- Tesla has been named and shamed in a study looking at large companies that undermine democracy.
- The automaker’s opposition to unions and evidence of human rights violations helped earn it a spot on the list.
- ExxonMobil, Amazon, and other companies also appear on the International Trade Union Confederation’s naughty list.
Tesla has been named as one of a group of companies that undermines democracy around the world in a new report. The EV maker is joined on the wall of shame by Exxonmobil, Amazon, Meta, mining giant Glencore and the private equity firm Blackstone.
The study, conducted by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says Tesla earns its place on the naughty list in part thanks to its union opposition in America, Germany and Sweden. The ITUC also pointed out CEO Elon Musk’s personal opposition to unions, which he claimed create “a lord and peasants sort of thing,” and reminding us that he called Swedish workers “insane” for striking against the company.
Related: UAW Files Federal Charges Against Musk And Trump For Threatening Workers
Musk’s support for right-wing figures such as Donald Trump in the US, and relationships with leaders like Narendra Modi in India and Javier Milei in Argentina, also drew attention. The ITUC noted that Musk had expressed support for white nationalist, anti-semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ positions through his ownership of X. Additionally, another of Musk’s companies, SpaceX, joined Amazon in trying to declare America’s National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional.
According to the report, “He has committed to donating $45 million per month to a political action committee supporting Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and has worked to build close relationships with other far-right leaders, including Argentina’s Javier Milei and India’s Narendra Modi.”
The report further notes, “While Musk and his companies have spent millions to influence policymakers globally, he has become a hero to the far-right.” It also highlights an incident where, as owner of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk responded to a user’s allegations about a coup in Bolivia—a country with valuable lithium reserves crucial for electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla—by stating, ‘We will coup whoever we want. Deal with it!'”
Unlike ExxonMobil, however, Tesla was not accused of funneling cash into anti-climate change research or lobbying against eco-friendly environmental laws. But the ITUC noted that Tesla’s battery supply chains rely on nickel mining companies that undermine consultation standards with Indonesian communities and are causing rapid deforestation and water pollution.
One of those mining companies, Glencore, gets its own entry on the ITUC list. The report says that while Glencore publicly shows support for climate and sustainability goals, it has simultaneously spent millions bankrolling campaigns to keep the coal industry going, and pled guilty to bribery, corruption and market manipulation charges in multiple countries.
Amazon incurs the wrath of the ITUC for its anti-union stance, low pay, high worker injury rate, corporate tax evasions and high carbon emissions, and Meta is accused of spreading hate-filled propaganda via its algorithms.
Corporate underminers of democracy for 2024:
- Amazon.com, Inc.
- Blackstone Group
- ExxonMobil
- Glencore
- Meta
- Tesla
- The Vanguard Group