WCA September 2019

From the Americas An AT&T representative told the Guardian : “We continue to hire in areas where we’re seeing increasing demand for products and services, but technology is changing rapidly and that affects hiring and employment. There are fewer jobs in parts of the business that are declining and facing technology shifts.” But AT&T is not the only company. Several CEOs from large businesses said employees would benefit from the new legislation. However, a report published by the Congressional Research Service in May this year, found that investors were the ones benefitting more than anyone else as a result of the tax cuts. “The evidence continues to mount that the Trump-GOP tax cuts were a scam, a giant bait-and-switch that promised workers big pay raises, a lot more jobs and new investments, but they largely enriched CEOs and the already wealthy,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). Statistics collated by the ATF show that only four per cent of US workers saw a pay increase or bonus, while some businesses have used the extra dollars to buy back $1 trillion of their own stock, no doubt lining the pockets of investors and corporate executives. Another company to publicly throw its weight behind the cuts was General Motors. Indeed, CEO Mary Barra was one of president Trump’s economic advisers on tax reform and stated that the reform was “beneficial to the US economy, beneficial to US manufacturing and creates jobs.” Whilst it was before the bill came into force, GM ceased operations at five plants in the USA and Canada, and shed 14,000 jobs in the process, but since 2015 has bought $10 billion of its own stock back, and made a profit of $8 billion. The eye-watering figures continue, as it benefitted to the tune of $157 million in the first three months of 2018 alone, as a result of the cuts. Mr Sainato spoke to Daniel Adams, who worked at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, for more than 25 years. He and his colleagues have a stark choice. Move with your families to carry on working at the car manufacturer or hope that the UAW union will strike a deal with GM. “It’s like having a gun to your head,” Mr Adams said. “They’re not only hurting workers, they’re hurting families.” A GM representative said: “In November, we announced that four US plants would be on unallocated status (meaning they don’t have a product assigned to them). The largest of the affected plants was our Lordstown complex, which built compact sedans. We took the action because consumer demand has been rapidly shifting away from sedans and toward crossovers and trucks.”

Another to promise increased investments in workers was Wells Fargo. It tied a minimum wage increase of $15 an hour to the cuts. It has since saved 47 times more than the cost of that increase, bought back shares worth around $22.6 billion, raised the CEO’s salary 36 per cent and announced plans last year to axe 26,000 jobs in the USA over a three-year period. It is thought the company has saved £3.7 billion annually because of the cuts. $50 million programme backing exporters On 18 th June, canadianmetalworking.com looked at new moves to support female business owners [“EDC unveils $50 million program for more Canadian female entrepreneurs”]. Across Canada some 12,700 female business owners are taking on the world and reaping the benefits of going global. But there could be more. Research shows that women own only 16 per cent of all small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada, and only 11 per cent of them are active outside of Canada. That means only two per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in Canada are both exporting and owned or led by women. Export Development Canada (EDC) recently announced a new $50 million Women in Trade Investments Program to provide equity capital specifically designed to help female Canadian entrepreneurs. This commitment complements the suite of initiatives EDC announced in 2018 to better serve the needs of women-owned and women-led businesses engaged in export. “Women face unique challenges in the business world, and we’ve seen that equity capital providers are not meaningfully investing in businesses owned or led by women in Canada,” said Mairead Lavery, president and CEO of EDC. “EDC’s new programme is the latest in a series of solutions EDC offers to ensure all Canadians have the same opportunities to dream big, be daring, and take on the world, regardless of gender.” Research has shown that advancing women’s equality in Canada has the potential to add $150 billion in incremental GDP by 2026. Beyond helping the economy, offering support at an earlier stage, where many women-owned and -led businesses can stall due to a lack of capital, will also help give more female leaders the opportunity to build their companies and develop expertise in scaling a business. “Our economy – and our country – can never reach its full potential when we are leaving people behind, including women, indigenous peoples, and other minority groups,” said Minister of International Trade Diversification Jim Carr. “Programmes like this and the Trade Commissioner Service’s Business Women in International Trade help ensure that women who own

58

Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2019

www.read-wca.com