Bernie Sanders Discusses The Importance Of Employee-Owned Businesses

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about employee-owned businesses.

Transcript

00:00Senator Sanders. Thank you. I'm going to pick up on Senator Tuberville's question.

00:07Maybe we'll start from the other side. But before we do that, I think, Mr. Rourke,

00:10you really hit the nail on the head. You used the word dignity many times. You put your life

00:16into a company, change of ownership, you're out the door in a very disrespectful way.

00:22And I think what employee ownership, what ESOPs is about, is empowering workers to say,

00:29you're just not a cog in the machine. You're not going to be thrown out the door.

00:32You have a say about how the company runs. You're a decision maker. You're not just a worker.

00:37That's a big deal. All right, let me go to Dr. Blasi and we'll head from this side to that side.

00:44You know, Senator Cassidy and I and others on this committee have legislation.

00:48But forget the legislation for a moment. If you had your druthers, if you had your wish,

00:54what should the federal government be doing to expand the concept of employee ownership and ESOPs?

01:02Be brief. I'd like to hear from everybody.

01:06Microphone.

01:07Given this huge potential of trillions of dollars of companies that could be potentially owned by ESOPs,

01:16we do need significant loan and loan guarantee programs to make this possible.

01:22Secondly, we need, and this is my personal opinion,

01:27that the unclarity about valuation and adequate consideration is really something that needs to be resolved.

01:36Okay, good. Mr. Morton.

01:39Um, I would second on the, on the, on the clarity, on the clarity point. I think that's, you know,

01:44just under understanding, understanding the, the, the guidelines would be, would be a huge benefit.

01:49Um, I think for me, education and awareness, anything, I mean, I think there's already,

01:53um, there's obviously there's barriers to entry to, to all, to all, um, areas of business,

01:57but I feel like with ESOPs, there's just a little bit of, there's another.

02:00Do you think that there are a lot of workers and in fact owners, people who started a business,

02:05so everything being equal would like to leave their business to the employees, if they could,

02:11do you think there is the kind of awareness about that, that there should be in the country?

02:14Not enough. No, I don't think there's enough. I think like, I obviously, if someone truly,

02:19truly wants to, wants to invest time, resources into, into, into determining, I think the resources

02:23are, are out there. Um, but I think there, there are enough, like I said, enough barriers to maybe

02:28distract, um, um, owners from going, going down that path.

02:33Okay. Mr. Dubley?

02:34I'll echo that. Um, I think that awareness certainly would help out there in the community.

02:40I think that simplicity would certainly help. Um, you know, these are complex transactions and,

02:47uh, the easier we make it through legislation and otherwise to help companies form ESOPs

02:52would certainly be helpful. And then obviously we, we need some of this legislation to get passed.

02:57So some bipartisan, uh, approval and, and attempt to move some of this forward.

03:01All of the legislation that the speakers have, have mentioned and myself today are all positive

03:07and, and leading in the right direction. We just, we just would like to see them, uh, come to fruition.

03:12Mr. Rock.

03:12I think, uh, we've got lots of good suggestions here. I would add one more. Uh, we have the ability

03:20as, as a C Corp to, uh, defer taxes, uh, uh, when a C Corp converts. And, you know, there are many other

03:28types of businesses out there that, uh, have the potential to become employee owned that maybe aren't

03:33C Corps. It would be nice to have that. Uh, that is an incentive to encourage people to go.

03:38So the clarification around, uh, the valuation is, is vital. Uh, I know of businesses that have been

03:44afraid to go because of concerns about that long-term. Okay. All right. Anything, uh, else

03:51that we didn't discuss that you would like to throw out here? Anything of, okay. Thank you,

03:59Mr. Chairman.

Category

Transcript

Recommended