http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42703-alec-corporate-members-lay-off-over-12-000-workers-in-2017
[links in on-line article]
ALEC Corporate Members Lay Off Over 12,000 Workers in 2017
Friday, November 24, 2017 By Don Wiener, PR Watch | Report
More than one-third of the large corporate members of the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and half of all pharmaceutical
company members had mass layoffs in 2017.
Through the corporate-funded ALEC, global corporations and state
politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that
protect workers, consumers, and the environment.
ALEC companies may want to spend less time trying to dismantle
regulations, and more time running their business. Mass layoffs are
defined by the federal WARN ACT, and do not include all layoffs, such as
layoffs but re-hiring within six months, or companies smaller than 100
employees.
Industry groups represented by ALEC members, such as telecommunications
and railroads, had large layoffs in 2017, but pharmaceutical company
employees were especially hard hit.
Pharmaceutical companies, as well as their trade association, are active
in ALEC as they seek to limit product liability for their negligence in
selling unsafe drugs. Even as they were laying off employees the four
pharma companies below spent $20 million on federal lobbying.
ALEC corporate member Eli Lilly had among the ten total biggest retail
layoffs of 2017, shedding 3,500 employees globally and 2,000 in the
United States. In 2017, Lilly announced it was reducing its employment
by 8.5 percent. Eli Lilly was a "Director" level sponsor of the ALEC
Annual Conference in 2017.
Novartis announced it was laying off 250 workers. Novartis
representative Don Stetcher was given ALEC's 2011 Private Sector Member
of the Year Award.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals announced 180 layoffs after its acquisition by
Takeda Pharmaceutical. John Schlatter, Government Affairs Manager at
Takeda, represented Takeda as the state corporate co-chair of Alaska and
Washington.
As often happens when there is news of an acquisition of a smaller
company by an industry leader, Ariad's stock jumped 70 percent on merger
news, but once the deal was completed the new combined company, ALEC
member Takeda, announced that 180 people were "redundant."
TEVA Pharmaceuticals simultaneously announced bad earnings and layoffs
in 2017, saying that 5,000 to 7,000 of its global workforce would be
cut, and 280 jobs in California and New York were lost between
2016-2017, as TEVA prepared for bad first quarter earnings.
Non-pharma members of ALEC that also had big layoffs in 2017 are AT&T
with 630 jobs lost and Verizon laying off 1,200 workers, then another
2,100 after its merger with AOL. Comcast laid off 720 workers.
Honeywell, Conoco, UPS, Altria, Anheuser-Busch, CSX, Micron and Norfolk
Southern, all ALEC corporate members, combined to lay off over 3,000
workers.
Even the Kochs, the two brothers with a combined wealth of over $90
billion, laid off 136 workers at its St. Paul Minnesota Molex facility,
Molex Copper being a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Then this week they
announced layoff at a Georgia-Pacific facility in Camus, WA, where up to
300 workers have been told they will be let go at the beginning of the year.
If ALEC sponsors did not spend tens of millions of dollars on federal
and state lobbying, and political campaigns, some of these jobs could
have been saved.