USA TODAY International Edition
After tax cut, unions want more than just promises
Companies vowed to raise wages, but by how much?
Big unions are challenging American companies to show them the taxcut money.
Before the sweeping tax cuts were passed late last year, major U.S. corporations joined President Trump and Republicans in Congress in vowing the reform would grow the economy, create jobs and raise wages. Since then, many have boosted minimum wages, doled out bonuses and increased spending and charitable giving.
But the unions want companies to go further. As part of ongoing contract negotiations or talks set to begin within months, unions including the Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers are asking companies such as AT&T and American Airlines to reveal how much the overhaul will fatten their profits and what they plan to do with the windfall. They’re demanding that the companies specify the portion of the gains that will be used to boost wages, bring back jobs from overseas and make capital investments as well as the amount going to raising executive pay and buying back stock.
Some information, such as the amount a company pays in income taxes, is publicly available but not typically until it files its annual report.
“President Trump and the Republican Congress promised that billions of dollars in corporate tax giveaways would ultimately raise wages and bring jobs back from overseas, but a union contract is the only way to get that promise in writing,” says Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America.
The tax overhaul lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and allowed for the immediate deductions of capital investments.
The CWA is in contract talks with AT&T on behalf of workers for the company’s long-distance service and local operations in the Midwest and has sent letters requesting the information from those divisions. CWA sent similar letters to Nexstar Broadcasting and two American Airlines subsidiaries, Piedmont Airlines and Envoy Air.
Meanwhile, Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers requested similar information from health care providers, including Consulate Health Care, Kindred Healthcare and Fresenius Health Care. And the Teamsters want to know how tax cuts will benefit the Pepsi’s Frito-Lay unit in Ohio.
In total, letters were sent to about 10 companies in current union negotiations that could affect 30,000 employees. However, the unions represent nearly 6 million workers, and some portion of those could be affected by similar demands for information ahead of future contract initiations, CWA attorney Jennifer Abruzzo says.
AT&T has refused to turn over the information.
“The company objects to these requests on the grounds that they seek information that is irrelevant, immaterial and pertain to matters wholly outside” collective bargaining, Randall White, vice president for AT&T’s Midwest unit, wrote to CWA executive Curt Hess in a March 22 letter.
The unions say they could file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board if companies don’t provide the requested data.