Biden hails House passage of $1.9T virus bill
A look at how large Conn. companies are supporting Black employees
WASHINGTON — The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that was championed by President Joe Biden, the first step in providing another dose of aid to a weary nation as the measure now moves to a tense Senate.
“We have no time to waste,” Biden said at the White House after the House passage early Saturday. “We act now — decisively, quickly and boldly — we can finally get ahead of this virus. We can finally get our economy moving again. People in this country have suffered far too much for too long.”
The president’s vision for infusing cash across a struggling economy to individuals, businesses, schools, states and cities battered by COVID-19 passed on a near party-line 219-212 vote. That ships the bill to the Senate, where Democrats seem bent on resuscitating their minimum wage push and fights could erupt over state aid and other issues.
Democrats said that mass unemployment and the halfmillion American lives lost are causes to act despite nearly $4 trillion in aid already spent fighting the fallout from the disease. GOP lawmakers, they said, were out of step with a public that polling finds largely views the bill favorably.
“I am a happy camper tonight,“Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Friday. “This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not, we’re going without you.”
Republicans said the bill was too expensive and said too few education dollars would be spent quickly to immediately
reopen schools. They said it was laden with gifts to Democratic constituencies like labor unions and funneled money to Democratic-run states they suggested didn’t need it because their budgets had bounced back.
“To my colleagues who say this bill is bold, I say it’s bloated,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “To those who say it’s urgent, I say it’s unfocused. To those who say it’s popular, I say it is entirely partisan.”
The overall relief bill would provide $1,400 payments to individuals, extend emergency unemployment benefits through August and increase tax credits
for children and federal subsidies for health insurance.
It also provides billions for schools and colleges, state and local governments, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, renters, food producers and struggling industries like airlines, restaurants, bars and concert venues.
The battle is emerging as an early test of Biden’s ability to hold together his party’s fragile congressional majorities — just 10 votes in the House and an evenly divided 50-50 Senate.
At the same time, Democrats were trying to figure out how to assuage liberals who lost their top priority in a jarring Senate setback Thursday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offered encouragement, calling a minimum wage increase “a financial necessity for our families, a great stimulus for our economy and a moral imperative for our country.” She said the House would “absolutely“approve a final version of the relief bill because of its widespread benefits, even if it lacked progressives’ treasured goal.
Progressives were demanding that the Senate press ahead anyway on the minimum wage increase, even if it meant changing that chamber’s rules and eliminating the filibuster, a tactic that requires 60 votes for a bill to move forward.
Black History Month has been a fixture on corporate calendars for many years.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and a growing recognition among major companies that they need to do more to tackle racial injustices and inequalities, the Black History Month observances have taken on even greater importance in 2021. Several of the Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Connecticut have declared this month their intention to make their organizations more diverse and inclusive. Key to fulfilling those goals are initiatives that support
Black employees who are still significantly underrepresented at the executive levels.
“Ending 2020 and then having Black History in Month in February is an opportunity to celebrate some of the contributions and gives us an opportunity to double-down on our commitments and refocus,” said Michael Matthews, chief diversity officer of Stamford-based Synchrony.
Synchrony, the country’s largest private-label credit card provider, kicked off this month by publishing a statement from its executive
leadership team on “resolving to build a more just society.”
“We prioritized (in 2020) listening and learning with our colleagues, families and communities — an urgent endeavor demanding our time, our attention and our passion. We built bridges through honest conversations on race, power and privilege,” the statement said in part. “Through this introspection we have grown personally and as leaders. Today, the Synchrony leadership team reaffirms our commitment.”
At Greenwich-based XPO
Logistics, a global transportation-andlogistics provider, the programming this month has focused on the theme of “Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity.”
“Throughout the month, employees shared their stories on the importance of family, and we celebrated current and past trailblazers,” said LaQuenta Jacobs, XPO’s chief diversity officer. “As part of our monthly Inclusion discussion series, we invited Cassius Butts, the president and CEO of 1st Choice Credit Union, to speak about the importance of financial wellness. My conversation with Cassius was recorded and made
available to our employees.”
Ongoing challenges
Some Black professionals, however, look skeptically at corporate Black History Month celebrations.
“Just like Pride Month, Black History Month has become a routine time of year when corporations say the absolute most while doing the least for marginalized communities,” journalist Ernest Owens wrote in an opinion piece this month for The Washington Post. “As a Black queer millennial, I’ve grown tired of both June and February because I find myself feeling more insulted than inspired by the way the same companies who deny both of my identities any other time of the year find it suddenly mandatory to suggest otherwise.”
Black History Month also highlights the need for companies to tackle systemic inequalities still faced by Black professionals.
Companies have successfully hired Black employees into frontline and entrylevel jobs, but there is a “significant dropoff ” in their representation in the higher ranks, according to a new report by consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
At the managerial level, the Black share of the workforce drops to 7 percent, the report found. Across the senior manager, vice president and senior vice president levels, Black representation runs at 4 percent to 5 percent. In comparison, 13 percent of the U.S. population is Black, according to the Census Bureau.
Those disparities extend to Connecticut. Among the 25 companies on last year’s Fortune 1,000 list that are headquartered in the state, nearly all of their CEOs are white.
“The board (of a company) has to decide that the ranks of top management are not reflecting the racial-ethnic mix that they think can be an advantage to the organization,” said Fred McKinney, the Carlton Highsmith endowed chairman for innovation and entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University. “The question is how do we develop these folks (from underrepresented groups), and how do we give them the opportunity to excel? And how do we put in place structure or processes that will benefit not only the individuals, but also the corporations they work in?”
The nationwide protests last year in response to the killings of Black Americans such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery along with the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on minority communities pushed many companies to acknowledge that they needed to bolster their support of Black professionals and other employees of color.
Black employees comprised 21 percent of Synchrony’s workforce of more than 16,500 in 2019, according to the company’s mostrecent data. The firm, which ranked No. 170 on last year’s Fortune 500 list, does not publish demographic data for its executive ranks.
The company has received many accolades in recent years for its diversity initiatives. But it announced last June that it would launch additional efforts that included the formation of a senior-level committee to focus on diversity and equality issues.
“After 2020 — which was so traumatic, exhausting and stressful — I think it really stretched us as people, leaders and as a Synchrony family,” Matthews said. “It was really an opportunity to lean in together, to grow and to be vulnerable, so we can share and strengthen those bonds — and even challenge one another in places where we disagree.”
Last July, Bloomfield-based health insurance
giant Cigna announced the launch of its Building Equity and Equality Program, a five-year undertaking aimed at expanding and accelerating the company’s efforts to support diversity, inclusion and equality for communities of color.
As part of Building Equity and Equality, the No. 13 company on last year’s Fortune list, committed to publishing an annual diversity “scorecard.” Those metrics will help assess its progress in closing the gap between the 34 percent of its workforce who are ethnic minorities and the 10 percent representation for that group in the executive/senior officials and managerial ranks, according to company data.
“At Cigna, we take an expansive view of diversity to include race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, veteran status, ability, preferred languages, work styles, generational and cultural facets, sexual orientation, and gender identity,” said Susan Stith, Cigna’s vice president of diversity, inclusion and civic affairs. “Many different cultures, beliefs, and values are represented across our more than 70,000 employees, and while diversity accounts for the broad mix of people, it’s our commitment to inclusion and equity that allows the mix to work as well as it does.”
XPO’s new initiatives last year included the creation of the chief diversity officer position, with Jacobs being the first person to take the post.
Focus on employee support
Many large companies see professional networks and development programs as some of the most effective ways of advancing workplace equality and inclusion.
Synchrony runs eight diversity networks which include the African American Network+ for Black employees and colleagues who want to support them. The diversity groups reached more than 10,000 people in 2019, according to company data.
XPO, the No. 196 firm on last year’s Fortune list and an employer of more than 100,000, has pursued a similar strategy. Its recently launched initiatives include eight resource groups, which encompass Black employees and allies.
Those groups focus on “creating employee-led communities for connection, engagement and networking across the organization while fostering an environment that promotes allyship, leadership, mentorship and professional development,” Jacobs said. “As we move forward, our goal is to continue to increase our pipeline and development of diverse talent in our organization and build strong relationships with partners to help us.”
For Kidest Shiferaw, a Stamford-based HR surveillance analyst at Synchrony who grew up in Los Angeles, joining African American Network+ helped her to settle in Connecticut and forge a number of close friendships with colleagues. She has worked at the company since 2017.
“It allowed me to ask very open-ended questions to members of AAN where I would say ‘Hey, is it OK that I’m coming in with curly hair? Is it OK that I don’t wear heels? What are the expectations?’ ” Shiferaw said. “The people I talked to in AAN are very open and real with their feedback. It really helped me gain confidence knowing that it’s OK to bring my whole self to work.”
In addition to her membership in African American Network+, Shiferaw is also a graduate of Synchrony’s Skills Training for Evolving Professionals Program, a ninemonth initiative that seeks to develop talent within the firm’s administrative teams and call centers.
“I like where I am,” Shiferaw said. “The company is amazing, and I definitely see a future here for myself.”