Senator blasts US CEOs for 'empty' social promises

US Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday blasted U.S. business leaders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co's Jamie Dimon and Walmart's Doug McMillon, for falling short on a "splashy" promise to look beyond profits when running their businesses.

Writing to the CEOs in their capacity as former and current chairs respectively of the Business Roundtable, Warren, a Democrat, said the country's top business group had been lobbying for "narrow, short-term interests" rather than the broad group of stakeholders it promised to serve last year. Notably, the Roundtable had lobbied for legislation granting companies immunity should workers contract COVID-19 on the job, and had opposed extending unemployment benefits to workers, Warren said, citing a news report based on federal lobbying records.

"Rebuilding our economy so that workers, customers, and communities are able to share in prosperity requires real change in the way decisions are made in corporate headquarters and on Wall Street, not just the vague, empty-worded press releases that you have issued," Warren wrote in the letter, first reported by Reuters. In a statement, a Roundtable spokeswoman said its members had demonstrated their commitment to last year's pledge by "prioritizing the health and safety of their employees and customers and continuing to evolve their businesses to be as equitable and inclusive as possible."

She said its CEOs were pressing "Congress to provide direct payments to individuals in need and more financial support for hard-hit small and medium-sized business" and "for necessary reforms to strengthen communities and address racial injustice in policing."