Tag: corporate America

Shareholders question corporate dollars supporting abortion restrictions

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Pfizer, companies face calls to align political spending with values

With corporate political power in the spotlight and a more conservative Supreme Court considering whether to take up fresh challenges to abortion, shareholders are pressing companies to align their campaign spending with their stated values.

The addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court increases the likelihood that justices could soon hear challenges related to abortion, legal experts say. The court’s new 6-3 conservative majority means a case’s fate is less likely to lie in the hands of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who joined the high court’s liberal wing in the past to block restrictions for abortion providers.

Liberals worry that any case that rises to the court may undermine the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which established a right to abortion, or undercut rights for LGBTQ individuals seeking health care. Continue reading.

The GOP’s fallout with big business is already mending

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Opposition to Democrats’ priority bills reunites longtime allies

ANALYSIS — Some of America’s most prominent corporations infuriated Republicans in Congress earlier this month when they protested a Georgia law setting state voting rules. The longtime alliance between the GOP and business seemed on the verge of cracking up. But when it comes to Democrats’ priority bills in Congress, the old allies are still on the same side.

Indeed, corporate America is joining Republicans in opposing both the House-passed voting rights measure, or HR 1, that is Democrats’ answer to the Georgia law, as well as President Joe Biden’s pending infrastructure bill.

While the spat over the Georgia law embarrassed Republicans, business has not joined Democrats in their proposed solution to that law’s election strictures — the voting rights, campaign finance and ethics bill, known as S 1 in the Senate, that Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer called a “must do” on April 13.  Continue reading.

More than 100 corporate executives hold call to discuss halting donations and investments to fight controversial voting bills

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More than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders gathered online Saturday to discuss taking new action to combat the controversial state voting bills being considered across the country, including the one recently signed into law in Georgia.

Executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers — plus at least one NFL owner — talked about potential ways to show they opposed the legislation, including by halting donations to politicians who support the bills and even delaying investments in states that pass the restrictive measures, according to four people who were on the call, including one of the organizers, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor.

While no final steps were agreed upon, the meeting represents an aggressive dialing up of corporate America’s stand against controversial voting measures nationwide, a sign that their opposition to the laws didn’t end with the fight against the Georgia legislation passed in March. Continue reading.

Corporations dodge questions on permanent donation bans

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Campaign finance experts are increasingly skeptical that the companies vowing to freeze political contributions to Republicans who objected to the Electoral College results will carry out those pledges in a meaningful way. 

Fortune 500 companies like Amazon and Comcast announced a halt to donations in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, decrying attacks on the democratic process and peaceful transition of power.

But many of the statements left wiggle room for corporate PACs to provide indirect financial support or resume direct support for the 147 Republicans who cast doubt on the legitimacy of President Biden’s electoral victory. Continue reading.

Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan includes special protection for the Sackler family fortune

NOTE:  This is another post about trusting American corporations to do the right thing for their customers, Americans.

Washington Post logoIf lawsuits against the wealthy family aren’t halted, the Sacklers ‘may be unwilling—or unable’ to contribute billions to the drugmaker’s bankruptcy as planned, Purdue said in a court filing Wednesday.

In 2008, as Purdue Pharma was searching for a new chief executive, Richard Sackler received a memo from an adviser.

“In the event that a favorable [recapitalization] deal cannot be structured during 2008, the most certain way for the owners to diversify their risk is to distribute more free cash flow to themselves,” F. Peter Boer, a member of Purdue’s board of directors told Sackler, a prominent member of the wealthy family that owns the company.

[Read the 2008 memo from a Purdue board member to Richard Sackler]

That, authorities allege, is exactly what the Sackler family did. A lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts claims the Sacklers transferred more than $4 billion from the company to personal accounts between 2008 and 2016. Oregon asserts the family may have taken as much as $10 billion out of the company.

View the complete September 18 article by Renae Merle and Lenny Bernstein on the Washington Post website here.

As We Gawk At Trump’s Sideshow, Corporate America Picks Our Pockets

As America rapidly urbanized in the 1920s and ’30s, nearly every burgeoning city gave rise to a jumbled, boisterous side of town that lay somewhere between exciting and dangerous. One such place in my state, known as “Deep Ellum,” was a stretch of Elm Street in East Dallas. A predominantly African American community, it also hosted a freewheeling mix of immigrant laborers, rural migrants, musicians, saloonkeepers, preachers, fortune-tellers and assorted hustlers. It was both bedazzling and dicey — the sort of place where the blues lay in wait for innocents. As a popular song of the day warned:

“If you go down in Deep Ellum,
“Keep your money in your shoes
“Or you’ll go home
“With the Deep Ellum blues.
“Oh, sweet mama,
“Your daddy’s got them Deep Ellum blues.” Continue reading “As We Gawk At Trump’s Sideshow, Corporate America Picks Our Pockets”