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Hold Corporations Accountable for Workers’ Rights

Corporations must respect workers’ rights and treat workers fairly and humanely—and be held accountable when they fail to do so.

A group of four Black women wear ponchos outdoors, holding signs that read: "#Amazon Hurts MDW2, and Safer Work". photo credit: Warehouse Workers For Justice

Corporations Must Be Accountable to Their Workers

Ensuring that workers in the U.S. have greater power to hold corporations accountable is crucial to building an economy with shared prosperity and greater equality.

Too many corporations, and the financial investors that back them, fail to prioritize the well-being of the workers who produce wealth for their companies.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that corporations provide high-quality jobs instead of simply pursuing profits for their shareholders.

A Lanitx woman marches with Make the Road NY, holding a sign that reads: "Amazon Alto A La Deportacion". photo credit: Ricardo Aca, Athena Coalition

Empowering Workers to Hold Corporations Accountable

NELP supports efforts to empower workers to hold corporations accountable, including:

  • Legislative, regulatory, and judicial reform: We work to pass new laws that protect workers and to undo legislative, regulatory, and judicial restrictions imposed on collective action.
  • Government strategic enforcement: We align community stakeholders such as unions and worker centers to bring strategic enforcement needs to departments of labor for effective implementation and compliance.
  • Media work: We leverage the media to hold accountable employers that are harming workers.
  • Litigation support: We participate in litigation to protect worker organizing and to win worker-friendly legal standards.
  • Promoting a high-road model for economic growth: We develop materials promoting economic growth that benefits everyone, not just executives and shareholders.

Corporations Use ‘Take It or Leave It’ Contracts
To Avoid Responsibility

80%

of private sector workers are forced to sign away their rights when they accept employment; it’s a way for employers to opt out of labor laws.

Rebecca Dixon, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Employment Law Project

Workers’ rights are human rights, and workers’ right to a healthy and safe workplace must come before profits. We hear so much about the need to improve the economy, with seemingly little acknowledgement that people are the economy.

Rebecca Dixon, NELP

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Holding Amazon Accountable

Lawmakers and enforcement agencies must hold large and powerful U.S. companies like Amazon accountable for the harm they cause to workers and communities.

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