18 Feb 2015 TV Host Mobilizes Viewers to Fight for National Center in Campaign for Political Freedom at Costco

Last week, National Center Free Enterprise Project Director Justin Danhof told One America News Network host Rick Amato about how Costco management is effectively creating an atmosphere that allows for the potential political persecution of its employees in the workplace.  Since then Amato’s outrage for the callousness of the retail giant has encouraged him to use his program as a tool to make a difference in this situation.

Amato began that effort on the 2/17/15 edition of “The Rick Amato Show” when he interviewed Justin again to talk about the Costco problem and ask his viewers to get involved by calling a Costco executive to complain about this threat to employee political freedom.

The National Center had asked Costco to amend its code of conduct to make sure employees at all of its stores cannot be discriminated against for their private political beliefs – a threat that exists for private sector employees in half of the United States.  Costco management fought the National Center’s shareholder proposal on the topic and won the ability to ignore it.  Furthermore, Costco Chairman Jeffrey Brotman rebuffed Justin at the company’s recent shareholder meeting, claiming the company had the situation under control and encouraged employee political participation.

Justin remains skeptical, and he told Amato:

I think that it’s a pretty strange response, considering the fact that Costco has about 195,000 employees.  I’m pretty sure that the chairman of the board can’t oversee every one of them on a daily basis to make sure that some supervisor in a Costco location isn’t taking an adverse action against them.

As Justin further explained, the threat of persecution can detract from participation in America’s political processes.  He noted:

[R]ight now in America, we have hecklers’ vetoes deciding who can be employed, where and how.  And we think that in a country where we have a tremendous amount of freedoms, where we have the freedom to select our government, to select our leaders – [it’s a shame] so few people partake in that.

That’s why we think that this project is important – for our employers to make it clear.  And we think it can have a domino effect and spread.  And hopefully your viewers can help with that.

Amato was incensed by Justin’s story, calling the behavior of Costco management “fascist.”  He instructed his national viewership to call Costco’s head of investor relations to let the company know how they felt about their fight against the National Center.  Amato declared:

I’m going to make a call to action to our viewers right now.

If you are as troubled as I am, as Justin Danhof is, at the actions of Costco executive management allowing themselves to fire any employee – primarily conservative and libertarian employees – who have political speech outside of work which Costco does not agree with.  If you want to call on this publicly-traded company to change their policy, we’re going to give out a phone number right now, on the screen… That is the direct line, direct phone number, directly to the executive vice president of investor relations for Costco, a gentleman by the name of Richard Galanti.