"How the Nation's Biggest Closely Held Corporation Reacted to Hobby Lobby"

[applegrove]

How the Nation's Biggest Closely Held Corporation Reacted to Hobby Lobby


By Kia Makarechi at Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/07/cargill-publix-hobby-lobby-ruling-birth-control

"SNIP...........................




Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, in which the court ruled that closely held corporations that have religious objections to providing birth control to employees through benefits programs are free to stop doing so. This verdict has the potential to affect millions of American women who receive contraception through employer-provided healthcare.

As much as 90 percent of companies in America are “closely held,” like Hobby Lobby. (To qualify for this designation, over 50 percent of a company’s outstanding stock must be owned by five or fewer individuals, and the cannot be a personal-service corporation.) While America’s closely held companies aren’t all gigantic corporations, they constitute some 52 percent of the American workforce, and are responsible for an estimated 51 percent of the economic output of the nation’s private sector. (Hobby Lobby and co-plaintiff Mennonite Conestoga Wood Specialties employee approximately 14,000 U.S. workers, and some 50 companies have sued for similar exemptions, reports New York magazine.)

VF Daily has contacted a number of large, closely held companies and inquired whether they would revisit their coverage of birth control given the Hobby Lobby decision. Cargill—which, with $136.7 billion of revenue in 2013, ranks as the largest private American company on Forbes’ 2013 list—said that it “plans to provide the same coverage we have been.” The food-service giant has 143,000 employees in 67 countries; this decision is relevant to their approximately 47,000 American workers.

Publix Super Markets, number eight on Forbes’ list, with $27.48 billion in revenue and 167,500 American employees, also likely won’t change its coverage in the wake of the court’s decision. A representative of the company said that while “our benefits offerings change annually,” “at this time, we do not anticipate any changes due to today’s ruling.”

Representatives for a number of closely held corporations said they did not yet know whether the ruling would affect their benefits coverage.




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[Bjorn Against]

1. Cargill is a terrible company, but #2 on the list is even a bigger worry

I can't believe Vanity Fair failed to mention the second largest closely held company in America, Koch Industries. I have a feeling the Koch Brothers are suddenly going to be talking a lot more about their religion.

[jmowreader]

3. "The Pursuit of Money" has no stance on women's health issues

And since that is the Kochs' true religion...

[FiveGoodMen]

6. But if women -- or anyone at all -- have rights

Then that might interfere with the pursuit of money.

So rights cannot be tolerated.

I really think that's the issue.

[dsc]

4. actually the Koch brothers are pretty leftist on social issues

I would be stunned if they eliminated bc from their health plan.

[Bjorn Against]

5. This decision could have implications far beyond birth control

Who knows what the Koch brothers would claim are their "sincerely held beliefs", do you think the Supreme Court would ever judge the Kochs to be insincere?

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, applegrove.