Julia Chatterley: Emboldened, US companies are getting political

CNN International Anchor Julia Chatterley
John Nowak
Julia Chatterley2 November 2018
WEST END FINAL

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From the moment Donald Trump took office, companies have found themselves in the firing line. Ford, Amazon, Boeing and Macy’s were among those lashed by Number 45’s tongue.

Elected in part on his self-proclaimed business acumen, Trump has spent much of his presidency fighting with some of America’s biggest brands. The cost for those prepared to take him on has sometimes been high, as Milwaukee-based Harley Davidson found when Trump called for a boycott.

Recently there has been a shift. Nike decided an ad campaign with controversial NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a risk worth taking. Apple, Google and Facebook are among 50 companies who’ve signed a letter protesting Trump’s transgender policies.

For every Trump-voting worker who may have felt the ill-wind of tariffs or rhetoric, another may feel it is a price worth paying. Far more important to voters, surveys suggest, are the issues of education, immigration and healthcare. Perhaps as a result, companies seem emboldened to get political.

Levi Strauss, perhaps the most iconic of all American brands, is wading in ahead of the election. CEO Chip Bergh spent much of the last few months wearing a white T-shirt saying simply, ‘Vote’.

Bergh isn’t afraid of a fight; he’s already confronted gun control, gay rights, and immigration. Now he’s telling his workers they must use their vote. The Californian company is giving employees paid time off, erecting voting booths in stores, and convincing other companies to follow suit – 400 to date, including retail giant Walmart.

Bergh’s view is that apathy won the election. “More people chose not to vote than voted for either candidate in the 2016 election”, he told me this week. He is among many calling to young people who simply sat out.

Evidence suggests something is resonating. A new poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics found that 18-to-29-year-olds are far more likely to vote in Tuesday's midterm election than in 2010 and 2014. Democrats are driving much of this enthusiasm; a majority (51%) say they will ‘definitely’ vote in November, up on the 36 percent of Republicans who say the same.

But Levi insists its turnout push is bipartisan. “CEOs have a moral obligation to insert themselves and make the world a better place,” says Bergh. His company is a clear beneficiary of Trump’s corporate tax cuts, but current trade policies mean mixed fortunes for some businesses. Many believe a Democrat-controlled House will restrain the president.

The House, however, has limits; tariffs, for example, don’t need congressional approval. Regardless of next week’s outcome, trade tensions may still escalate. And businesses will continue walking a fine line between liberal instinct and an unpredictable President, whose influence over trade policy will remain largely unconstrained.

  • Full coverage of the midterm elections is on CNN International and CNN.com

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