This is not the first time
Bernie Sanders has drawn the ire of corporate honchos
Bernie Sanders' response to
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam's charge that the Democratic presidential candidate
has "contemptible" views? Bring it.
Sanders on Wednesday joined
striking Verizon workers on a picket line in New York City. He applauded them,
saying, "Today you are standing up—not just for justice for Verizon
workers—you are standing up for millions of Americans."
The Manhattan march was one of
many the roughly 40,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA)
and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBW) unions staged
on the East Coast to protest what they described as the communication
behemoth's "devastating" cuts.
"They want to take away
the health benefits that you have earned," Sanders said. "They want
to outsource to decent paying jobs. They want to give their CEO $20 million a
year in compensation," he told the workers.
McAdam shot back at Sanders'
statements, writing
in a post on his LinkedIn page that the Vermont senator's "uninformed
views are, in a word, contemptible," and arguing that Sanders' claims are
detached from reality.
His post rejects the claims
"that Verizon doesn't pay its fair share of taxes," and adds, "I
challenge Sen. Sanders to show me a company that's done more to invest in
America than Verizon."
Sanders responded to the
comments, as well as to criticism
from General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, tweeting:
McAdam's comments, however,
did receive "gushing
praise" from fellow executives, according to Zaid Jilani at The
Intercept.
A 2014 report from Citizens
for Tax Justice found
that Verizon was among dozens of companies that, from 2008-2012, paid no
federal corporate income tax—a fact that led Sanders to put the company on his
list of America's Top 10 Corporate Tax Avoiders.
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