Dear Reader and Contributor,
Wow. It’s been a busy few months -- for us and for the corporations.
Our community is growing faster than ever before -- we’re now 1.6 million strong, and already, we’re winning some big victories together. All around the world, more and more people are realizing that on so many of the issues we care about -- from protecting our environment, to treating workers fairly, to respecting human rights -- the massive power of large corporations is a big part of the problem. And increasingly, we’re realizing our power to stop them.
The fight is a big one, but together we can win. In just the last months, we’ve successfully pushed some of the world’s largest apparel companies to sign a landmark worker safety accord, supported a worker's cooperative to keep their factory open when owners tried to shut it down, and pushed Kellogg’s into talks to end rainforest destruction -- and much, much more.
Let’s keep working together to hold these corporations to account, but let’s also take a moment to reflect on some of the achievements of the last few months.
Thanks for being a part of SumOfUs,
-- Kaytee Riek, Campaign Manager
PS: We’ve got some big, ambitious plans for the months ahead, too. Along with some exciting and groundbreaking campaigns, we’re going to be launching in new languages to take our community truly global, developing new tools and strategies to leverage our collective power as investors as well as consumers, and more. If you want to help our small, lean team accomplish our big, ambitious goals, you can chip in here.
Campaign updates
PRESSURE IS BUILDING: Will Coke speak out against Russia's anti-gay breakdown?
In response to our pressure, Coca-Cola executives have delayed a crucial decision on whether to speak out against Russia’s brutal new anti-gay laws. Coke is a major sponsor of next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but so far, Coke has failed to condemn the draconian anti-gay law that criminalizes even coming out of the closet.
Just this Monday, we partnered with our friends at All Out to deliver a message from 350,000 of you with giant billboards at Coke's global headquarters, demanding that Coke speak out, and attracting the attention of major media outlets. Together, we're keeping up the pressure to stop Russia's brutal crackdown.
Read More: Original petition
Press: New Yorker | Forbes
MORE WINS! Prisoners have the right to talk to their families, too
For decades, a small handful of US telecoms companies with monopoly contracts have imposed exorbitant phone costs -- upwards of $1 a minute -- on prisoners to call their families. After SumOfUs members delivered 36,000 signatures and 2,000 original comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), this month the FCC announced it would start regulating interstate phone call rates to stop this exploitation.
We know our collective voices were heard by the FCC -- the very first paragraph of their report directly cited our submissions! It’s a huge win for prisoners and their families. Here’s what the FCC said:
“Tens of thousands of others [see e.g. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Founder and Executive Director, SumOfUs] have since urged the Commission to act, explaining that the rates inmates and their friends and families pay for phone calls render it all but impossible for inmates to maintain contact with their loved ones…Today, we answer those pleas.”
Read More: Original petition | Photos of petition delivery | FCC ruling
Press: Afro
SUPPORTING THE GOOD GUYS: New Era Windows opened its doors in May!
When owners sought to close an energy efficient window factory in Chicago, the workers didn’t just fight to get their jobs back -- they fought to buy the factory!
In a struggle for the soul of the American economy, New Era Windows’ owners were preparing to sell off the factory for scrap, rejecting a competitive bid by the workers to keep it running.Then 75,000 SumOfUs members stood behind the workers, and representatives marched into the offices of Mesirow Financial armed with our signatures. It freaked the owners out completely, and pushed them to start cooperating with workers to find a reasonable solution.
Thanks to the hard work of the cooperative, and the thousands of SumOfUs members that also donated to the workers' fund, the workers won the right to buy the factory and in May 2013, the brand-new worker-owned company opened its doors in Chicago.Congratulations New Era Windows!
Read More: The original petition
Press: The Nation | AlJazeera
CRUCIAL SUPPORT: We made sure fast food workers didn’t have to choose between their rights and feeding their families
Fast food workers are some of the most poorly paid workers in the US -- and we’re standing with them in a landmark fight. For the last year, fast food workers have been bravely fighting for their rights and a living wage. What started as a strike of 200 workers in New York has quickly spread nationwide, and over 130,000 SumOfUs members have supported their fight.
When we heard that workers were organizing for their biggest strike yet before Labor Day, we all chipped in to raise over $30,000 for the workers’ strike fund -- ensuring they didn’t have to choose between their rights and feeding their families. As more and more workers joined the campaign, workers walked off the job in 58 cities around the country. This unprecedented show of support upped the pressure on the industry to pay a fair wage, and won massive coverage across the US.
We’re still supporting them every step of the way in their fight for a living wage.
Read More: Original Petition
Press Coverage: Star Tribune
PRESSURE IS MOUNTING: Will Kellogg's save Tony the Tiger and the Indonesian rainforest?
Kellogg's likes you to think it’s a friend of the tigers -- but behind closed doors, it’s a major business partner with companies that are destroying the Indonesian rainforest for palm oil plantations.
Together with partners at Climate Advisors and Rainforest Action Network, we’ve been working hard in recent months to hold Kellogg’s to account, and it’s working. More than 150,000 of us called on Kellogg’s to protect the rainforests, and we delivered the message to the cereal maker’s headquarters in Michigan during a crucial earnings report -- getting local and business press coverage. Our community also made over 1,000 calls to express our concerns, and we spread the word to investors who raised the issue on a shareholder call with Kellogg's CEO. Now, we’re helping support on-the-ground organizers in Michigan who are making a huge impact to Kellogg’s reputation in its crucial home base.
Because of our actions, Kellogg's is now in talks with partner organizations about implementing a deforestation-free policy.It’s early days and the real victory will be when things change on the ground, but it’s great progress -- and we’re not backing off yet.
Read More: Original petition
Press: Bloomberg
WE WON! River Island (UK) and Woolworths (AU) sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord!
In the wake of November's terrible Tazreen factory fire that killed 112 workers making clothes for Walmart and other brands, we called on major apparel companies to join the independently-monitored Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh to ensure that their clothes weren't being made under deadly conditions. The horrific Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 workers in April, only underscored the urgency of meaningful reform in the Bangladeshi garment industry.
And we’ve been winning -- over 90 companies have now signed the landmark accord. In breaking news, major Australian brand Woolworths has announced it will also join the Accord, after months of pressure from SumOfUs and our friends at Oxfam Australia, the Uniting Church and elsewhere. In the UK, more than 16,000 SumOfUs members and our allies targeted major UK brand River Island, demanding it stop dragging its feet and sign the Accord -- and it listened! River Island was one of the last major UK holdouts on the Accord, so it’s a huge win for Bangladeshi workers and all consumers everywhere!
And we’re keeping up the pressure. When a deadly fire broke out again two weeks ago, SumOfUs worked with partners to rapidly identify the brands responsible, and within 48 hours of the disaster thousands of SumOfUs members had put fresh pressure on Gap, Walmart and The Bay to sign the Accord -- just as the media story was breaking.
Read More: Petition to Gap and Walmart | Petition to the Bay
Press: Guardian on River Island | Sydney Morning Herald on Woolsworths
STILL FIGHTING: Bayer hears the buzz to save the bees
We know we’re being effective when corporations fight tooth and nail to silence us -- and Bayer really wants to silence us. After thousands of SumOfUs members donated to take beekeepers to a huge Chicago conference to spread the message about the dangers of bee-killing pesticides to garden stores owners, industry lawyers threatened SumOfUs with a lawsuit.
Instead of letting our beekeepers into the conference, organizers threatened to sue us if we proceeded, barred us from entering the convention, and even told hotels not to rent the beekeepers rooms or let them screen a documentary film.
But despite the industry efforts, they couldn’t stop our volunteer beekeepers from talking to hundreds of conference attendees and from placing ads all around Chicago to spread the word about the dangers of neonics -- and the ads were even featured on national news.
We’re keeping up the fight: after being rejected by a string of publications scared of upsetting Bayer, more ads are finally coming out this week in an industry gardening magazine to warn about the dangers of neonics. And we’re keeping up the pressure on Home Depot, Lowe’s and others to stop selling bee-killers, with thousands of us getting in touch with the company this month already to add more pressure. We’ve got many more tactics up our sleeves, but can’t reveal them just yet in case we’re slapped with another lawsuit threat.
Read More: Original petition | Photos of beekeepers in Chicago
Press: WBEZ
ANOTHER WIN! Nestlé backs down in Canada!
When Nestlé pushed to keep withdrawing millions of liters of fresh water in a time of drought, SumOfUs friends at the Council of Canadians, Wellington Water Watchers and Ecojustice challenged them in court -- and won! Just this month, after additional pressure from thousands of SumOfUs members, Nestlé decided to drop their appeal -- a huge win for the public.
It’s not the end of the fight -- more than 110,000 of us also spoke out when we discovered that Nestlé was draining 265 million liters of BC’s water without paying a cent, and then bottling it for profit. Our partners and us have a plan to end Nestlé’s corporate freeloading in BC, too, and the government is already looking at updating their Water Act to stop Nestlé from profiting off our natural resources.
Read More: Petition to BC Govt. | Original Petition
Press: CBC
BUILDING PRESSURE: Monsanto honored for the creation of GMOs
In a development that shocked food activists, the World Food Prize Foundation decided to use this year's World Food Prize to honor the creation of GMOs, awarding the most prestigious prize in agriculture to a Monsanto executive and the founder of Syngenta. This decision legitimizes the use of GMOs and the companies that create them. Food activists cried out, insisting that the agriculture prize be used for advances that help people, not large corporations.
Over 300,000 of you signed our petition to Monsanto, and in conjunction with our partner organizations, we were able to deliver the hundreds of thousands signatures to the World Food Prize Foundation, telling it to rescind its prize. We have generated more attention and pressure on the World Food Prize Foundation than ever before, and as this email goes to press we are still speaking with reporters and activists pushing the World Food Prize to do the right thing.
Read More: Original petition
Press: Manitoba Co-operator
VICTORY! Fox News North will not be on every TV in Canada
We helped keep the racist and biased “Fox News North”, or Sun News, off our TVs. Over 20,000 SumOfUs supporters called on the Canadian regulators (CRTC) to reject the channel’s request for mandatory carriage and a $20 million subsidy -- and they listened! The rejection of this ridiculous bid will hopefully mean that the commercially unviable Fox News North and its vitriol will soon be gone from Canadian airwaves, forever.
Read More: Original message page to CRTC
Press: CBC
Onwards!
Thanks for reading, and for continuing to support our growing movement for corporate accountability.
