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With the belated decisions by McDonalds, Starbucks, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to suspend operations in Russia this week, some of the most iconic global food and beverage companies have finally joined the ranks of international corporations delivering both an economic and symbolic blow to Russia.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has given the business community a rare opportunity to align its interests with the concerns of most Americans, particularly younger, more socially active consumers a prized demographic for youth-conscious corporations. In this case, business activism and savvy marketing could turn out to be a win-win for everyone.

McDonalds, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were consideredbrands of liberation in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, blazing new trails in the former Soviet states and China. Still, for two weeks, these companies dithered in suspending their operations as other companies some with more at stake broke with Russia. Considering their status, it took a remarkably long time for them to close their doors. Possibly it was the shame of showing up on lists like the one created by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team. Their roster of Companies That Remain in Russia With Significant Exposure has been acutely effective in tracking corporate laggards.

Despite the cost of abandoning major investments and the loss of business, there is a strong reputational incentive to withdraw,wrote Sonnenfeld in aFortunecommentary.Companies that fail to withdraw face a wave of U.S. public resentment far greater than what they face on climate change, voting rights, gun safety, immigration reform, or border security.

This corporate activism is straight out of risk and reputational management bibles, especially when recent surveys show that 75 percent of Americans want companies to close their businesses in Russia. With that kind of evidence, it doesnt require a high level of C-suite leadership and courage to muster a boycott to satisfy consumers and employees.

McDonalds Chief Executive Chris Kempczinski announced Tuesday it would temporarily close its 850 restaurants in the country, although it said it would keep its 62,000 local employees on the payroll during the suspension.Our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine, he said in a statement.

Once McDonalds announced its decision, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo quickly followed suit. All this opportune corporate patriotism begs the question of why it took so long to leave Russia, even temporarily. Any further delays and they were inviting serious consequences. Its hard to find a reputational downside for companies that will likely continue to benefit from maintaining their embrace of democratic principles.

Taking the principled high ground poses little moral jeopardy here, but it does present some economic jeopardy and potentially some costs on the ground for employees in Russian cities. Take McDonalds. While Russian operations make up only about 3 percent of its operating revenue, they make up 9 percent of its revenue.

If the invasion continues for months or if it turns into an occupation, corporations will have to make tougher choices. The economic consequences could be substantial if those American restaurants, offices and plants in Russia remain closed. Once the accolades fade, the importance of shareholder value will return to the fore. Additionally, international business may be reaching an inflection point with a realignment of unchecked globalization, where free markets have driven global business policies for four decades.

But none of that may matter for the growing number of Millennials who are dominating the workforce (35 percent) and rising up in the ranks of politics, government and academia. Corporate social responsibility isnt just a good PR move for the Millennials, its a philosophy for life, even if it comes at a cost of higher gas prices or fewer options in the marketplace. Corporations may be forced to pay a tab for their years of well-intentioned but somewhat low-risk corporate social responsibility.

Temporarily closing businesses sends a potent message to Russian leaders, even if it is dismaying for Russian citizens, but the question is whether companies will walk the talk as the price for decency deepens. Thats when activists will find out if corporate America is a fair-weather friend or an ally in the bigger battle to safeguard human rights and defend democracy.

James R. Baileyis a professor of leadership development at the George Washington University School of Business. He is the author of five books and hundreds of articles, and the founder and editor ofLessons on Leadership. Follow him on Twitter@ProfJamesBailey.

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When business aligns with activism | TheHill - The Hill

TAMPA Even if they see little hope of participating fully in U.S. society, many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States got what they came for chiefly, relief from grinding poverty and oppression.

But for those living in the Tampa Bay area, the price of life in the shadows is rising with the explosion in housing costs. Its a trend that cuts across all segments of the community and is driving local leaders to set aside tens of millions of dollars in rental assistance.

For undocumented immigrants like Freddy and Monica Dulanto of Tampa, prospects appear particularly dim. They cannot hope for better jobs and salaries, they have no credit history to present, and they dont qualify for government-backed loans or the new round of rent-relief efforts.

Before the housing market heated up, the Dulantos held out hope they might be able to afford a bigger place for their family and maybe even a home of their own.

The dream to be a homeowner was never easy to achieve, said Dulanto, 53, who came to the United States two decades ago from Lima, Peru, with his wife and their two children. Now, its almost impossible.

Like everyone struggling to pay the rent, undocumented immigrants face a market that has failed to keep up with demand for housing since the Great Recession in 2008. People are moving to Florida in record numbers during a period of low interest rates, contributing to the soaring prices, experts say.

The numbers are staggering.

Tampa Bays rent increased by a record 24 percent in 2021, highest in the nation, according to CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data firm. In the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, 25 percent of renters pay more than 50 percent of their income toward housing, according to The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A minimum-wage worker would need the equivalent of nearly three full-time jobs to afford a two-bedroom rental in Hillsborough County, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

To many Americans, undocumented immigrants are lawbreakers deserving punishment not help. For decades, sharp political divisions over how to treat them has stymied efforts in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Meantime, their numbers have reached 775,000 in Florida, according to 2016 estimates from the nonprofit Pew Research Center.

Linda Wiggins-Chavis, a community organizer for the nonprofit Faith in Florida, sees their struggles firsthand.

Its terribly unfair and painful to see families, women and children living almost on the streets or in one-room motels in deplorable conditions, said Wiggins-Chavis, who works with low-income and working-class communities in rural Wimauma and other Hillsborough County communities.

Desperate for housing, many fall victim to fraud, she said.

She recalled the case of a middle-aged Hispanic woman who, even before the recent explosion in housing costs, saw the rent on her one-bedroom Tampa apartment rise without warning by $500 to $1,400 a month. It took her nine months of scrambling for places to stay before she found another place to live.

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People are suffering, and in many cases, they suffer in silence because they dont know where to go or dont know their rights, Wiggins-Chavis said.

Among those squeezed by the rising housing costs are Texas-born Francis Garcia-Cruz, 34, and her husband Manuel, 35, who entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico two decades ago.

Garcia-Cruz works in landscaping 10 hours per day, six days a week, earning $13 per hour, and his wife stays home to care for the youngest of their five children, a 1-month-old boy. They saved up the $1,000 deposit they needed to rent an old mobile home in Seffner, where they pay $900 a month.

We didnt have an air conditioner before, but my husband bought a portable one, Francis Garcia-Cruz said.

Theyve been unable to overcome the stumbling blocks they face trying to find a bigger home $75 for each application fee, two months rent in advance, a security deposit of half a months rent and the backing of a personal guarantor.

Whats more, Francis Garcia-Cruz has a poor credit record and her husband, as an undocumented immigrant, cant qualify for a social security card.

We have only one income in the family and we cant wait for miracles, she said. The situation is tough but what else can we do?

Connections in Tampa helped land a place to live for a family who fled the social and economic collapse in Venezuela and lived as refugees in Peru before entering the United States.

Danys De Los Angeles, 47, arrived here earlier this month with her husband Fernando, 42, and their two children, 14 and 8. They crossed the Rio Grande illegally from Mexico and surrendered to U.S. officials, hoping to win asylum.

Theyre living with a close friend, his wife, their two children and his mother-in-law crammed into a two-bedroom apartment.

De Los Angeles thought the $1,500 she had saved would be enough to find a place to live in Tampa. Phone calls and internet searches dashed those hopes. The money wouldnt even cover a months rent, she said. Landlords wanted to charge her more because shes undocumented and cant present a credit history.

In Peru we paid $300 for a family apartment, De Los Angeles said. I never thought I would have to pay so much money for something similar.

Like many undocumented immigrants, Freddy and Monica Dulanto settled in the United States after overstaying their visas. They had talked often through the years about ways to earn more money, buy a four-bedroom home and stop throwing their money down a rental hole.

Together, the Tampa couple make about $2,000 a month cleaning homes and offices. Theyre limited to minimum wage jobs because they dont have legal status, cant speak English and lack a formal education.

Their two sons, Diego, 23, and Leonardo, 28, contribute another $700 a month. Brought by their parents to the United States, they have legal status through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and attend the University of South Florida. The couple also has a daughter, Nicole, 17.

The Dulantos work 14 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. During the first 18 months of the pandemic, they saw their hours cut but managed to keep up with bills that included $1,100 rent for their two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in Town n Country.

We tried to save every dollar but sometimes things happen, Freddy Dulanto said.

Eight months ago, the landlord informed them their rental contract was being terminated.

We felt devastated because we were good renters, Freddy Dulanto said.

The Dulantos moved into an older three-bedroom, two-bath single-family home near Linebaugh Avenue and 40th Street.

The rent is steep for them: $2,300 per month. The cost of moving in was difficult to raise: $5,900, counting the deposit, two months rent and $300 dollars for four application forms.

It was a big sacrifice for the whole family, Freddy Dulanto said. We had to borrow from some friends to pay off that money.

Added Monica Dulanto, This is the worst nightmare we have been through in this country. Twenty years of struggling, this was the worst stage.

The father sleeps in the living room with his eldest son while Monica and Nicole stay in the master bedroom. Diego sleeps in the third room with Holly, their familys 5-year-old Shih Tzu.

At least were still together as a family, Freddy Dulanto said. That gives us strength to continue.

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Unable to adjust, undocumented families hit hard by Tampa Bay housing costs - Tampa Bay Times

With an ambitious speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Monday night, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton became the latest Republican presidential aspirant to try and get himself anointed Donald Trump's populist successor. Cotton's remarks were noteworthy primarily for establishing him as a master of obfuscation who will go to almost comical lengths to paper over the party's many disagreements and contradictions.

One way to describe the fissures in the GOP is to contrast Reagan and Trump. The first was sunny and optimistic, a confident defender of democratic ideals who took a strong stand against the Soviet Union while championing immigration, free trade, and limited government at home. The second trafficked in anger and resentment, openly admiring dictators, denigrating NATO, and favoring closed borders and protectionist policies designed to insulate American workers from market forces.

Cotton elided these many differences by claiming that Reagan and Trump belong to the American populist tradition that traces back to President Andrew Jackson. According to Cotton, this tradition is known for proudly and unapologetically defending America's interests in the world and the interests of ordinary Americans against corrupt economic and political elites.

Cotton then set himself up as the truest successor of the Jacksonian tradition by calling out the biggest mistake made by each of his populist predecessors. Reagan, he claimed, should never have gone along with an immigration amnesty as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. As for Trump, his greatest error was supporting and signing the First Step Act, which passed the Senate in 2018 with 87 votes. (Cotton was one of 12 Republicans to oppose the bill.) It was championed by libertarians and widely hailed for its efforts to reform criminal law, sentencing guidelines, and federal prison policy to enhance fairness and reduce the inmate population.

As far as Cotton is concerned, the current surge in violent crime can be traced directly to this law, which supposedly encouraged the hiring of progressive prosecutors who engage in "nullification" by failing to prosecute criminals. The law also resulted in a drop in the prison population by "more than 400,000 inmates in 2020 alone," driven by the "faddish claim that our country has an over-incarceration problem" when in fact "we have an under-incarceration problem."

Combine this diatribe with other passages of the speech denouncing "globalism" and chain migration, calling for presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci to be fired and "held accountable," denouncing the indoctrination of "our kids with extremist nonsense" in schools, railing against China, and mocking President Biden's appeasement of Russia and listeners could be forgiven for assuming Cotton's vision of Jacksonian populism amounts to a nastier and more competent version of Trumpism that's also an outright repudiation of Reaganism.

If that's what Tom Cotton wants the Republican Party to stand for, he can certainly try to make it a reality and ride it all the way to the Oval Office. But he should admit the truth that this vision has as little to do with Reagan as it does with Abraham Lincoln, another president Cotton attempted even more absurdly to fold into the Jacksonian tradition. Anything else is deliberate mystification.

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Cotton can't square the circle between Reagan and Trump - The Week

U.S. Labor Secretary, Marty Walsh

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh visited Durham Technical College with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about President Bidens plan of increasing job growth and supporting the middle class.

The Bureau of Labor reported on Feb. 4 that unemployment has decreased by 3.7 million people in January. In comparison, 5.7 million people were unemployed in February 2020. This is attributed to the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill that passed in November and the framework of the Build Back Better Act that is being revised by the Senate.

Weve been investing in job training and workforce development programs to get people back to work, Walsh said.

The infrastructure bill supports funding for economic development such as repaving roads, creating more efficient energy sources like electric charging stations for cars and providing research grants to educational institutions.

Having efficient energy accessible allows the cost for consumers to decrease and for research grants to institutions. The Labor Department is also spending $45 million for grant programs to strengthen community colleges, the News and Observer Reported. The grant programs introduce job training and focus on bringing more diverse people in the workforce, particularly people in the middle class.

Theres no question, its not just job growth, but creating, a pathway into the middle class for people, Walsh said. When you think about somebody thats working in a labor union job, that job comes with benefits, comes with, in some cases, healthcare.. Im a firm believer in collaboration. I think, if companies and unions were close together, companies can grow as well.

The Build Back Better Act is similar to the infrastructure bill in cultivating more opportunities for free childcare for children under 6 years old, free preschool programs, free community college for up to six semesters and providing up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Now that the bill will have revisions, the new name is Build Back Better Framework.

The new changes will allow families to afford childcare based on their tax bracket and reduce cost for middle-class families by moving towards clean energy, according to the White House. In efforts by Biden to rebuild the middle class, the framework includes investing in immigration reform and having the framework paid for by large businesses and wealthy individuals. If someone is making under $400,000 then their taxes will stay the same.

However, this is not until the House and Senate can agree on the framework.

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Labor Secretary Marty Walsh explains how legislation is supporting the working class - A & T Register

Two groups within mega-donor Charles Koch's political network on Thursday launched a campaign to push lawmakers toward a broad immigration reform bill.

The groups, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Libre Initiative, will spend seven figures on digital ads, mailers and local events to call on senators to move forward with immigration legislationpaired with border security measures.

The Koch groups are part of a broader effort of immigration supporters across the political spectrum buoyed by recent polls showing that around three quarters of Americans support allowing many undocumented immigrants to regularize their status.

And a recent poll by Libre found that 93 percent of respondents think Congress should act on immigration and the border.

Politicians in Washington are failing their constituents. Practical immigration fixes would give us a stronger economy, a stronger border, and a stronger America. An overwhelming number of Americans agree, but Congress cares more about fighting than solving problems," said Daniel Garza, president of the Libre Initiative.

"Our call is simple: start by pairing reforms that have broad support and lets start reforming our outdated immigration systems, he added.

Libre and AFP on Wednesday joined in a letter with a coalition of faith, advocacy, business and education leaders, calling on leaders in both houses of Congress to move on immigration reform.

"At no other point in recent history has the need for immigration reform been greater than it is today. Simply put, the system is broken," reads the letter, signed collectively by a group called Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus.

The Koch groups' campaign comes in the wake of President BidenJoe BidenFire breaks out at major nuclear plant in Ukraine amid fighting Russia inflames political war over gas prices, oil drilling On The Money Push to block Russian imports hits wall MORE's State of the Union address, where he laid out an immigration vision that combines permanent legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants, temporary status holders and Dreamers with border security investments.

Among many immigration advocates, the idea of combining border security and immigration reform had fallen out of favor, as attempts at comprehensive immigration reform had crumbled and the Trump administration's laser focus on enforcement and security showcased the dysfunctions of the existing immigration system.

But immigration-centric legislation has stalled in Congress, even as an assortment of bills has passed the House with some bipartisan support.

And a slew of recent polls has consistently shown that large majorities want action on the issue, although Republicans tend to prioritize border security measures and Democrats tend to focus on the immigration system itself.

"Rather than continuing to use immigration as a wedge issue, we urge lawmakers to roll up their sleeves and drive solutions that both tackle these issues and have broad public support. But Congress must do the work to get this done," said Jorge Lima, senior vice president for policy at AFP.

"That is why we are devoting resources and marshaling our activists across the nation to contact their elected officials, share their support and urgency, and drive decisive action on these solutions without delay," added Lima.

This story was updated at 9:17 a.m.

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Exclusive: Koch groups launch ad campaign to promote immigration reform | TheHill - The Hill