rica)

• Winning a binding treaty on business and human rights (Mary Karimu, TUC Ghana)

Question and Answer Session

Time: 20 minutes
Moderator: Todd Brogan, ITUC 

Call to action

Time: 5 minutes
Delivered by: Jordania Urena, ITUC

• Share the Corporate Underminers list with workers organising in your country

• Sign and share our petition on a binding treaty

• Support investor campaigns

• Support your national trade union delegations to global policy interventions