Bashing the so-called “fat cats”
OK, is this really the best time to start targeting what has been one of the brightest stars of our state’s battered economy?
That’s the question that popped into my mind after I found a press release in my inbox from IBEW 103, the powerful, Dorchester-based trade union that represents more than 7,500 local electricians.
The headline above the release just about says it all. “Massachusetts Union is Set To Challenge Big Pharma/Biotech “Fat Cats.’’’’
Our IBEW 103 has teamed up with something called the Corporate Campaign based out of New York. The duo intend to target pharmaceutical companies and biotechs over corporate welfare-style subsidies that critics say drive up the cost of both drugs and health care as a whole.
The campaign’s website, StopBiotechLooting. org, is replete with some nasty looking fat cats that would probably scare the wits of my five-year-old, also sheds light on which road this particular effort is taking.
So let’s dispense with the idea that this pressure campaign is aimed at saving taxpayer money.
Rather, it’s pretty clear some more down-to-earth motives are driving this union crusade.
If you haven’t guess it already, the union is steamed over the issue of which contractors and workers our local biotech and pharma companies are hiring to build new labs and offices. After running down a list of some of the bright stars of the new economy, the union notes these alleged “fat cats’’ have not “ensured that their new facilities in Massachusetts are being built or will be built by contractors that hire Massachusetts electricians who earn wages and health benefits consistent with the community.”
That, of course, is just a long-winded way of saying the companies involved have not agreed to hire only union labor to build their new labs and offices.
The last time I checked, empty lab space was on the rise in Cambridge and the once bright biotech star was starting to fade in the tough economy.
These are surely tough times as well for local union hard hats, as the tenor of that press release surely attests.
But it’s hard to see how anyone gains by trying to bring down a key industry upon which the future of the Massachusetts economy depends.