Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | June 22, 2020 | wbjournal.com As public attitudes shi and workers demand more for employers, more companies and CEO are taking stands on divisive issues D r. Eric Dickson runs the largest employer in Central Massachusetts, and as the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Dickson has seen the hospital system through the coronavirus pandemic and at one point treating a few hundred affected patients at a time. What was one of Dickson's most passionate addresses this year to employees was not pandemic-related though. It was about the killing of George Floyd and the following national race and equality movement. Dickson sent a 1,200-word email the same June 5 aernoon when he stood with a few hundred doctors and other health providers for a rally called White Coats for Black Lives. e gathering of employees at UMass Memorial and UMass Medical School on the Worcester campus they share included 10 minutes of silence, slightly longer than the length of time a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on Floyd's neck, killing him. "In my mind," Dickson said in the staff email, "racism is a deadly, life- altering disease just like cancer, heart disease or COVID-19. Is there a cure for systemic racism? We clearly haven't found one yet." In a phone interview, Dickson, who is white, said he didn't hesitate to be outspoken on the issue. "For those of us in medicine, we think of this like a disease, like a cancer," he said. "What happened to George Floyd is like a symptom of the disease." It wasn't long ago CEOs were notably absent from such societal debates. For decades, business heads were advised not to talk about hot-button issues such as religion or politics, said Peter Cohan, a strategy lecturer at Babson College in Wellesley. at mindset held even through the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in Ferguson, Mo. Before the Floyd case, Brown's death was perhaps the biggest flashpoint in modern race relations. "A lot of companies didn't say much" then, Cohan said. "Over time, there's been a growing feeling that more and more CEOs need to speak out on political issues." A changing attitude Leaders of major businesses have spoken out far more in the past few years than they would have before. Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack ordered a ban on selling assault rifles aer the Parkland, Fla., school shooting in 2018. A range of companies cut ties with the trade and lobbying group National Rifle Association aer the Florida school shooting. CEOs are becoming more outspoken because their employees – especially younger ones – want them to, said Nicole Melton, a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. "Silence is deafening," Melton said. "When you're silent, you're complicit." A national 2019 poll by the New York public relations firm Weber Shandwick found 48% of Millennial workers considered themselves employee activists; they spoke up to support or criticize their employer's actions over a controversial issue affecting society; 38% of all workers felt the same way, including 27% of Baby Boomers. Polling now shows most Americans to be in support of racial equality efforts, giving business leaders less reason to hesitate to be outspoken. In a Washington Post poll released in early June, 69% of American adults called the killing of black Americans by police to be part of broader problems. When the question was asked in 2014 following Brown's death, 43% felt that way. Taking a stance on a divisive issue appeared to pay off for Nike. e stock price of the company rose 5% and its value increased $6 billion in the year aer it began an advertising and merchandising campaign with former professional football player Colin Kaepernick, who stirred controversy by kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality. Central Mass. leaders speak out Luis Pedraja, the president of Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, was among the first prominent business leaders to speak out aer Floyd's death. He and QCC's police chief, Kevin Ritacco, each issued a statement to the college community. Pedraja, who was born in Cuba, wrote colleges value differences, protect dissent and engage in civil discourse. Ritacco said he was "appalled, disgusted and disillusioned" by Floyd's death. In a phone interview, Pedraja said he wasn't sure what to say aer the incident but knew he couldn't be silent. QCC's student body is 14% black and 21% Hispanic, and nearly half of its students are people of color. "I felt compelled to say something because it was such an emotionally BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor PHOTO/GRANT WELKER Role of CEOs on societal issues has shied A few hundred doctors and others at UMass Memorial Medical Center and the UMass Medical School gathered at their shared Worcester campus June 5 to support racial equality. Executives at both institutions were among those present.

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