December 20, 2017

AT&T Is Seriously Sucking Up to Donald Trump

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Here is AT&T on the Republican tax plan:

June 2017: “AT&T is on pace to invest around $22 billion in the United States this year, CEO Randall Stephenson told CNBC on Thursday….Ahead of the tech meeting, Stephenson told “Squawk Box” the company will increase its capital investments if Trump delivers on tax reform by the end of the year.”

Today: “Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018….Since 2012, AT&T has invested more in the United States than any other public company. Every $1 billion in capital invested in the telecom industry creates about 7,000 jobs for American workers, research shows.”

In the most recent quarter, American companies increased their investments in equipment by 6.3 percent. AT&T appears to be planning an increase of 4.5 percent. I am unimpressed.

But that’s not all! There’s also this:

December 15: “AT&T today provided details of a tentative agreement reached with the Communications Workers of America in Mobility Orange contract negotiations….Among provisions of the offer: Retroactive wage increases back to Feb. 12, 2017, and a $1,000 lump sum, if the agreement is ratified by Jan. 12, 2018.”

Today: “Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to…pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees — all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers.

Why do I have a feeling that this $1,000 bonus was already in the works for everyone, not just Mobility Orange folks? I guess I’m just cynical.

In any case, AT&T sure does seem to be going out of its way to suck up to President Trump. I wonder why that could be? It’s a mystery….

POSTSCRIPT: I should make clear that I don’t blame AT&T for these announcements. Given Trump’s well known ego, it would probably be a breach of fiduciary responsibility if they didn’t slather him with praise at every opportunity.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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