Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct

[Omaha Steve]

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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.