Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Labor & GD

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Subsidizing-Contractor-Mis-by-Corp-Watch-Agencies_Awards_Contractors-Gone-Wild_Contracts-150107-258.html

Reprinted from www.corpwatch.org

Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct

Three Contractors Who Won Big Despite Egregious Labor Violations
by Chris Thompson, Special to CorpWatch
January 7th, 2015



Damage caused by Imperial Sugar refinery explosion at Port Wentworth, Georgia. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
(image by Corp Watch)
Damage caused by Imperial Sugar refinery explosion at Port Wentworth, Georgia. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
Rodney Bridgett was killed when a piece of Tyson Foods' heavy equipment crushed him. Calvin Bryant was crippled in a Imperial Sugar plant explosion in Georgia that also killed 14 of his co-workers. When Alma Aranda tried to exercise her legal right to take unpaid time off to care for her dying mother, Verizon harassed her with so much paperwork that her hair fell out in clumps.

What do these three cases have in common? The federal government handed out tens of millions of dollars in contracts to these companies, without regard to how they treated their workers.

Last summer, to help put an end to these kinds of mistreatment, President Barack Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order.


Here's why the executive order could help workers: Every year, the federal government awards a fortune in contracts for everything from defense systems to administrative services to companies that employ an estimated one in five American workers.

Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct

Full Report (PDF): Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct

Part One: Tyson Foods - Rodney's Story

Part Two: Imperial Sugar - Calvin's Story

Part Three: Verizon - Alma's Story

FULL 2 page story at link.

[yallerdawg]

1. The social contract.

While transitioning from capitalism to socialism, it has become apparent to many the system will continue to need private ownership at least in some sectors while necessarily heavily taxed and regulated to serve the greater good. One step forward is to ensure labor is secure and safe in the work-place.

From the link:

In effect, the federal government has been subsidizing contractor misconduct with our tax dollars. As long as federal contractors have known that their law-breaking would not jeopardize the next contract, they have had little financial incentive to stop mistreating their workers.

By signing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, President Obama signaled that it’s time for this to stop. The order will ensure that federal contractors obey workplace laws before receiving government contracts. Once implemented, the order:
• Will require federal contractors to disclose their record of compliance with workplace laws;
• Will ensure that law-breaking companies clean up their acts by empowering federal agencies to consult with the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate and remediate ongoing problems with contractors.

For far too long, federal contractors have been able to cheat or injure their employees, secure in the knowledge that their lawbreaking will not count against them when their contracts come up for renewal. Once implemented, the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order will take that security away from them.