FOCUS: Robert Reich | It's Morally Repulsive How Corporations Are Exploiting This Crisis. Workers Will Suffer

23 March 20

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FOCUS: Robert Reich | It's Morally Repulsive How Corporations Are Exploiting This Crisis. Workers Will Suffer

Robert Reich, Guardian UK
Reich writes: "Societies gripped by cataclysmic wars, depressions or pandemics can become acutely sensitive to power and privilege."

Using power and privilege to exploit the weak and vulnerable in the face of a common threat is morally repugnant. Call it ‘Burring’ after Richard Burr’s stock sell-off

Weeks before the coronavirus virus crushed the US stock market, the Republican senator Richard Burr apparently used information he gleaned from his role as chairman of the Senate intelligence committee about the ferocity of the coming pandemic to unload 33 stocks held by him and his spouse. They were estimated at being worth between $628,033 and $1.72m , in some industries likely to be hardest hit by the global outbreak.

While publicly parroting Trump’s happy talk at the time, Burr confided to several of his political funders that the disease would be comparable to the deadly 1918 flu pandemic.

Then the market tanked, along with the retirement savings of millions of Americans.

Even some pundits on Fox News are now calling for Burr’s resignation.

When society faces a common threat, exploiting a special advantage is morally repugnant. Call it “Burring” However tolerable Burring may be in normal times, it isn’t now.

In normal times, corporations get special favors from Washington in exchange for generous campaign contributions, and no one bats an eye. Recall the Trump tax cut, which delivered $1.9tn to big corporations and the wealthy.

The coronavirus should have altered business as usual. But last week’s Senate Republican relief package, giving airlines $58bn and billions more to other industries, is pure Burring.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, tried lamely to distinguish it from the notorious bank bailouts of 2008. “We are not talking about a taxpayer-funded cushion for companies that made mistakes. We are talking about loans, which must be repaid, for American employers whom the government itself is temporarily crushing for the sake of public health.”

But the airlines are big enough to get their own loans from banks at rock-bottom interest rates. Their planes and landing slots are more than adequate collateral.

Why do airlines deserve to be bailed out? Over the last decade they spent 96%of their free cashflow, including billions in tax savings from the Trump tax cut, to buy back shares of their own stock. This boosted executive bonuses and pleased wealthy investors but did nothing to strengthen the airlines for the long term. Meanwhile, the four biggest carriers gained so much market power they jacked up prices on popular routes and slashed services (remember legroom and free bag checks?).

United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, did his own Burring on Friday, warning that if Congress doesn’t bail out the airline by the end of March, United will start firing its employees. But even if bailed out, what are the odds United would keep paying all its workers if the pandemic forced it to stop flying? The bailout would be for shareholders and executives, not workers.

While generous toward airlines and other industries, the Republican bill is absurdly stingy toward people, stipulating a one-time payment of up to $1,200 for every adult and $500 per child. Some 64m households with incomes below $50,000 would get as little as $600. This will do almost nothing to help job-losers pay their mortgages, rents and other bills for the duration of the crisis, expected to be at least the next three months.

The Republican coronavirus bill is about as Burring as legislation can be – exposing the underlying structure of power in America as clearly as Burr’s stock trades. In this national crisis, it’s just as morally repulsive.

Take a look at how big corporations are treating their hourly workers in this pandemic and you see more Burring.

Walmart, the largest employer in America, doesn’t give its employees paid sick leave, and limits its 500,000 part-time workers to 48 hours paid time off per year. This Burring policy is now threatening countless lives. (On one survey, 88% of Walmart employees report sometimes coming to work when sick.)

None of the giants of the fast-food industry – McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Duncan Donuts, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Subway – gives their workers paid sick leave, either.

Amazon, one of the richest corporations in the world, which paid almost no taxes last year, is offering unpaid time off for workers who are sick and just two weeks paid leave for workers who test positive for the virus. Meanwhile, it demands its employees put in mandatory overtime.

Here’s the most Burring thing of all: these corporations have made sure they and other companies with more than 500 employees are exempt from the requirement in the House coronavirus bill that employers provide paid sick leave.

At a time when almost everyone feels burdened and fearful, the use of power and privilege to exploit the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of others is morally intolerable.

We are all in this together, or should be. Whatever form it takes, Burring must be stopped.

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The Republican Stimulus Bill Is Full of Holes

Mary Stone

From Robert Reich:

Senate Republicans' proposed stimulus bill is a disaster. Here are its key failings:

1) It stipulates a one-time payment of up to $1,200 for every adult and $500 per child. How are people who lost their jobs supposed to pay their mortgages, rents, and bills for the foreseeable future with just this single check?

2) People are only eligible for this measly one-time payment unless their income is $23,500 or above — meaning the 64 million households with incomes *below* $50,000 would get even less, as little as $600 in some cases. That’s right: the people who need this money the most will get a smaller share.

3) It does not expand paid leave beyond the ridiculously insufficient two weeks mandated in the first emergency relief bill passed earlier this week, and does not reform the gaping loophole that exempts businesses with more than 500 employees.

4) It sets aside more than $200 billion for industries hurt by the pandemic, like airlines. The one stipulation? Companies that receive government loans would have to limit the pay of their senior executives. That’s it — no ban on stock buybacks, no minimum wage requirement, no worker or consumer protections.

I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised this bill aims to help the rich more than the poor and give a massive blank check to corporations — after all, these are the same Republicans who didn’t blink twice when they gave the wealthy and corporations a cool $2,000,000,000,000 in tax cuts.

DON'T fall for the republican hype. They not only can do better. THEY MUST do better!

As the economic fallout from the coronavirus spreads, virtually everyone on Capitol Hill now agrees that a larger-scale fiscal package is necessary.

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newyorker.com

The Republican Stimulus Bill Is Full of Holes

As the economic fallout from the coronavirus spreads, virtually…

As the economic fallout from the coronavirus spreads, virtually everyone on Capitol Hill now agrees that a larger-scale fiscal package is necessary.

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View article on FAIR's website Retail Chains' Responses to Coronavirus Crisis Require Deeper Digging Janine Jackson BuzzFeed News (3/18/20) reported on retailers continuing to operate "in direct opposition to guidelines issued by health officials in the US and around the world." It's telling how many media outlets think what the moment calls for is slow-cooker recipes and glimpses inside celebrity homes, how certain they are that their audience's main problem is boredom. There are valuable exceptions, of course. BuzzFeed News (3/18/20) reported on retail workers finding themselves in the crosshairs of the virus and all the public health information that tells them what they should be doing—and their owners' insistence that showing up and making money is all that matters. Albert Samaha's report is distressing: An employee at a Sunglass Hut in a mall in Minnesota says, “I see a lot of elderly people walk the mall in the morning. They wouldn’t be coming in if none of the stores were open.” Gap workers bring sanitizers from home, Starbucks says they won't use reusable cups, but feel free to line up close together to get your coffee. A Spencer's outlet sent out coupons for “in-store” purchases that expire at the end of the month. So when you read about what "companies" are doing, remember, there's no "company": There are workers and owners, and their interests are not the same. And when you hear their CEO's announce what their "policies" are, it's best to dig a little deeper. The workers BuzzFeed listened to didn't just talk about a lack of paid sick leave, but employers' failure to even give them cleaning supplies, to wipe off, for example, the plastic cases a GameStop worker was handing out to customers. “I can't clean anything in my store,” the manager said. “I can't ensure my team isn't carrying it right now. I can't guarantee I won't accidentally contribute to some of my favorite regulars, who are highly susceptible, and end up making them sick.” GameStop did not respond to a request for comment, though in response to a report by Vice (3/19/20) that the retail chain had instructed employees to resist any attempts by authorities to shut down their operations, the videogame chain insisted it was vital that they remain open to continue to "offer a wide array of products and devices that are important to facilitate remote work, distance learning and virtual connectivity." A Godiva chocolates employee in Illinois said that when they asked managers why the store remained open, their response was that since we’re an outdoor mall the germs don’t apply to us and that the mortality rate is too low to concern them.… They’re telling us to continue pushing sales, discounts and to bring our conversion up. We’ve had calls daily to tell us to keep going. Godiva brass wouldn't answer questions but blah-blahed that "the health and well-being of our employees and customers are our highest priority." Starbucks workers, including those with dry coughs and those just off international cruises, were told couldn't take paid sick leave, despite what you may have read about Starbucks' policies, because those policies require proof of a positive test result for coronavirus or proof that the employee had been directly exposed to someone who’d been specifically diagnosed with coronavirus. Workers were told they'd get paid leave if the company shut down their whole store; but an employee told BuzzFeed News that when their mall location was shut they were just reassigned to another one nearby. We're hearing talk about a new respect for retail workers as a "silver lining" of this crisis. But that won't mean much if it doesn't come with actual interrogation of their bosses.

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Conservatives Worry Too Much Coronavirus Relief Will Make People Lazy

BAILOUTS to airlines, oil and Wall Street make them lazy....

Americans might just feed their families if they can even get food.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he's worried about “incentivizing people to not show up for work.”

huffpost.com

Conservatives Worry Too Much Coronavirus Relief Will Make People Lazy

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) say

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he’s worried about “incentivizing people to not show up for work.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is concerned that if the federal government steps in too much to help workers affected by the coronavirus crisis, it will make people lazy.

The House has passed legislation that would offer paid leave for some workers if they or their families are affected by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Johnson, in comments in USA Today on Monday, said he was worried about “incentivizing people to not show up for work.”

“You have to think this thing through in terms of what are the unintended consequences of good intentions,” he said. 

A group of conservative economists put out a similar statement Tuesday, saying such benefits ― like allowing people to take time off, without penalty, if they are sick, so they don’t die or infect others ― would “discourage work.”

This is a common refrain from conservatives, even when the coronavirus is not a factor. Basically any government assistance besides tax breaks ― food stamps, housing aid, unemployment benefits ― are believed to encourage sloth and greed.

People are not taking time off right now by choice, or because they are lazy. They are sick. Their families are sick. Their jobs are temporarily on hold because everything is getting shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Or, in a growing number of cases, they are simply getting laid off. People are not being allowed to work because places like restaurants, movie theaters, shops and schools are all closed. 

Johnson also said he was worried about the effect of the legislation, known as the Families First Act, on small businesses that would be forced to “pay wages they cannot afford.” 

But the bill ― which House Democrats have watered down under pressure from the White House and business groups ― does make accommodations for small businesses. Companies with fewer than 50 workers can apply for hardship relief and get out of providing paid sick and family leave, if approved by President Donald Trump’s administration. 

Companies that have to offer leave would receive a tax credit, although some Republicans are concerned the benefit would reach employers too late. 

The original bill provided 12 weeks of paid leave for workers who have COVID-19, are forced to quarantine, show symptoms, are exposed to the virus or are trying to get tested. 

But Democrats agreed to weaken the provision so that now, paid family leave will only be available to parents who are home with children due to school closures. And instead of 12 days, people who are sick would get only 10 days of paid sick leave ― which is even farther from the 14 days of self-quarantine recommended under federal guidelines. 

People at companies with more than 500 employees would get no extra relief. Although 89% of workers at these large companies have access to some paid sick leave, it is, on average, just eight days. 

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