August 30–September 5, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
Our Perspective
CEOs Sing a New Tune,
But Action Must Follow
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
Business Roundtable — a lobbying
organization made up of almost 200 chief
executives from Apple, Walmart,
JP Morgan Chase, and many more of the world’s
largest companies — released a statement in
August that proports to change the role of
corporations in our society. The statement
declares that American corporations should
promote “an economy that serves all Americans.”
On the surface, it’s a welcome about-face from
the “free-market” corporate identity established in
the late 1960s where profit and “shareholder
primacy” were the overpowering motivations for
corporate America, often at the expense of
workers, communities, and the environment.
The results have had a staggering effect; Over
the past five decades, the top 1 percent of American
earners have nearly doubled their share of national
income. The real value of American wages has
flatlined, failing to keep up with increased
productivity. And pay for top CEOs is now hundreds
of times that of the pay of their employees.
So, it’s good to see some of the world’s
richest CEOs say they are now dedicated to
compensating employees fairly and providing
them with important benefits while supporting
communities and embracing environmentally
friendly practices. It’s refreshing to see corporate
America declare its dedication to diversity and
inclusion and treating workers with dignity and
respect. This is language that American workers,
and the labor movement, agree with.
We all know, however, that talk is different
than action. What the Business Roundtable didn’t
say was specifically how corporate America is
going to change. Income inequality was not
addressed in the statement; neither was obscene
CEO pay, nor changes in the way companies and
management approach labor relations and politics.
Since the late 1960s, when corporate
America embraced a draconian free-market,
profit-first ethos, union membership has fallen at
a steady rate. So too has worker pay and
benefits. This is no accident. Corporations have
consistently used all of the resources at their
disposal to fight workers’ wishes to organize, and
to politically hurt unions. With few exceptions,
corporations have done everything they can over
the past 50 years to ensure that workers lose
their union voice — the very “dignity and
respect” they now claim to support.
When companies agree not to fight their
workers by bringing in expensive union-busting
“consultants” and don’t intimidate or threaten
their employees, workers choose the dignity and
respect afforded by union membership.
The statement by the Business Roundtable is
a step in the right direction; but so far, it counts
only as good PR. American corporations need to
lead the way by ending their half-century war
against unions and their own workers. The
signatories of the Business Roundtable statement
can show it’s not just talk by agreeing to
workplace neutrality and allowing their employees
to join unions without interference or
intimidation. It would be a striking change,
especially considering that companies like
Amazon and Walmart, both of whom signed the
statement, have historically been
virulently anti-union. That’s
how true change will be
achieved, and how
America’s corporations
can fulfill their new
stated purpose.
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‘I hate it. It hurts me’
Historian slams city’s proposals for abolitionist tribute
612 ,2019
8
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A historian accused the city
of sidelining a planned abolitionist
memorial as part of a
planned Downtown park.
The city’s quasi-public,
pro-development arm, the
Economic Development Corporation,
unveiled new design
renderings for Willoughby
Square Park at a meeting of
Community Board 2 on Monday,
and one history buff accused
the agency of failing to
deliver on a promised tribute
to the area’s rich abolitionist
history.
“They’re just reducing
what was supposed to be a
great and prominent memorial
to Brooklyn’s great role
in the abolitionist movement
to an afterthought, and that is
a disgrace,” said Jacob Morris,
head of the Harlem Historical
Society, and longtime
advocate for memorializing
the neighborhood’s connection
to the Underground Railroad.
When EDC first proposed
the Downtown greenspace between
Duffield Street and
Albee Square W. as a selling
point for the neighborhood’s
2004 rezoning, its original
plans required the city
to raze the former Duffield
Street home of abolitionists
Thomas and Harriet Truesdell,
which may have served
escaped slaves as stop along
the Underground Railroad.
But local advocates rallied
and the city backed off
its demolition scheme in 2007,
leading then-Mayor Michael
Bloomberg to earmark $2 million
of the project’s $15 million
budget for a monument
and programming dedicated
to the legacy of Kings County’s
abolitionist movement.
At the Aug. 26 meeting of
Community Board 2’s Executive
Committee, Mary Margaret
Jones, a representative for
landscape architecture firm
and Willoughby Square Park
designer Hargreaves Associates
showed off some ideas
for a proposed $700,000 memorial
— including an abstract
sculpture in the form of
A historian accused the
Economic Development
Corporation of sidelining
an abolitionist memorial
to being only an
‘afterthought’ as part
of their newly-proposed
design for Willoughby
Square Park on Aug. 26.
The vague suggestions
for the memorial are pictured
at left.
Hargreaves Associates
Hargreaves Associates
a tall, squiggly column and inscriptions
chiseled into steps
or furniture throughout the
park — which outraged the
Harlem history buff, who said
the presentation fell well short
of what Bloomberg promised
more than a decade ago.
“It was supposed to be a
critical and central element of
the park,” said Morris. “I hate
it, I hate it. It hurts me.”
But a spokesman for the
Economic Development Corporation
claimed Morris is just
salty with the city for shooting
down his own proposal
for a memorial in 2007, and
defended the agency’s plan as
a sincere tribute to the area’s
abolitionist roots.
“Despite Mr. Morris’ unfounded
position and the fact
that his proposal... was not
selected in 2007, this project
has the support of community
leaders and elected officials,
and will pay homage
to the abolitionist history in
Downtown Brooklyn,” said
Christian Ficara.
And Jones assured the
group that nothing has been
finalized regarding the abolitionist
tribute, and that the
city will solicit design proposals
from artists later this
year that will be reviewed
and finalized by the Brooklyn
Historical Society, the
Irondale Ensemble, and the
Weeksville Heritage Center
by November.
The chosen artist will set
up their piece at the beginning
of next year — in time for
the park’s opening September
2020 debut, Jones said.
In the end, the board’s Executive
Committee recommended
the group support the
park’s new design with a letter
to the Public Design Commission
when the board’s general
membership reconvene
for the first time after its summer
recess next month.
The public will have an opportunity
to provide comment
on the upcoming design proposal
online before they’re finalized
in November, according
to Ficara.
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