Thursday, December 01,
2016
Carrier Just Showed Corporations How to Beat Donald Trump
We need a president who can stand up to big corporations, not
fold to their demands.
Today, about 1,000 Carrier workers and their families should be
rejoicing. But the rest of our nation’s workers should be very nervous.
President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly announce a deal with
United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than
1,000 of the 2100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be
transferred to Mexico. Let’s be clear: It is not good enough to save some of
these jobs. Trump made a promise that he would save all of
these jobs, and we cannot rest until an ironclad contract is signed
to ensure that all of these workers are able to continue working in Indiana
without having their pay or benefits slashed.
In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to
offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the
company tax and
regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few
months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.”
He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the
United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United
States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn
tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s
that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move
abroad?
In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And
that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.
Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously
safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in
America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for
business-friendly tax benefits and incentives. Even corporations that weren’t
thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be re-evaluating their stance
this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the
richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.
Let’s be clear. United Technologies is not going broke. Last
year, it made a profit of $7.6 billion and
received more than $6 billion in
defense contracts. It has also received more than $50 million from
the Export-Import Bank and very generous tax breaks. In 2014, United
Technologies gave its former chief executive Louis Chenevert
a golden parachute worth more than $172 million. Last year, the
company’s five highest-paid executives made more
than $50 million. The firm also spent $12
billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money
to invest in new plants and workers.
Does that sound like a company that deserves more corporate
welfare from our government? Trump’s Band-Aid solution is only making the
problem of wealth inequality in America even worse.
I said I would work
with Trump if he was serious about the promises he made to
members of the working class. But after running a campaign pledging to be tough
on corporate America, Trump has hypocritically decided to do the exact
opposite. He wants to treat corporate irresponsibility with kid gloves. The
problem with our rigged economy is not that our policies have been too tough on
corporations; it’s that we haven’t been tough enough.
We need to re-instill an ethic of corporate patriotism. We need
to send a very loud and clear message to corporate America: The era of
outsourcing is over. Instead of offshoring jobs, the time has come for you to
start bringing good-paying jobs back to America.
If United Technologies or any other company wants to keep
outsourcing decent-paying American jobs, those companies must pay an
outsourcing tax equal to the amount of money it expects to save by moving
factories to Mexico or other low-wage countries. They should not receive
federal contracts or other forms of corporate welfare. They must pay back
all of the tax breaks and other corporate welfare they have received from the
federal government. And they must not be allowed to reward their executives
with stock options, bonuses or golden parachutes for outsourcing jobs to
low-wage countries. I will soon be introducing the Outsourcing Prevention Act,
which will address exactly that.
If Donald Trump won’t stand up for America’s working class, we
must.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of
Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in
American history. Elected Mayor of Burlington, Vt., by 10 votes in 1981, he
served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in
Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Read more at his website. Follow
him on Twitter: @SenSanders or @BernieSanders
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class
has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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