Apple to Arizona: Anti-gay bill puts Mesa sapphire plant at risk
Source: CNN
Apple (AAPL) confirmed Monday that it has urged Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill that would allow business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and lesbians.
Since the Arizona statehouse passed the measure last Thursday, Gov. Brewer has faced growing pressure to kill the bill that opponents characterize as "state-sanctioned discrimination."
Three state senators who voted for the bill are now asking her to veto it. So are Arizona's two U.S. Senators: John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans. American Airlines (AAL) and Marriott (MAR) have warned that an anti-gay law could be bad for business.
We don't know who at Apple phoned the Governor, or what exactly was said. But it was only last November that Tim Cook announced that Apple was building a sapphire glass plant in Mesa, AZ, that would bring 2,000 new jobs to the state.
Read more: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/02/25/apple-arizona-gay-discrimination/
Aristus
(66,075 posts)The only thing the sponsors of the bill were trying to do was to shout out to the state's ultra-right-wing haters that 'Hey, I'm on your side!...'
That will earn them re-election even if the bill doesn't pass.
lostincalifornia
(3,639 posts)Aristus
(66,075 posts)Of course, there's nothing to stop this bill from sprouting up like a poisonous mushroom in the next legislative session...
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Remember, she was one of a handful of repuke/teabagger governors who approved the Medicaid expansion under the ACA.
LittleGirl
(8,261 posts)She and 200 other people got jobs in Phoenix for the Obamacare roll out. Smartest thing she did.
lostincalifornia
(3,639 posts)TM99
(8,352 posts)and among other voices will get the Governor to veto this atrocity. She won't have a choice given the business push-back. I wish it was more because it is simply the right thing to do, but perhaps she will surprise me. She did so recently when she authorized expansion of medicaid via AHCCCS with the ACA. She did it because it is the right thing to do.
So, not all here in AZ are 'unelightened'.
There is already a large semiconductor industry here so the jobs, the talent, and the need is great for this plant. SRP is already building new solar and geothermal plants to supply Apple with 100% renewable energy.
We deserve this and the more 'enlightened' businesses move into Arizona the better for LGBT civil rights in general.
lostincalifornia
(3,639 posts)Bandit
(21,475 posts)kiranon
(1,727 posts)the Arizona legislature Will just bring the bill back or something even worse. Arizonans need to elect a governor and state legislature that is less tea party and more main stream. Judging from my relatives in Arizona, it isn't going to happen any time soon.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)I hate these cheap-ass bandwagon-jumping pricks!!!
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)literatuer and TV ads. sickening.
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)advertise that they encouraged her to veto it to the rest.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)along with a dive in tourism should this bill pass
DFW
(54,047 posts)I'd not only have contingency plans to cancel AZ and build in another state, but I'd also offer to help pay for any prospective AZ employees to relocate, with the moving contracts being given exclusively to moving companies in the new state.
A tax base of 2000 employees plus the sales taxes lost on what those 2000 employees (not to mention the plant itself!) would be spending each year--even Jan Brewer knows how to use a calculator.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Vote with your dollars.
Cha
(295,899 posts)BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)No one wants to take on big business so some backwater diner and a hobby lobby can be all biggoty. These people just need to die off for fuck's sake.