Corporate human rights violations

Since their conception as modern privately owned enterprises, corporations have engaged in a wide variety of human rights violations with or without the assistance of governments. Often these violations are centered around labor exploitation and attempts to establish indentured servitude by creating in which only company credits can be used as currency and entrapping their workers in unpayable 
==Background==
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the foremost document for defining human rights. In particular, corporations have violated Articles 3, 4, 5, 12, 20, 23, 24, and 25 of the UDHR. There are also other important international documents that seek to legislate workers' rights, particularly the conventions set up by the which itself is part of the United Nations, focusing primarily on forced labor and child labor as well as protecting the rights of labor unions.
==Miscellaneous violations==
===Strike breaking and union busting===
Union busting and strike breaking are the methods by which corporations have tried to prevent workers from joining a union and fight for their own rights. The Pinkertons became major union busters from the late 19th to early 20th century, while continuing its detective work.History of Pinkertons (and some whining) Though it should be noticed that the largest union buster in America is the federal government itself by using the antitrust laws, conceived by progressives to crack down and dismantle monopolies, to prevent union organizing.America's most insiduous union buster is its own government
When workers attempt to organize unions, they're fired.Workers accuse food industry of using pandemic to halt union organizingWorkers fired because they tried to start a union (warning:paywall)Google fires four workers active in labor organizing(warning:paywall) 
Union busting in the present day manifests in mandatory anti-union propaganda meetings.This is what it's like to sit through an anti-union meeting at workTarget's cheesy anti-union propaganda gets a modern makeoverWhy Target's anti-union video is no joke
Seattle Uber drivers subjected to mandatory anti-union propaganda
Tesla in particular has been found guilty of illegal union-busting, including firing workers who attempted to unionize.
===Surveillance===
As technology advances, along with the security state expansion, surveillance has creeped into the workplace in developed countries.Aspioneer: Workplace surveillance is becoming the norm, dated January 27, 2020 The methods used vary from facial recognition scanning, microchipping, listening devices, and data mining allowing bosses to track every move of their staff.The methods bosses are using to monitor staff at work by Jack Derwin (September 24, 2019) Business Insider (archived from September 28, 2019).Big Brother isn't just watching: workplace surveillance can track your every move by Olivia Solon (November 6, 2017) The Guardian. 
All this surveillance increases inequality in the already unequal relationship between workers and bosses by creating algorithms that make the decisions of hiring, firing, and other management for them.The inequalities of workplace surveillance by Joelle Gamble (June 3, 2019) The Nation. Amazon-affiliated drivers have reported feeling pressured and leading them to speeding and urinating in bottles,'We sped like crazy': Amazon delivery drivers say they feel pressure to drive dangerously, urinate in bottles, and sprint on the job by Hayley Peterson (September 12, 2018) Business Insider. and the geolocation tags that nurses in Florida are forced to wear has diminished their ability to use discretion with their patients.The Datafication of Employment: How surveillance and capitalism is shaping workers' future without their knowledge by Sam Adler-Bell & Michelle Miller (December 19, 2018) The Century Foundation.Florida hospital tracks nurses footsteps and work patterns by David F. Carr (March 17, 2014) Information Week.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given momentum to expand the amount of surveillance.The workplace-surveillance technology boom by Natalie Chyi (May 12, 2020) Slate.Companies consider workplace surveillance measure amid coronavirus pandemic (Jul 15, 2020) CBS News.Apple and Google team up to contact trace covi-19 by Leo Kelion (10 April 2020) BBC.
Certain companies, like Microsoft, have also provided technological aid to police surveillance.The Microsoft police state by Michael Kwet (July 14 2020, 3:42 p.m.) The Intercept.
In January 2016, the European Human Rights Court ruled that it's unreasonable for employers to monitor their employees' computers.Bărbulescu v Romania and workplace privacy: is the Grand Chamber’s judgment a reason to celebrate? (October 19, 2017 ) Strasbourg Observers. In 2017, a German court ruled that, while computer monitoring is reasonable, keylogging is a violation of privacy.Companies cannot use keyloggers to spy on employees, says German court by Catalin Cimpanu (August 5, 2017) Bleeping Computer. In the United States, there is very little regulation to prevent employers from spying and collecting data off their employees. Existing laws meant to protect digital privacy exist such as the and the which protect against the interception of in-transit e-mails or their disclosure, contain broad "business exceptions", even outside the workplace.What are the US Employee Monitoring laws? The 101 FAQ by Helen Poliquin (2018/10/11) Beebole.
===Child labour===
While developed countries have banned child labour, most corporations continue this vile practise by outsourcing to poor countries. Major industries that benefit from child labor includes confectionery, tobacco, fashion, and the technology sectors,EPI: Ten Companies that still use child labor, dated to 27 February 2019 which occurs because corporate engage in willful ignorance of unethical labor practices.Harvard Business Review:Why Companies are blind to Child Labor, dated to January 28, 2016
In a 2021 case the United States Supreme Court forbade enslaved child laborers the right to sue the firms (in this case Nestle and Cargill) that had profited off of their forced labor as children. The six plaintiffs in question had been trafficked as children to cocoa farms that supplied the two corporations mentioned as defendants in the suit.
===Slavery and indentured servitude===
The De Beers Group engages in slavery, as well as child labor, exploiting the working classes of African countries to mine diamonds.Human Rights Watch:Human rights in the diamond trade, dated February 8, 2018 The company uses prisoner labor since 1885.Diamond slavery, dated April 29, 2019
Other companies include confectionery manufacturers Nestlé, and Hershey, which use child slave labour in Africa. Mars promised since 2000 that it would eradicate slave-source cocoa, but had not reached that "goal" by 2021, and alongside Nestlé and Hershey are facing lawsuits from former child slaves.Mars, Nestlé and Hershey to face child slavery lawsuit in US While also using slave labour from Thailand,Nestlé admits using Thai slave labour while fighting a lawsuit, dated February 1, 2016 Nestlé used the argument that requiring the company to report the use of slave labor could cost customers.Nestlé says slavery report requirements could cost customers, dated August 19, 2018 The fashion industry has also used the forced labour of Uighur people, currently targets of a campaign of cultural genocide by the Chinese government.Human rights groups accuse the fashion industry of using Uighur slave labor, dated July 23, 2020
Ben and Jerry's, an ice cream company with excellent PR, also engages in labor exploitation of Mexican migrants in Vermont.CounterPunch:Migrant Injustice: Ben and Jerry's Farmworker exploitation, dated to August 13, 2018 This exploitation of immigrant farmworkers has been condemned as a form of slavery by human rights groups.Southern Poverty Law Center:Close to slavery
The United States prison system also engages in slavery, due to a "loophole" in the Thirteenth Amendment that allows the government to enslave criminals.How prison labor is the new American slavery, dated to June 13, 2016 Many companies take advantage of this, including McDonalds, Sprint, Verizon, Victoria's Street, American Airlines, and even PR-friendly Starbucks through a contractor, using prisoners to package their products at low cost.Big Business that benefit from prison labor 
Another beneficiary of prison labor is the US military, especially the US Army, through the The Pentagon and slave labor in US prisons In 2013, the US Army used prison labor to obtain $100 million worth of military uniforms.Military turns to prison labor for $100 million uniforms, date to December 24, 2013 Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, private prisons still turn a profit due to slave labor.Cheap labor means prisons still turn a profit during a pandemic, dated May 8, 2020
Historically, companies have tried to entrap their workers by building a in which all stores and housing are owned by the company, of which the most famous is Pullman, created in the 1880s in the Chicago city limits. The town survived until the panic of 1883, in which financial woes forced the company to lay off half of its work force and cut wages, without reducing rent or the price of goods at its shops.Utopia derailed: Pullman, dated to February 2009 Some of these company towns, such as Steinway village, New York, were built to weaken the labor movementFive famous company towns and exert social control; they still continue to operate today, especially in the South.Company towns are still with us Facebook and Amazon have sought to also build their own company towns in recent years.Facebook and Amazon are building their own company towns
The use of slavery for corporate profit dates to the very first corporation ever chartered, the Dutch East India Company, that set up slave plantations in what is now South Africa and the eponymous East Indies, now the Philippines and Indonesia. The company made a policy of transporting slaves from where they were enslaved to elsewhere in order to discourage escapes back into the local population.
In 2017 it came out that many supposed drug rehabilitation clinics have turned out to be little more than forced labor camps for industry, exploiting promises of staying out of prison to basically loan out patients of these facilities as indentured servants. Among the firms that have made use of these indentured servants is a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Oklahoma and a nursing home in North Carolina. As the Associated Press puts it: "the rehabs get paid, the patients do not.""Investigation: Drug court rehabs survive on forced labor" - Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter (October 4, 2017). Associated Press.
===Sweatshops and exploitation===
Sweatshops are factories where workers are employed at very low wages under horrible conditions that are hazardous to their very health.
Bangladesh is the country with the largest mortality rate of sweatshops incidents and other workplace-related injuries due to lack of regulations.Bangladesh is burning and sweatshops are the fuel In fact, Bangladesh's sweatshops are so unregulated that its workers live in the factories themselves, which are often subject to fires due to poor electrical wiring and lack of fire extinguishers, and their lack of emergency exits only makes the fires worse.Inside the horrific Bangladesh's sweatshops
In early 2012, a fire started at 5:22 am local time in an illegal factory belonging to Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh, killing 112 workers. The workers slept in the third floor of the factory, and were trapped when the fire spread to the upper floors, unable to reach the safety of the rooftop.Grief in Delhi after factory deaths In April 2012, a building housing five factories in Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1,132 workers and injuring 2,500. Despite the magnitude of these deaths, very little compensation under Bangladesh's labour code was paid except for some financial compensation paid voluntarily.The Rana Plaza and its aftermath
Another country where sweatshops are common is the People's Republic of China, where a large, highly-skilled labor force works at low cost and makes it attractive for high-tech manufacturing.Life and death in Apple's forbidden factory In 2010, various workers at Chinese factories manufacturing cellphones and computers committed suicide, drawing attention in Western countries.Worker suicide sparks inquiries, warning: source is paywalled Foxconn's reaction varied from asking its workers to sign an anti-suicide pledgeFoxconn asks workers to sign anti-suicide pledge to install nets to catch suicidal workers that jump off the rooftop.Foxconn installs antijumping netsA million workers and 17 suicides at Foxconn factory
Some people have defended sweatshopsEverything we knew about sweatshops was wrong or claimed that banning them will hurt the poor.Banning sweatshops will only hurt the poor
This phenomenon has also started to manifesting in the United States and the United Kingdom, with the most notable and infamous example being Jeff Bezos' online retail Amazon, which has unsafe working conditions.Amazon worker condemns unsafe, grueling working conditions Workers have to skip bathroom breaks to keep their jobs,Amazon warehouse workers forced to skip bathroom breaks, report finds employees having to work on their feet for twelve hours or more,Inside the hellish day of an Amazon warehouse employee with someAmazon treats workers like robots, ex-employee says, warning: paywalled accusing the company of treating its workers as robots.Amazon workers are not robots
This situation escalated further with the COVID-19 pandemic, and Amazon refusing to pay sick leave,Amazon say California's sick leave doesn't apply to warehouses by Sam Levin (Thu 7 May 2020 06.00 EDT) The Guardian. implementing a temporaryAmazon cuts $2 hazard pay by Isobel Asher Hamilton (Jun 3, 2020, 7:29 AM PDT) Business Insider. hazard pay of a 'groundbreaking' amount of two dollars per hour, with unsafe working conditions fueling infections amongst the workforce."Culture of workplace fear" fuel Covid-19 infections at Amazon warehouses by Kate Cox (6/4/2020, 8:37 AM) Ars Technica.
Other areas of exploitation include Rockstar Games forcing its employees to work a 100 hours per week,Employees at RockStar speak out about the 100 hours week which it later tried to defuse,Rockstar tries to defuse controversial work hours statements as well as exploitation at Disneyland with employees facing homelessnessDown and out in Disneyland: study finds Disneyland employees at risk of homelessness and poverty and not earning enough to meet basic living expenses.Three quarters of Disneyland workers can't afford basic living expensesSome Disneyland employees struggling to pay for food, shelter according to survey
In the sinosphere, there's a strong undercurrent of labor exploitation and overwork, manifesting in phenomenon like in Japan, gwarosa in South Korea, and the in mainland China. South Koreans work the most amongst OECD members. VagabondJourney:South Korean work hours longest in OECD, November 15, 2011KoreaTimes: South Koreans being overworked to death Though in Japan, it seems that younger generations are pushing against this guilt-based overworking.How the Japanese are dealing with overworking. Feburary, 2017
=== Wage theft and lack of breaks ===
Wage theft is a practise which includes not paying overtime work, misclassifying workers as "independent contractors", or refusing to pay benefits. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, employers have stolen $15 billion a year from workers by paying less than the minimum wage.Economic Policy Institute:Employers steal billions from workers in wages, May 10, 2017 Companies that engage in wage theft includes Jimmy Johns (sandwich chain), FedEx (delivery service), Intuit (accounting and finance software), the Walt Disney Company and subsidiaries like Pixar and Lucasfilm, Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel (technology), Walmart, and McDonalds (retail). CheatSheet:11 Companies accused of wage theft, May 12, 2015
Various companies have also sought to reduce bathroom breaks. In 2014, the WaterSaver Faucet Company was sued for trying to monitor the bathroom use by the staff.Company limits worker bathroom use to 6 minutes a day, Union claims Pregnant workers also suffer from using the bathroom too muchLibertyLaw: Pregnant woman fired for taking too many bathroom breaks, December 22, 2014 and can even be fired for using too many bathroom breaks.Cnet:Amazon fired these 7 pregnant workers. Then came the lawsuits.,May 6, 2019 According to a report, poultry workers are denied bathroom breaks and are forced to wear diapers.NBCNews:Poultry workers denied bathroom breaks, wear diapers: Oxfram Report, May 12, 2016
== Specific Corporations==
It's rather difficult to find a mega corporation that doesn't engage in some sort of abuse.
===United Fruit Company===
The United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita, was a company that trade in tropical fruits, primarily banana, and its shenanigans created the term "banana republic".Rotten Fruit
Even in modern days, the Company's crimes are denied by Latino wingnuts as a "communist conspiracy".One of the worst massacres in Colombia's history is a communist myth according to opposition Senator
===Nestlé===
You know those evil corporate executives in dystopian movies who hold the world's water supply hostage? Meet their real life incarnation.Why Nestle is one of the most hated companies in the world Stealing water during a drought is not their only crime, though. They're also responsible for stunting the growth of infants in developing nations by misleading parents about their baby formula,https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/nestles-infant-formula-scandal-2012-6 using child slavery to make their chocolate,https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/The Dark Side Of Chocolate and being completely unapologetic about any of it.
Not every rumor about Nestlé's wrongdoings is true, however. They were widely blamed for the in which milk products, including infant formula, were tainted with melamine and killed at least 6 babies; however, Nestlé was not among the companies implicated within China, and none of its milk products manufactured there were intended for sale within China. Only its Taiwanese exports had detectable levels of melamine, and these levels were so low as not to pose a health risk — and none of these products were baby formula.Melamine found in Nestle milk products: minister, 2-October-2008
==References==
Category:Business
Category:Crimes against humanity
Category:Human rights
Category:Slavery