NY Post: Unions are Using ESG to Control Workers

Op-ed: Unions are Using ESG to Control Workers- and Drain Americans’ Retirement Savings

Published in the New York Post
March 21, 2024
by F. Vincent Vernuccio and Sam Adolphsen

ESG has claimed its latest victims: Starbucks workers.

In the days leading up to the company’s annual meeting last week, labor unions nominated three new board members, all former Democratic officials who are decidedly pro-union. The nominations were designed to muscle Starbucks into accepting union demands — and it worked. Just days before the meeting, Starbucks agreed to a collective-bargaining framework at unionized stores, leading the unions to withdraw their board nominees.

What does this have to do with ESG? Everything. While many have rightly focused on the activist push for the “E” in environmental, social and governance investing, labor unions are advancing their own agenda under the guise of the “S” and “G.” They’re pushing board nominees and shareholder proposals that aim to force more workers into union membership, even when workers don’t want it. The Biden administration has smoothed the path for this underhanded strategy, and not only does it threaten workers, it endangers millions of Americans’ retirement savings.

A new Institute for the American Worker report shines a light on labor unions’ reliance on ESG. No one is more explicit about it than unions themselves. The Teamsters recently stated the “S” in ESG is “a critically important tool for advancing worker interests in the 21st century.” Similarly, the AFL-CIO has said ESG investing “advance[s] the causes of working people.”

Click here to read the full op-ed in the New York Post.