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More than one-third of the large corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and half of all pharmaceutical company members had mass layoffs in 2017.
Through the corporate-funded ALEC, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that protect workers, consumers, and the environment.
ALEC companies may want to spend less time trying to dismantle regulations, and more time running their business. Mass layoffs are defined by the federal WARN ACT, and do not include all layoffs, such as layoffs but re-hiring within six months, or companies smaller than 100 employees.
Industry groups represented by ALEC members, such as telecommunications and railroads, had large layoffs in 2017, but pharmaceutical company employees were especially hard hit.
Pharmaceutical companies, as well as their trade association, are active in ALEC as they seek to limit product liability for their negligence in selling unsafe drugs. Even as they were laying off employees the four pharma companies below spent $20 million on federal lobbying.
ALEC corporate member Eli Lilly had among the ten total biggest retail layoffs of 2017, shedding 3,500 employees globally and 2,000 in the United States. In 2017, Lilly announced it was reducing its employment by 8.5 percent. Eli Lilly was a “Director” level sponsor of the ALEC Annual Conference in 2017.
Novartis announced it was laying off 250 workers. Novartis representative Don Stetcher was given ALEC’s 2011 Private Sector Member of the Year Award.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals announced 180 layoffs after its acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceutical. John Schlatter, Government Affairs Manager at Takeda, represented Takeda as the state corporate co-chair of Alaska and Washington.
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