Good Corporate Citizens
When building an economic base for a community, it’s important to have a blend of business and industry to provide a diverse set of opportunities for employees.
We’ve told you countless stories over the past six weeks of Iowa-based businesses doing their part in this COVID-19 era…some who told their workers to go home but paid them anyway, some who retooled their entire operations to make needed products such as masks and hand sanitizer, some who adapted their operations to keep employees and customers safe.
Those are the stories we like to tell, and they far outnumber the stories of those who fall short of our standards. But the last few days have exposed one corporate citizen in Iowa which through its actions and inactions has become directly responsible for an unnecessary spike in cases of coronavirus. Don’t take my word for it; just listen to county and city officials who spoke yesterday, hardly able to conceal their anger. They’ve put in 12 to 15 hour days to help keep us all safe. We’ve adapted our lifestyles in ways we never thought possible. Yet the health of the community is at risk, and our resources are stretched beyond capacity, because of one employer taking advantage of its workers and our belief that we are all in this together.
I’ve lived and worked in places where city leaders aggressively sought certain industries to come to town, ignoring a checkered past and believing that safeguards regarding all manner of things will be in place. Their transgressions may be tolerable in normal times; but in times of crisis, you come to know just who is and is not a good citizen, corporate or otherwise. It’s worth remembering going forward.
