motherjones--2020-12-24--Giving Away Billions of Dollars Is Hard Work—Just Ask MacKenzie Scott

Never mind the old saying , A person actually can be too thin—and too rich .
Consider the opening lines of Just Giving , an eye-opening book published earlier this year by Stanford political scientist Rob Reich : Gates was Rockefeller ’ s trusted business and philanthropic adviser , who helped the tycoon incorporate one of the nation ’ s first general purpose charitable foundations , but he could easily have been delivering that warning to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos—or perhaps the novelist-turned-philanthropist MacKenzie Scott , who made headlines last week when she revealed on Medium that she has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost $ 4.2 billion to 384 organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico .
Scott did not do this alone .
Her efforts , she wrote , required a host of experts and advisers working on the project full time : The team sought suggestions and perspective from hundreds of field experts , funders , and non-profit leaders and volunteers with decades of experience .
We leveraged this collective knowledge base in a collaboration that included hundreds of emails and phone interviews , and thousands of pages of data analysis on community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ non-profit ’ s capacity to absorb and make effective use of funding .
We looked at 6,490 organizations , and undertook deeper research into 822 .
We put 438 of these on hold for now due to insufficient evidence of impact , unproven management teams , or to allow for further inquiry about specific issues such as treatment of community members or employees .
We won ’ t always learn about a concern inside an organization , but when we do , we ’ ll take extra time to evaluate .
We ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ analysis , but we ’ ll eliminate many .
Then we can select organizations to assist—and get out of their way .
In other words , giving away a fortune is work—painstaking work , as those faced with the task have long known .
“ It is well to remember , ” the industrialist Andrew Carnegie wrote in 1889 , “ that it requires the exercise of not less ability than that which acquires the wealth , to use it so as to be really beneficial to the community.
” This is one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forthcoming book on American wealth and inequality based on two years of research and reporting .
One super-wealthy character , also an author , laments that she just wants to write her books , but her inherited millions have created such a burden of responsibility ( to put the money to beneficial use ) and fear ( of how it might affect her children ) that she can barely focus .
Her family ’ s fortune—from financial services , not books—has brought her big advantages but also anxieties , complicating her relationships , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world .
It ’ s not as though she can commiserate with her less-privileged friends , either .
The typical response to the problems of rich people is , “ So , why don ’ t you just give all your money away ?
” Because it ’ s really hard .
On May 25 , 2019 , not long after ending her quarter-century marriage with Bezos , Scott signed Bill Gates ’ Giving Pledge , agreeing to dedicate a majority of her wealth for charitable purposes , preferably while she ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just over half , but Scott vowed to “ keep at it until the safe is empty.
” And that ’ s a tall order .
When she signed the pledge , Scott was worth about $ 37 billion , mostly in Amazon stock , which has soared during the pandemic .
This past September , she briefly became the richest woman in the world , with assets exceeding $ 66 billion .
( Alice Walton quickly snatched the title back . )
This Bloomberg chart shows the value of Scott ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Since the mid-1980s , the fortunes of America ’ s wealthiest families have indeed rolled up like an avalanche .
Just from 2016 to the present , the combined net worth of Americans with assets of $ 30 million or more increased by almost one-third .
Our way of capitalism and political influence-peddling , combined with longstanding tax policies that favor wealthy investors over everyday workers , ensures that the more money you have , the more you will get .
“ I think possibly with only one or two exceptions every single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money today than when they signed the pledge , and their net gains exceed what they ’ ve given since they signed the Giving Pledge , ” author Reich told me in June .
The COVID fiasco , more so than most disasters , has triggered an outpouring of charity .
“ We ’ ve seen significantly larger gifts from more high-net-worth individuals than ever before , ” Adia Colar , a spokesperson for Candid , which tracks foundation activities , said in an email .
An analysis by the Council of Foundations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found that about 60 percent of their foundations were giving more than originally planned for 2020—the average increase was 17 percent .
Most of them , like Scott , were also placing fewer restrictions than Big Philanthropy normally does on how the beneficiaries could use their gifts .
The George Floyd protests , too , prompted people to open their pocketbooks .
“ Funding spikes for racial equity in 2020 have been unprecedented , ” Colar notes .
Direct comparisons are difficult because of recent changes in the way Candid procures its data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the organization tracked $ 3.3 billion in giving by American donors focused on racial equity .
For 2020 , as of mid-December , Candid tallied $ 10.9 billion in US grants , including $ 882 million from individuals .
That means more than three-quarters of this decade ’ s racial-equity giving came in this year alone .
The largesse is long overdue , for the decades overall giving rates haven ’ t come close to matching the growth in value of the equities markets , which accounts for the majority of wealthy Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ foundations in the United States spent only 6 percent of their assets on grants and overhead in 2019—a year in which the S & P 500 gained a staggering 30 percent .
To Scott ’ s credit , she is well on her way to creating a new blueprint for social justice giving , a not-so-subtle kick in the ass to fellow billionaires—including her ex , the biggest of the big fish—who avoid taxes like the plague , and whose philanthropy often just perpetuates the cycle that directs the nation ’ s spoils @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past summer , she completed another big round of giving focused on leveling the playing field— $ 587 million to racial equity causes , $ 46 million to LGBTQ equity , $ 133 million to gender equity , $ 400 million to bolstering economic mobility .
If you are wealthy and you lament the unfairness baked into our system—and you actually mean what you say—this is the way to give .
Wholeheartedly .
“ Most philanthropy is scooping soup , ” points out Nick Hanauer , an early Amazon investor and self-described “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and effort into tackling economic inequality .
“ It doesn ’ t ask the question , ‘ Why are there so many people in line who need soup ?
’ The truth is , they need soup because they ’ re not paid enough…And so , you can scoop soup—or you can build a national movement around forcing companies like Walmart to pay people enough so they don ’ t fucking need to go to the soup kitchen to get their food.
” My interview with Hanauer took place well before COVID-19 took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perceptions of where we stand as a nation , to borrow Scott ’ s reference .
“ I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror , ” she wrote in July .
“ Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems ; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust , but also unstable .
”

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Never mind the old saying. A person actually can be too thin—and too rich. Consider the opening lines of Just Giving, an eye-opening book published earlier this year by Stanford political scientist Rob Reich:
“Your fortune is rolling up, rolling up like an avalanche! You must keep up with it! You must distribute it faster than it grows! If you do not, it will crush you, and your children, and your children’s children!” So wrote Frederick Gates to sixty-seven-year-old John D. Rockefeller in 1906. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil, a corporation that had generated a colossal fortune and made him the richest man in the world.
Gates was Rockefeller’s trusted business and philanthropic adviser, who helped the tycoon incorporate one of the nation’s first general purpose charitable foundations, but he could easily have been delivering that warning to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos—or perhaps the novelist-turned-philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who made headlines last week when she revealed on Medium that she has spent the past four months giving away almost $4.2 billion to 384 organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico.
Scott did not do this alone. Her efforts, she wrote, required a host of experts and advisers working on the project full time:
The team sought suggestions and perspective from hundreds of field experts, funders, and non-profit leaders and volunteers with decades of experience. We leveraged this collective knowledge base in a collaboration that included hundreds of emails and phone interviews, and thousands of pages of data analysis on community needs, program outcomes, and each non-profit’s capacity to absorb and make effective use of funding. We looked at 6,490 organizations, and undertook deeper research into 822. We put 438 of these on hold for now due to insufficient evidence of impact, unproven management teams, or to allow for further inquiry about specific issues such as treatment of community members or employees. We won’t always learn about a concern inside an organization, but when we do, we’ll take extra time to evaluate. We’ll never eliminate every risk through our analysis, but we’ll eliminate many. Then we can select organizations to assist—and get out of their way.
In other words, giving away a fortune is work—painstaking work, as those faced with the task have long known. “It is well to remember,” the industrialist Andrew Carnegie wrote in 1889, “that it requires the exercise of not less ability than that which acquires the wealth, to use it so as to be really beneficial to the community.”
This is one theme I explore in Jackpot, my forthcoming book on American wealth and inequality based on two years of research and reporting. One super-wealthy character, also an author, laments that she just wants to write her books, but her inherited millions have created such a burden of responsibility (to put the money to beneficial use) and fear (of how it might affect her children) that she can barely focus. Her family’s fortune—from financial services, not books—has brought her big advantages but also anxieties, complicating her relationships, parenting, and sense of place in the world. It’s not as though she can commiserate with her less-privileged friends, either. The typical response to the problems of rich people is, “So, why don’t you just give all your money away?”
Because it’s really hard. On May 25, 2019, not long after ending her quarter-century marriage with Bezos, Scott signed Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, agreeing to dedicate a majority of her wealth for charitable purposes, preferably while she’s still alive. A majority means just over half, but Scott vowed to “keep at it until the safe is empty.”
And that’s a tall order. When she signed the pledge, Scott was worth about $37 billion, mostly in Amazon stock, which has soared during the pandemic. This past September, she briefly became the richest woman in the world, with assets exceeding $66 billion. (Alice Walton quickly snatched the title back.) This Bloomberg chart shows the value of Scott’s holdings over the past 12 months.
Since the mid-1980s, the fortunes of America’s wealthiest families have indeed rolled up like an avalanche. Just from 2016 to the present, the combined net worth of Americans with assets of $30 million or more increased by almost one-third. Our way of capitalism and political influence-peddling, combined with longstanding tax policies that favor wealthy investors over everyday workers, ensures that the more money you have, the more you will get. “I think possibly with only one or two exceptions every single person on the Giving Pledge has more money today than when they signed the pledge, and their net gains exceed what they’ve given since they signed the Giving Pledge,” author Reich told me in June.
The COVID fiasco, more so than most disasters, has triggered an outpouring of charity. “We’ve seen significantly larger gifts from more high-net-worth individuals than ever before,” Adia Colar, a spokesperson for Candid, which tracks foundation activities, said in an email. An analysis by the Council of Foundations based on surveys of 250 philanthropic leaders found that about 60 percent of their foundations were giving more than originally planned for 2020—the average increase was 17 percent. Most of them, like Scott, were also placing fewer restrictions than Big Philanthropy normally does on how the beneficiaries could use their gifts.
“Most philanthropy is scooping soup. It doesn’t ask the question, ‘Why are there so many people in line who need soup?”
The George Floyd protests, too, prompted people to open their pocketbooks. “Funding spikes for racial equity in 2020 have been unprecedented,” Colar notes. Direct comparisons are difficult because of recent changes in the way Candid procures its data; yet from 2011 to 2019, the organization tracked $3.3 billion in giving by American donors focused on racial equity. For 2020, as of mid-December, Candid tallied $10.9 billion in US grants, including $882 million from individuals. That means more than three-quarters of this decade’s racial-equity giving came in this year alone.
The largesse is long overdue. For decades, overall giving rates haven’t come close to matching the growth in value of the equities markets, which accounts for the majority of wealthy Americans’ fortunes. For example, private foundations in the United States spent only 6 percent of their assets on grants and overhead in 2019—a year in which the S&P 500 gained a whopping 29 percent.
To Scott’s credit, she is well on her way to creating a new blueprint for social justice giving, a not-so-subtle kick in the ass to fellow billionaires—including her ex, the biggest of the big fish—who avoid taxes like the plague, and whose philanthropy often just perpetuates the cycle that directs the nation’s spoils disproportionately into their own coffers. This past summer, she completed another big round of giving focused on leveling the playing field—$587 million to racial equity causes, $46 million to LGBTQ equity, $133 million to gender equity, $400 million to bolstering economic mobility. If you are wealthy and you lament the unfairness baked into our system—and you actually mean what you say—this is the way to give. Wholeheartedly.
“Most philanthropy is scooping soup,” points out Nick Hanauer, an early Amazon investor and self-described “plutocrat” who has put considerable time and effort into tackling economic inequality. “It doesn’t ask the question, ‘Why are there so many people in line who need soup?’ The truth is, they need soup because they’re not paid enough…And so, you can scoop soup—or you can build a national movement around forcing companies like Walmart to pay people enough so they don’t fucking need to go to the soup kitchen to get their food.”
My interview with Hanauer took place well before COVID-19 took a “wrecking ball” to popular perceptions of where we stand as a nation, to borrow Scott’s reference. “I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror,” she wrote in July. “Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust, but also unstable.”


motherjones--2020-12-24--After an “Extremely Preventable” Death of a Temporary Worker, Experts Worry About FedEx’s Safety Pra

After an “Extremely Preventable” Death of a Temporary Worker, Experts Worry About FedEx’s Safety Practices

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This story was originally published by ProPublica .
MEMPHIS , Tenn. — Fannie Stanberry had been on the job for two months as a package handler at FedEx Express ’ massive World Hub when , toward the end of her overnight shift , packages started to fall from a huge shipping container that rolled past her .
As Stanberry , then 61 , bent to pick up the packages , she fell and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ d been standing on and the wheeled platform carrying the shipping container , also known as a dolly .
“ I thought I was a goner , ” Stanberry said .
She broke eight ribs and her left arm and lacerated her liver , she said .
“ I had to learn how to walk over again.
” FedEx , which is headquartered in Memphis , reported the Nov. 22 , 2016 , incident to the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration , the agency charged with protecting workers .
TOSHA asked the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corrections , according to state records reviewed by MLK50 : Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica and reported here for the first time .
FedEx told TOSHA it would train employees on safe work methods , and the agency declared the company ’ s response sufficient and closed its case .
Nearly three years later , a strikingly similar incident at the same location claimed the life of Duntate Young , a 23-year-old temporary worker who ’ d been on the job just shy of a month .
Like Stanberry , his job was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by motorized tugs .
A worker closed but didn ’ t lock the vinyl door of a container , a practice that was common .
When packages fell against the door , it swung open , hitting Young in the back of the leg .
He fell chest first into a metal pole .
The church musician , devoted father and rapper was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital .
This time , TOSHA did an on-site investigation .
It concluded that FedEx was aware from Stanberry ’ s injury of the hazards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them around , but that the company had not done enough to fix the problem .
FedEx , whose annual revenue tops $ 75 billion , was fined $ 7,000 in March for failing to provide a workplace “ free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.
” The penalty was later reduced to $ 5,950 , after FedEx provided TOSHA with a list of measures it took to prevent similar incidents .
As FedEx faces what is its busiest season ever — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doses across the country — experts say what happened to Young and the citation that resulted raise key questions about the company ’ s safety practices .
Young ’ s death was “ extremely preventable , ” said Peter Dooley , a certified industrial hygienist for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health , which promotes worker safety .
“ The fact that this similar circumstance ends up in fatality several years later just shows how inadequate the investigation and follow up was into the previous incident.
” Workers interviewed by MLK50 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work faster than they felt was safe , and that the training they received , if any , bore little resemblance to what they actually did on the job .
“ A lot of stuff they just overlook because everybody is just trying to rush to get through , ” said former FedEx employee Aisha Prater , who was packing shipping containers at the hub the night Young was killed .
FedEx ’ s data shows the rising hazards to its workers : The number of fatalities at FedEx locations increased from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years to 10 last year , according to its most recent Global Citizenship Report .
Its rate of time off taken after nonfatal , traumatic injuries rose 28 % in North America between fiscal 2017 and 2019 , though the data is not broken out for its World Hub or other locations .
That rate is higher than for competitor UPS , whose own global sustainability report says that it has expanded safety mentoring for new employees because research shows most injuries happen in the first year on the job .
Last month @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Troy ” McClenton , filed a wrongful death lawsuit against FedEx and Satco Inc. , the manufacturer of the shipping container involved in Young ’ s death , seeking $ 3 million in compensatory damages for Young ’ s two sons .
The lawsuit alleges that FedEx didn ’ t provide adequate training for temporary workers and allowed workers to engage in dangerous practices “ because it valued getting their customers packages delivered on time ( and making money ) more than it valued the safety of its employees and temporary workers.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ its core commitment to “ Safety Above All ” and the “ hundreds of millions ” it spends on safety training each year , as well as the millions spent on equipment and technology to prevent injuries and accidents .
“ We fully cooperated with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration throughout its investigation , and we have implemented and are continuing to implement measures to further enhance our safety measures and training , ” the statement said .
“ While we can not comment about ongoing litigation , we will defend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well-being of our team members is our top priority , and we are committed to providing a safe and secure work environment for our team members.
” ( Read the full statement here . )
In its Global Citizenship Report , FedEx attributed the rise in lost time to an increase in its North America operations .
“ We have investigated the root causes of this increase and are working to improve safety performance going forward through new training methods , additional implementation of industry-leading technology , and initiatives to make sure our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every action.
” Satco officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment .
A year after his son ’ s death , McClenton remembered his son ’ s insatiable sweet tooth and all the times they ’ d played music together at church Young on drums , McClenton on guitar and vocals and his wife , Jeanette , on keyboard and vocals .
It feels like his son ’ s life was disposable , he said .
“ I don ’ t think they actually care about them , ” said McClenton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ West Memphis , Arkansas .
“ The only thing they want is them to move those packages out , and that ’ s it.
” One in six Memphis metro area workers labor in the logistics industry , and FedEx is the industry ’ s giant , with 30,000 employees in the region .
More than a third of them work at the World Hub , which is next to the Memphis International Airport .
The company ’ s name marks the FedExForum , where the Memphis Grizzlies play , the FedEx Institute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational .
The city ’ s growth is inextricably linked to FedEx ’ s ; a $ 1.5 billion expansion and modernization project underway at the airport will be completed in 2025 .
FedEx ’ s World Hub contributes $ 4.7 billion in wages to the regional economy , according to a 2018 Memphis Business Journal article .
FedEx is also playing a starring role in the nation ’ s fight against the coronavirus pandemic .
FedEx trucks provided the backdrop for a Dec. 3 roundtable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , featuring Vice President Mike Pence , who was joined by top FedEx officials .
As of Tuesday , the company ’ s stock had risen 80 % this year , exceeding the benchmarks for its peer companies and the transportation sector .
The logistics industry , which plays an essential role in the nation ’ s economy , can be dangerous .
Of the major occupational groups , transportation and material moving has the highest number of fatal work injuries and the second-highest rate of fatal work injuries , according to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Between 2016 and 2019 , more than 70 injuries were reported at the site where Stanberry was hurt and Young was fatally injured , according to a log that FedEx turned over to the state as part of its investigation into Young ’ s death .
OSHA requires employers to keep for five years the logs of work-related injuries and illnesses , which include a brief description of what happened .
The physical toll of hazardous jobs falls hardest on workers of color : In the past six years , four workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; all but one was Black .
Studies using data from the U.S. census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Black workers nationwide are more likely than whites to work in dangerous industries and more likely to be injured on the job .
A 2018 video of FedEx ’ s World Hub shows a bustling operation , as loaders lift and lower shipping containers on and off planes .
Motorized tugs pull cargo containers on dollies across the facility , which spans 880 acres , an area larger than New York ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can see , the process happens very quickly .
However , safety guidelines require strict adherence to procedures that ensure safety comes before schedule , ” the narrator says as shipping containers like the one involved in Young ’ s death are loaded onto a plane .
But TOSHA investigation reports and interviews with former workers show that FedEx didn ’ t enforce its own guidelines .
“ I Did It as Fast as I Could ” For many workers , FedEx ’ s lure is that it pays above minimum wage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share of minimum wage jobs exceeds that of more than 40 states .
In Memphis , 1 in 4 Black residents live below the poverty line but fewer than 1 in 10 white residents do .
Stanberry , who like many of the hub employees is Black , was working at the Food Rite in Somerville , Tennessee , about 40 miles east of Memphis , when she met a FedEx recruiter .
After two years at the grocery store , Stanberry was still making minimum wage and didn ’ t have any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and joined FedEx as a part-time employee , where she ’ d earn just over $ 11 an hour and have health insurance .
FedEx even provided transportation from the town ’ s post office parking lot to the World Hub , the company ’ s largest sort facility in the world .
Stanberry worked in an input area .
Massive aluminum shipping containers are unloaded from planes and are loaded onto dollies , which pull them up to one of several lines in the input area .
Stanberry stood on a grated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the tug .
Her job was to take packages out of the containers and place them on conveyor belts .
“ You got ta be fast when you take the packages off , ” she said .
“ I just wasn ’ t fast like I should have been .
… I did it as fast as I could for somebody my age.
” Most hub employees work overnight shifts , handling packages coming in from around the world and heading back out around the globe .
Stanberry wasn ’ t the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of her co-workers were much younger .
One co-worker “ asked why they put me on that line because I was a little too old to be sorting the packages , ” she recalled .
A key part of the safety protocol is the commands team members issue , such as “ standby , ” when co-workers need to move away from equipment preparing to move , and “ clear , ” when they need to stand still , facing the moving equipment .
After 2 a.m. on Nov. 22 , 2016 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had unloaded the containers when an employee gave the “ clear ” command , “ which means to face forward , back to the belts , and do not move , ” a FedEx staffer noted in the report it sent TOSHA .
“ As the containers moved forward , some freight fell out.
” Stanberry doesn ’ t remember exactly what happened next , only what she was told when she regained consciousness in the hospital : She bent to pick up the packages , lost her footing and her balance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ All I know ( is ) they said they had to lift the big ole silver thing up off me , ” she said , referring to the shipping container .
FedEx reported the incident to TOSHA as required for all workplace incidents that lead to in-patient hospitalizations , loss of limbs or an eye , or death — and the agency responded by letter .
“ While … this letter is not a citation , and we do not intend to conduct an investigation at this time , we ask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the incident and make any necessary changes to avoid further incidents , ” a TOSHA representative wrote to FedEx in a Dec. 1 , 2016 , letter .
FedEx returned a two-page form and in three sentences described the corrective actions recommended and taken : To review the safety procedures that instructed workers to stand with their backs against the belts when containers are moving and wait until equipment has come to a complete stop to move .
Injured two days before Thanksgiving , Stanberry spent that holiday , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her birthday in the hospital , followed by weeks of rehab .
In hindsight , she regrets leaving the grocery store and a 35-year career in food service .
“ I was just with FedEx to get some extra money , because I had to pay rent.
” Stanberry , who received a small settlement from FedEx , is now unemployed and collects Social Security .
“ My arms and everything was messed up .
I can ’ t even lift nothing heavy no more .
… I can ’ t go back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” She acknowledges that workers were trained to stand still when the containers were moving , but when working the line , she followed what her more experienced co-workers did .
Dooley , of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health , wasn ’ t surprised that the safety protocols in the training didn ’ t match what workers did on the job .
“ The pace of work and the pressure to be doing so many unloads in a certain amount of time … challenges any conformity with procedures and rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time of Stanberry ’ s accident and Young ’ s death , more than 50 people were injured at the hub seriously enough to require treatment beyond first aid , according to the OSHA logs .
The logs include bare-bones descriptions of the incidents and the number of days missed from work .
Many more were injured but didn ’ t require further care .
In one incident , a worker missed 119 days of work after being caught between a container and dolly .
In another , an employee missed 46 days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ package .
Caught-under incidents can be deadly .
The night before Thanksgiving in 2017 , Ellen Gladney , 60 , was working on a crew unloading packages from a 777 .
Gladney ’ s job that night was to make sure the loader didn ’ t make accidental contact with the plane .
It was her third day on the team , one worker told TOSHA .
There were no witnesses to the incident , but workers discovered Gladney under a platform attached to the cargo loader ’ s deck .
She was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ms .
Gladney was following procedures , ” TOSHA ’ s compliance officer wrote , but faulted FedEx for failing to correct for the blind spots and failing to have procedures to ensure all crew members were accounted for before the cargo loader started moving .
Standing in front of moving equipment and out of sight of the loader operator is “ easily recognized as a serious safety hazard , ” the TOSHA report said .
While team leaders typically watch crew members to be sure safety rules are being enforced , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short cuts all the time when Managers aren ’ t around .
Doing the right thing is based on your own integrity.
” As in Young ’ s death , FedEx was fined $ 7,000 .
FedEx told TOSHA that it had since amended its aircraft ramp operations manual to make sure the ground crew is out of the loader ’ s path before it moves .
Young started working at FedEx in mid-October 2019 , hired at around $ 14 an hour by Volt Workforce Solutions , a temporary agency that supplied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supply seasonal workers to FedEx , but the lawsuit alleges that the company doesn ’ t provide them with enough training .
A Volt manager said she could not comment on the “ tragic ” incident that killed Young , but she did say FedEx is still a client and that all Volt temporary workers there are supervised by a full-time FedEx employee .
It isn ’ t unusual for temp workers to receive different or less training than permanent employees for doing the same work , said Dave Desario , director of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Young convinced two childhood friends — Kevin Donnerson and Drekeon Smith to join him , and they too got hired through Volt .
All emerging rappers , they planned to save their earnings to record a music video .
They shared a home in suburban Germantown , Tennessee , and on Nov. 12 , 2019 , Young drove them to work in what Donnerson said was essentially the family car .
Smith and Donnerson worked in a mailroom indoors , but they say Young told them how unsafe it was where he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ described in the TOSHA investigative report as a sprawling , 70,000-square-foot covered space .
( A football field is 57,600 square feet . )
Containers are taken off planes , placed on dollies and pulled via a motorized tug to one of four lines in the input area .
Each line had room for three tugs pulling containers .
The 10-foot-long , 8-foot-tall container involved in Young ’ s death was manufactured by Satco , a California-based company .
It had the company ’ s “ exclusive curve contour , ” a rounded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Another plus of this container ’ s design : speed .
“ Taking only seconds to open and close , the patented fabric roll-up door assembly has proven to be the most cost effective door assembly ever produced by Satco , ” the company says on its website .
On the night he was killed , Young was working on an input line , standing with more than a dozen co-workers on an elevated grated walkway 14 inches off the ground .
On the other side of the walkway was a three-tier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Young would take the packages from the containers and put them onto one of the belts .
Even if containers weren ’ t fully unloaded , the tug would move forward , witnesses told TOSHA .
It was common for containers ’ roll-up doors to be left partly open or unlocked , and common for packages to fall out of the containers .
Both happened that night , the TOSHA report said .
Toward the end of what would be Young ’ s last shift , workers were still unloading the last container @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker gave the “ standby ” command , alerting workers to exit the containers because the tug was about to move .
Interviews revealed that a worker lowered the last container ’ s roll-up door but didn ’ t lock it at the bottom .
An employee made the “ clear ” sign — forearms crossed at head level — which tells workers to stand with their backs to the conveyor belts .
When a worker signaled for the tug operator to pull forward , six workers stood with their backs to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the team leader , as well as Young and six others walked in the direction the tug was moving .
Young was the worker at the end of the line , and as the tug driver pulled forward , packages in the last container fell out , pushing the partially locked door over the grated walkway and into Young ’ s leg .
He fell into a metal rail on the conveyor belt system , “ stood up , took a few steps , and fell back onto the grating , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the shift ended around 3 a.m. , Donnerson and Smith waited for Young in their usual meeting spot , the clock out lobby .
When he didn ’ t show , they went to the car , where their phones were locked inside .
( FedEx doesn ’ t allow workers to have cellphones inside the hub . )
They went back to the lobby where they saw some of Young ’ s co-workers , who were uncharacteristically mute .
“ Everyone was just looking at us weird , ” Donnerson recalled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employee told them to get in touch with the family .
The family was already at Regional One Health , the area ’ s only Level 1 trauma unit , by the time Donnerson and Smith found a ride there .
Bresha Mitchell , the mother of Young ’ s youngest son , knew the news wasn ’ t good when the hospital moved the family into a private waiting room .
“ I was just hoping for a miracle , ” she said .
When the family went into the hospital room @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ They said I couldn ’ t touch him , ” McClenton recalled .
“ I remember leaning over and whispering in his ear , and I said , ‘ Wake up.
’ ” The hospital gave Young ’ s car keys to McClenton , as well as his wallet , which McClenton carries every day .
It had $ 8 inside .
Just like in the incident that killed Gladney , TOSHA found that in Young ’ s death FedEx didn ’ t have adequate procedures to protect employees from known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the door is only secure when it ’ s rolled up all the way , or closed and locked on the bottom .
Workers told TOSHA that they didn ’ t know whether doors were supposed to be completely open , partially opened or locked when the containers moved with packages inside , the report said .
A manager told TOSHA that it was a “ judgement ( sic ) call ” by employees whether to close the doors partially or leave them open when the containers moved .
TOSHA interviewed more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ area and all said they were trained on line calls and safety procedures , including standing with their backs to the conveyor belt when the containers moved .
But many also said that employees move when the containers move and eight said they ’ d seen the roll-up doors swing over the grated walkway , as the door did in Young ’ s death .
“ Interviews revealed inconsistencies between the written procedures and employee practice , ” the report said .
Again , speed may have been a factor : “ Employees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the freight moves , ” one temporary worker told TOSHA during the investigation .
“ Employees were expected to move as the freight moved in order to get the freight unloaded quicker.
” For about a month or two after the incident , team leaders “ made it a necessity to stop moving while the freight moved but now it is back to the way it was before the incident , ” the worker said .
“ The only thing that has changed since the incident is that Temp employees are now given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had a near accident when a partially closed door “ caught my pant leg and dragged me up the line , ” the worker told the TOSHA compliance officer .
“ I reported the incident to two Team Leaders but neither one of them reported it to a Manager because I was not injured severely enough to be reported.
” Two managers received warning letters and an employee was fired following the incident that killed Young , according to disciplinary records FedEx provided to TOSHA .
Safety concerns and the pressure to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to leave the job she started the same month Young did .
Her job was to take packages from a conveyor belt and load them into the shipping containers lined up behind her and her co-workers .
Before she started , she watched about four hours of training and safety videos , which would have been sufficient , she said , “ if we were actually going to do what the videos showed us how to do.
” “ But it seemed like it was a waste , ’ cause you get out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what they say they want you to do in the video.
” Workers aren ’ t supposed to throw boxes from the conveyor belt into the containers , but they did , she said , and sometimes co-workers would be struck by flying packages .
The protocol for stacking boxes in the containers was routinely ignored .
She narrowly avoided being injured herself , when one night she slipped on ice inside one of the containers she was loading .
She managed to catch herself on the container ’ s wall .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but it took hours for the icy container to be replaced and in the meantime , packages piled up .
By February , she ’ d had enough .
FedEx wasn ’ t her first warehouse job , but she vows it will be her last .
She ’ s studying to be a dental assistant .
“ I do not recommend it for anybody , ” she said .
“ I tell everybody it ’ s hell out there.
” FedEx did not respond to questions about the experiences of Prater and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reiterated the company ’ s concerns about employee safety .
When Stanberry was injured in 2016 , TOSHA conducted what ’ s called a rapid response investigation , but the term is a misnomer , as it doesn ’ t involve sending an inspector to the site to interview workers .
Instead , TOSHA asked the employer to investigate itself , which FedEx did .
The practice of sending a letter to the employer and then waiting for the employer to write back is “ horrible , ” said Eric Frumin , health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a federation of labor unions .
He worked as a union labor health and safety expert for more than 40 years and has focused on issues in the South .
“ There ’ s almost no worker involvement in it , and the workers are at the mercy of the relationship between OSHA and the employer.
” But when FedEx reported the fatal incident that killed Young , TOSHA ’ s investigators collected witness statements , the medical examiner ’ s report , surveillance videos , police reports , FedEx ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other documents .
Those , along with the investigative report , fill more than 450 pages .
Many parts are redacted because they contain witnesses ’ names or because FedEx contends the information contains trade secrets , such as a six-page document titled “ FedEx Express How to be Safe !
” The fixes that FedEx suggested were all focused on training and safety , but it ’ s a mistake to focus simply on training and not the equipment too , said Michael Felsen , a retired U.S. Department of Labor attorney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Employers concerned about safety should also focus on “ engineering controls , ” such as modifying the equipment , which “ do not rely on the workers having to behave in a particular way , but rather they ’ re protected by virtue of the nature of the process , ” said Felsen , who litigated and supervised worker safety cases for OSHA in the New England region .
This is particularly true in the case of temporary workers , he said .
While Felsen and other experts placed the majority of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a top TOSHA official noted that the workers bore some responsibility too .
“ Employers train their employees to follow the rules and in some cases , we can ’ t protect employees from hazards , ” said Larry Hunt , TOSHA ’ s assistant administrator .
“ Employees can get complacent .
What FedEx needs to do is to ensure that its training system is effective , and it ’ s not just training , but enforcement of their own rules.
” Given the similarities between the incident that injured Stanberry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one safety expert wondered why TOSHA didn ’ t cite FedEx with a repeat violation , or even a willful violation , which comes with steeper fines and allows for criminal prosecution .
Hunt said he didn ’ t think TOSHA could have proven that the 2016 and 2019 incidents were similar enough to sustain a willful violation with the information the agency had available .
“ We have to prove that the employer had knowledge that these doors weren ’ t latched and the disregard allowed that situation to continue .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prove that , ” he said .
“ It ’ s difficult to determine everything that ’ s going on when you show up on the site to do the inspections.
” Asked how TOSHA could be confident that FedEx would do now what it said it ’ d do in 2016 when Stanberry was injured , Hunt said workers can file complaints by mail or online .
“ We can ’ t know what ’ s going on in every place , that ’ s just not practical , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican , has made no secret of his desire to make the state attractive to businesses .
When FedEx announced an additional financial investment in its Memphis hub modernization project last year , Lee highlighted the company ’ s role as a major job producer .
The state of Tennessee awarded FedEx $ 21 million in tax incentives for the project , an amount Lee declared fitting .
“ They are a major contributor to what happens in this state , ” Lee was quoted in the Commercial Appeal as saying .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has regular communication about what they ’ re doing and what their plans are and what we can do to create a business environment not only for FedEx , but for every company.
” That business-first approach from the state ’ s highest elected office invariably filters down to workplace safety enforcement and investigations , Felsen said .
“ If states are all going to be competing against one another to make sure that they ’ re as business-friendly as possible , who ’ s there to protect the workers ?
“ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lives of people by shipping the vaccine .
We don ’ t want their own workers to be sacrificing their lives because of the crunch of having to do that.
” “ The Anger Is Gone .
The Disappointment Is There.
” Young ’ s funeral was held on a gray Saturday at a West Memphis Baptist church .
Hundreds of mourners filed by the shiny casket , and when Young ’ s mother approached for a last look , she collapsed in tears on her son ’ s chest .
McClenton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the strength to preach his son ’ s eulogy .
He vacillated between bold proclamations of his faith in God and wrenching grief and confusion .
“ To this day , I don ’ t know what the hell happened to him , ” McClenton said that day .
“ Ain ’ t nobody telling me nothing.
” “ Right now , what you looking at before you , you looking at an atomic bomb , ” he told those gathered .
“ I ’ m not an advocate for violence , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later , McClenton ’ s grief was still raw , but his rage had been replaced .
“ No one at FedEx is wanting to cooperate as far as I ’ m concerned , ” he said .
“ No sympathy letters , no flowers , no actual concern about the family .
I mean we lost a child .
We lost a child .
… The anger is gone .
The disappointment is there.
” In a statement , FedEx said that a manager offered condolences to the family at the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the family on multiple occasions afterward to again offer condolences and seek an opportunity to discuss what happened.
” Young ’ s eldest son turned 6 the day Young died .
His youngest son is his namesake , Duntate Young Jr. , who is not quite 2 years old .
“ These young boys will have to grow up not knowing their father , only looking at pictures and whatever memories they have of him , ” McClenton said .
Donnerson and Smith never went back to FedEx .
They too say they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After Young ’ s death , his friends published “ Long Live Tate , ” an album of songs they ’ d done together .
Mitchell can see Young ’ s sense of rhythm in Duntate Jr. and wants to nurture it .
“ I just make beats with him and I try to play his dad ’ s music , ” Mitchell said .
“ I think he can recognize his voice because he will just stare at the speaker.
” In an odd coincidence , she worked at FedEx in 2017 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She was hired through a temp agency to unload shipping containers and remembers feeling unprepared to do the job .
“ We didn ’ t know what to do , we were kind of just looking at each other , asking the people that were working there , ” she said .
“ You learn as you go.
” Mitchell is now studying music recording at the University of Memphis , working a part-time marketing job from home and raising her son , who pulled on his mother ’ s braids as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death benefits mandated through the state worker ’ s compensation means that the temporary agency that hired Young will pay the mothers of both sons $ 97 per week until the boys are adults .
But to the people who loved Young , that ’ s not nearly enough , and it ’ s not justice .
“ Justice to me , ” Mitchell said , “ would be just restructuring ( FedEx ’ s ) whole process or setup as far as safety of the employees .
”

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fannie Stanberry had been on the job for two months as a package handler at FedEx Express’ massive World Hub when, toward the end of her overnight shift, packages started to fall from a huge shipping container that rolled past her.
As Stanberry, then 61, bent to pick up the packages, she fell and became trapped between the catwalk she’d been standing on and the wheeled platform carrying the shipping container, also known as a dolly. “I thought I was a goner,” Stanberry said. She broke eight ribs and her left arm and lacerated her liver, she said. “I had to learn how to walk over again.”
FedEx, which is headquartered in Memphis, reported the Nov. 22, 2016, incident to the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency charged with protecting workers. TOSHA asked the shipping giant to investigate itself and suggest corrections, according to state records reviewed by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica and reported here for the first time.
FedEx told TOSHA it would train employees on safe work methods, and the agency declared the company’s response sufficient and closed its case.
Nearly three years later, a strikingly similar incident at the same location claimed the life of Duntate Young, a 23-year-old temporary worker who’d been on the job just shy of a month. Like Stanberry, his job was to unload packages from shipping containers pulled by motorized tugs.
A worker closed but didn’t lock the vinyl door of a container, a practice that was common. When packages fell against the door, it swung open, hitting Young in the back of the leg. He fell chest first into a metal pole. The church musician, devoted father and rapper was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
This time, TOSHA did an on-site investigation. It concluded that FedEx was aware from Stanberry’s injury of the hazards associated with containers and the equipment ferrying them around, but that the company had not done enough to fix the problem.
FedEx, whose annual revenue tops $75 billion, was fined $7,000 in March for failing to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.”
The penalty was later reduced to $5,950, after FedEx provided TOSHA with a list of measures it took to prevent similar incidents.
As FedEx faces what is its busiest season ever — delivering holiday packages and long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine doses across the country — experts say what happened to Young and the citation that resulted raise key questions about the company’s safety practices.
Young’s death was “extremely preventable,” said Peter Dooley, a certified industrial hygienist for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, which promotes worker safety.
“The fact that this similar circumstance ends up in fatality several years later just shows how inadequate the investigation and follow up was into the previous incident.”
Workers interviewed by MLK50 and ProPublica said that they were pressured to work faster than they felt was safe, and that the training they received, if any, bore little resemblance to what they actually did on the job.
“A lot of stuff they just overlook because everybody is just trying to rush to get through,” said former FedEx employee Aisha Prater, who was packing shipping containers at the hub the night Young was killed.
FedEx’s data shows the rising hazards to its workers: The number of fatalities at FedEx locations increased from seven in its 2017 and 2018 fiscal years to 10 last year, according to its most recent Global Citizenship Report. Its rate of time off taken after nonfatal, traumatic injuries rose 28% in North America between fiscal 2017 and 2019, though the data is not broken out for its World Hub or other locations. That rate is higher than for competitor UPS, whose own global sustainability report says that it has expanded safety mentoring for new employees because research shows most injuries happen in the first year on the job.
Last month, Young’s father, Leanell “Troy” McClenton, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against FedEx and Satco Inc., the manufacturer of the shipping container involved in Young’s death, seeking $3 million in compensatory damages for Young’s two sons.
The lawsuit alleges that FedEx didn’t provide adequate training for temporary workers and allowed workers to engage in dangerous practices “because it valued getting their customers packages delivered on time (and making money) more than it valued the safety of its employees and temporary workers.”
In a statement, FedEx stressed its core commitment to “Safety Above All” and the “hundreds of millions” it spends on safety training each year, as well as the millions spent on equipment and technology to prevent injuries and accidents.
“We fully cooperated with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration throughout its investigation, and we have implemented and are continuing to implement measures to further enhance our safety measures and training,” the statement said.
“While we cannot comment about ongoing litigation, we will defend the lawsuit. … The safety and well-being of our team members is our top priority, and we are committed to providing a safe and secure work environment for our team members.” (Read the full statement here.)
In its Global Citizenship Report, FedEx attributed the rise in lost time to an increase in its North America operations. “We have investigated the root causes of this increase and are working to improve safety performance going forward through new training methods, additional implementation of industry-leading technology, and initiatives to make sure our Safety Above All approach is reflected in every action.”
Satco officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A year after his son’s death, McClenton remembered his son’s insatiable sweet tooth and all the times they’d played music together at church Young on drums, McClenton on guitar and vocals and his wife, Jeanette, on keyboard and vocals. It feels like his son’s life was disposable, he said.
“I don’t think they actually care about them,” said McClenton, a maintenance technician who lives in West Memphis, Arkansas. “The only thing they want is them to move those packages out, and that’s it.”
Area’s Largest Employer and “Major Contributor” to State
One in six Memphis metro area workers labor in the logistics industry, and FedEx is the industry’s giant, with 30,000 employees in the region. More than a third of them work at the World Hub, which is next to the Memphis International Airport.
The company’s name marks the FedExForum, where the Memphis Grizzlies play, the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis and the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
The city’s growth is inextricably linked to FedEx’s; a $1.5 billion expansion and modernization project underway at the airport will be completed in 2025. FedEx’s World Hub contributes $4.7 billion in wages to the regional economy, according to a 2018 Memphis Business Journal article.
FedEx is also playing a starring role in the nation’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic. FedEx trucks provided the backdrop for a Dec. 3 roundtable discussion about vaccine distribution at the airport, featuring Vice President Mike Pence, who was joined by top FedEx officials. As of Tuesday, the company’s stock had risen 80% this year, exceeding the benchmarks for its peer companies and the transportation sector.
The logistics industry, which plays an essential role in the nation’s economy, can be dangerous. Of the major occupational groups, transportation and material moving has the highest number of fatal work injuries and the second-highest rate of fatal work injuries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2019 data.
Between 2016 and 2019, more than 70 injuries were reported at the site where Stanberry was hurt and Young was fatally injured, according to a log that FedEx turned over to the state as part of its investigation into Young’s death. OSHA requires employers to keep for five years the logs of work-related injuries and illnesses, which include a brief description of what happened.
The physical toll of hazardous jobs falls hardest on workers of color: In the past six years, four workers have died at FedEx Memphis’ hub; all but one was Black. Studies using data from the U.S. census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Black workers nationwide are more likely than whites to work in dangerous industries and more likely to be injured on the job.
A 2018 video of FedEx’s World Hub shows a bustling operation, as loaders lift and lower shipping containers on and off planes. Motorized tugs pull cargo containers on dollies across the facility, which spans 880 acres, an area larger than New York’s Central Park.
“As you can see, the process happens very quickly. However, safety guidelines require strict adherence to procedures that ensure safety comes before schedule,” the narrator says as shipping containers like the one involved in Young’s death are loaded onto a plane.
But TOSHA investigation reports and interviews with former workers show that FedEx didn’t enforce its own guidelines.
“I Did It as Fast as I Could”
For many workers, FedEx’s lure is that it pays above minimum wage, no small feat in a state whose share of minimum wage jobs exceeds that of more than 40 states. In Memphis, 1 in 4 Black residents live below the poverty line but fewer than 1 in 10 white residents do.
Stanberry, who like many of the hub employees is Black, was working at the Food Rite in Somerville, Tennessee, about 40 miles east of Memphis, when she met a FedEx recruiter. After two years at the grocery store, Stanberry was still making minimum wage and didn’t have any benefits.
So she quit the store and joined FedEx as a part-time employee, where she’d earn just over $11 an hour and have health insurance. FedEx even provided transportation from the town’s post office parking lot to the World Hub, the company’s largest sort facility in the world.
Stanberry worked in an input area. Massive aluminum shipping containers are unloaded from planes and are loaded onto dollies, which pull them up to one of several lines in the input area.
Stanberry stood on a grated catwalk just inches from the shipping containers and the tug. Her job was to take packages out of the containers and place them on conveyor belts.
“You gotta be fast when you take the packages off,” she said. “I just wasn’t fast like I should have been. … I did it as fast as I could for somebody my age.”
Most hub employees work overnight shifts, handling packages coming in from around the world and heading back out around the globe.
Stanberry wasn’t the only one to notice that almost all of her co-workers were much younger. One co-worker “asked why they put me on that line because I was a little too old to be sorting the packages,” she recalled.
A key part of the safety protocol is the commands team members issue, such as “standby,” when co-workers need to move away from equipment preparing to move, and “clear,” when they need to stand still, facing the moving equipment.
After 2 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2016, according to the TOSHA report, workers had unloaded the containers when an employee gave the “clear” command, “which means to face forward, back to the belts, and do not move,” a FedEx staffer noted in the report it sent TOSHA. “As the containers moved forward, some freight fell out.”
Stanberry doesn’t remember exactly what happened next, only what she was told when she regained consciousness in the hospital: She bent to pick up the packages, lost her footing and her balance, fell and was trapped under the dolly.
“All I know (is) they said they had to lift the big ole silver thing up off me,” she said, referring to the shipping container.
FedEx reported the incident to TOSHA as required for all workplace incidents that lead to in-patient hospitalizations, loss of limbs or an eye, or death — and the agency responded by letter.
“While … this letter is not a citation, and we do not intend to conduct an investigation at this time, we ask that you immediately conduct your own investigation into the incident and make any necessary changes to avoid further incidents,” a TOSHA representative wrote to FedEx in a Dec. 1, 2016, letter.
FedEx returned a two-page form and in three sentences described the corrective actions recommended and taken: To review the safety procedures that instructed workers to stand with their backs against the belts when containers are moving and wait until equipment has come to a complete stop to move.
Injured two days before Thanksgiving, Stanberry spent that holiday, as well as Christmas, New Year’s and her birthday in the hospital, followed by weeks of rehab.
In hindsight, she regrets leaving the grocery store and a 35-year career in food service. “I was just with FedEx to get some extra money, because I had to pay rent.”
Stanberry, who received a small settlement from FedEx, is now unemployed and collects Social Security. “My arms and everything was messed up. I can’t even lift nothing heavy no more. … I can’t go back to work even if I wanted to.”
She acknowledges that workers were trained to stand still when the containers were moving, but when working the line, she followed what her more experienced co-workers did.
Dooley, of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, wasn’t surprised that the safety protocols in the training didn’t match what workers did on the job.
“The pace of work and the pressure to be doing so many unloads in a certain amount of time … challenges any conformity with procedures and rules,” Dooley said.
Between the time of Stanberry’s accident and Young’s death, more than 50 people were injured at the hub seriously enough to require treatment beyond first aid, according to the OSHA logs. The logs include bare-bones descriptions of the incidents and the number of days missed from work. Many more were injured but didn’t require further care.
In one incident, a worker missed 119 days of work after being caught between a container and dolly. In another, an employee missed 46 days of work after being struck by a package.
Caught-under incidents can be deadly. The night before Thanksgiving in 2017, Ellen Gladney, 60, was working on a crew unloading packages from a 777.
Gladney’s job that night was to make sure the loader didn’t make accidental contact with the plane. It was her third day on the team, one worker told TOSHA.
There were no witnesses to the incident, but workers discovered Gladney under a platform attached to the cargo loader’s deck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Ms. Gladney was following procedures,” TOSHA’s compliance officer wrote, but faulted FedEx for failing to correct for the blind spots and failing to have procedures to ensure all crew members were accounted for before the cargo loader started moving.
Standing in front of moving equipment and out of sight of the loader operator is “easily recognized as a serious safety hazard,” the TOSHA report said.
While team leaders typically watch crew members to be sure safety rules are being enforced, a worker told TOSHA, “Employees take short cuts all the time when Managers aren’t around. Doing the right thing is based on your own integrity.”
As in Young’s death, FedEx was fined $7,000. FedEx told TOSHA that it had since amended its aircraft ramp operations manual to make sure the ground crew is out of the loader’s path before it moves.
“They Said I Couldn’t Touch Him”
Young started working at FedEx in mid-October 2019, hired at around $14 an hour by Volt Workforce Solutions, a temporary agency that supplied workers to FedEx.
Staffing agencies regularly supply seasonal workers to FedEx, but the lawsuit alleges that the company doesn’t provide them with enough training.
A Volt manager said she could not comment on the “tragic” incident that killed Young, but she did say FedEx is still a client and that all Volt temporary workers there are supervised by a full-time FedEx employee.
It isn’t unusual for temp workers to receive different or less training than permanent employees for doing the same work, said Dave Desario, director of Temp Worker Justice, an advocacy organization.
Young convinced two childhood friends — Kevin Donnerson and Drekeon Smith to join him, and they too got hired through Volt. All emerging rappers, they planned to save their earnings to record a music video.
They shared a home in suburban Germantown, Tennessee, and on Nov. 12, 2019, Young drove them to work in what Donnerson said was essentially the family car.
Smith and Donnerson worked in a mailroom indoors, but they say Young told them how unsafe it was where he worked, in the courtyard input area described in the TOSHA investigative report as a sprawling, 70,000-square-foot covered space. (A football field is 57,600 square feet.)
Containers are taken off planes, placed on dollies and pulled via a motorized tug to one of four lines in the input area. Each line had room for three tugs pulling containers.
The 10-foot-long, 8-foot-tall container involved in Young’s death was manufactured by Satco, a California-based company. It had the company’s “exclusive curve contour,” a rounded back that fit neatly into cargo planes.
Another plus of this container’s design: speed. “Taking only seconds to open and close, the patented fabric roll-up door assembly has proven to be the most cost effective door assembly ever produced by Satco,” the company says on its website.
On the night he was killed, Young was working on an input line, standing with more than a dozen co-workers on an elevated grated walkway 14 inches off the ground. On the other side of the walkway was a three-tier conveyor belt system.
Handlers such as Young would take the packages from the containers and put them onto one of the belts. Even if containers weren’t fully unloaded, the tug would move forward, witnesses told TOSHA. It was common for containers’ roll-up doors to be left partly open or unlocked, and common for packages to fall out of the containers. Both happened that night, the TOSHA report said.
Toward the end of what would be Young’s last shift, workers were still unloading the last container on line No. 2 when a worker gave the “standby” command, alerting workers to exit the containers because the tug was about to move. Interviews revealed that a worker lowered the last container’s roll-up door but didn’t lock it at the bottom.
An employee made the “clear” sign — forearms crossed at head level — which tells workers to stand with their backs to the conveyor belts. When a worker signaled for the tug operator to pull forward, six workers stood with their backs to the conveyor belts, per the safety protocol. But the team leader, as well as Young and six others walked in the direction the tug was moving.
Young was the worker at the end of the line, and as the tug driver pulled forward, packages in the last container fell out, pushing the partially locked door over the grated walkway and into Young’s leg. He fell into a metal rail on the conveyor belt system, “stood up, took a few steps, and fell back onto the grating,” according to the TOSHA report.
When the shift ended around 3 a.m., Donnerson and Smith waited for Young in their usual meeting spot, the clock out lobby.
When he didn’t show, they went to the car, where their phones were locked inside. (FedEx doesn’t allow workers to have cellphones inside the hub.) They went back to the lobby where they saw some of Young’s co-workers, who were uncharacteristically mute. “Everyone was just looking at us weird,” Donnerson recalled.
Finally, a FedEx human resources employee told them to get in touch with the family.
The family was already at Regional One Health, the area’s only Level 1 trauma unit, by the time Donnerson and Smith found a ride there.
Bresha Mitchell, the mother of Young’s youngest son, knew the news wasn’t good when the hospital moved the family into a private waiting room. “I was just hoping for a miracle,” she said.
When the family went into the hospital room, Young was lying on a gurney.
“They said I couldn’t touch him,” McClenton recalled. “I remember leaning over and whispering in his ear, and I said, ‘Wake up.’”
The hospital gave Young’s car keys to McClenton, as well as his wallet, which McClenton carries every day. It had $8 inside.
“Inconsistencies” Between Policies and Practice
Just like in the incident that killed Gladney, TOSHA found that in Young’s death FedEx didn’t have adequate procedures to protect employees from known hazards.
The manufacturer Satco told TOSHA that the door is only secure when it’s rolled up all the way, or closed and locked on the bottom. Workers told TOSHA that they didn’t know whether doors were supposed to be completely open, partially opened or locked when the containers moved with packages inside, the report said. A manager told TOSHA that it was a “judgement (sic) call” by employees whether to close the doors partially or leave them open when the containers moved.
TOSHA interviewed more than a dozen workers in the input area and all said they were trained on line calls and safety procedures, including standing with their backs to the conveyor belt when the containers moved. But many also said that employees move when the containers move and eight said they’d seen the roll-up doors swing over the grated walkway, as the door did in Young’s death.
“Interviews revealed inconsistencies between the written procedures and employee practice,” the report said.
Again, speed may have been a factor: “Employees don’t always stop moving when the freight moves,” one temporary worker told TOSHA during the investigation. “Employees were expected to move as the freight moved in order to get the freight unloaded quicker.”
For about a month or two after the incident, team leaders “made it a necessity to stop moving while the freight moved but now it is back to the way it was before the incident,” the worker said. “The only thing that has changed since the incident is that Temp employees are now given safety vests to wear.”
This worker had a near accident when a partially closed door “caught my pant leg and dragged me up the line,” the worker told the TOSHA compliance officer. “I reported the incident to two Team Leaders but neither one of them reported it to a Manager because I was not injured severely enough to be reported.”
Two managers received warning letters and an employee was fired following the incident that killed Young, according to disciplinary records FedEx provided to TOSHA.
Safety concerns and the pressure to work faster eventually led Prater, 26, to leave the job she started the same month Young did. Her job was to take packages from a conveyor belt and load them into the shipping containers lined up behind her and her co-workers.
Before she started, she watched about four hours of training and safety videos, which would have been sufficient, she said, “if we were actually going to do what the videos showed us how to do.”
“But it seemed like it was a waste, ’cause you get out there and it’s nothing like what they say they want you to do in the video.”
Workers aren’t supposed to throw boxes from the conveyor belt into the containers, but they did, she said, and sometimes co-workers would be struck by flying packages. The protocol for stacking boxes in the containers was routinely ignored.
She narrowly avoided being injured herself, when one night she slipped on ice inside one of the containers she was loading. She managed to catch herself on the container’s wall. She reported the hazard to her supervisor, but it took hours for the icy container to be replaced and in the meantime, packages piled up.
By February, she’d had enough. FedEx wasn’t her first warehouse job, but she vows it will be her last. She’s studying to be a dental assistant. “I do not recommend it for anybody,” she said. “I tell everybody it’s hell out there.”
FedEx did not respond to questions about the experiences of Prater and other employees. Instead its general statement reiterated the company’s concerns about employee safety.
Workers “at the Mercy of” TOSHA and Employers
When Stanberry was injured in 2016, TOSHA conducted what’s called a rapid response investigation, but the term is a misnomer, as it doesn’t involve sending an inspector to the site to interview workers.
Instead, TOSHA asked the employer to investigate itself, which FedEx did.
The practice of sending a letter to the employer and then waiting for the employer to write back is “horrible,” said Eric Frumin, health and safety director of Change to Win, a federation of labor unions. He worked as a union labor health and safety expert for more than 40 years and has focused on issues in the South.
“There’s almost no worker involvement in it, and the workers are at the mercy of the relationship between OSHA and the employer.”
But when FedEx reported the fatal incident that killed Young, TOSHA’s investigators collected witness statements, the medical examiner’s report, surveillance videos, police reports, FedEx’s safety procedures, Satco equipment manuals and other documents. Those, along with the investigative report, fill more than 450 pages. Many parts are redacted because they contain witnesses’ names or because FedEx contends the information contains trade secrets, such as a six-page document titled “FedEx Express How to be Safe!”
The fixes that FedEx suggested were all focused on training and safety, but it’s a mistake to focus simply on training and not the equipment too, said Michael Felsen, a retired U.S. Department of Labor attorney during the Obama and Trump administrations.
Employers concerned about safety should also focus on “engineering controls,” such as modifying the equipment, which “do not rely on the workers having to behave in a particular way, but rather they’re protected by virtue of the nature of the process,” said Felsen, who litigated and supervised worker safety cases for OSHA in the New England region. This is particularly true in the case of temporary workers, he said.
While Felsen and other experts placed the majority of the onus for workplace safety on the employer, a top TOSHA official noted that the workers bore some responsibility too.
“Employers train their employees to follow the rules and in some cases, we can’t protect employees from hazards,” said Larry Hunt, TOSHA’s assistant administrator.
“Employees can get complacent. What FedEx needs to do is to ensure that its training system is effective, and it’s not just training, but enforcement of their own rules.”
Given the similarities between the incident that injured Stanberry and the one that killed Young, one safety expert wondered why TOSHA didn’t cite FedEx with a repeat violation, or even a willful violation, which comes with steeper fines and allows for criminal prosecution.
Hunt said he didn’t think TOSHA could have proven that the 2016 and 2019 incidents were similar enough to sustain a willful violation with the information the agency had available.
“We have to prove that the employer had knowledge that these doors weren’t latched and the disregard allowed that situation to continue. I don’t think that they could prove that,” he said. “It’s difficult to determine everything that’s going on when you show up on the site to do the inspections.”
Asked how TOSHA could be confident that FedEx would do now what it said it’d do in 2016 when Stanberry was injured, Hunt said workers can file complaints by mail or online. “We can’t know what’s going on in every place, that’s just not practical,” he said.
Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has made no secret of his desire to make the state attractive to businesses.
When FedEx announced an additional financial investment in its Memphis hub modernization project last year, Lee highlighted the company’s role as a major job producer.
The state of Tennessee awarded FedEx $21 million in tax incentives for the project, an amount Lee declared fitting.
“They are a major contributor to what happens in this state,” Lee was quoted in the Commercial Appeal as saying. “So our office, our administration, has regular communication about what they’re doing and what their plans are and what we can do to create a business environment not only for FedEx, but for every company.”
That business-first approach from the state’s highest elected office invariably filters down to workplace safety enforcement and investigations, Felsen said.
“If states are all going to be competing against one another to make sure that they’re as business-friendly as possible, who’s there to protect the workers?
“We want (FedEx) to help save the lives of people by shipping the vaccine. We don’t want their own workers to be sacrificing their lives because of the crunch of having to do that.”
“The Anger Is Gone. The Disappointment Is There.”
Young’s funeral was held on a gray Saturday at a West Memphis Baptist church. Hundreds of mourners filed by the shiny casket, and when Young’s mother approached for a last look, she collapsed in tears on her son’s chest.
McClenton, himself a Baptist pastor, mustered the strength to preach his son’s eulogy. He vacillated between bold proclamations of his faith in God and wrenching grief and confusion.
“To this day, I don’t know what the hell happened to him,” McClenton said that day. “Ain’t nobody telling me nothing.”
“Right now, what you looking at before you, you looking at an atomic bomb,” he told those gathered. “I’m not an advocate for violence, but I am so angry.”
A year later, McClenton’s grief was still raw, but his rage had been replaced.
“No one at FedEx is wanting to cooperate as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “No sympathy letters, no flowers, no actual concern about the family. I mean we lost a child. We lost a child. … The anger is gone. The disappointment is there.”
In a statement, FedEx said that a manager offered condolences to the family at the hospital. “We also reached out to the family on multiple occasions afterward to again offer condolences and seek an opportunity to discuss what happened.”
Young’s eldest son turned 6 the day Young died. His youngest son is his namesake, Duntate Young Jr., who is not quite 2 years old.
“These young boys will have to grow up not knowing their father, only looking at pictures and whatever memories they have of him,” McClenton said.
Donnerson and Smith never went back to FedEx. They too say they’re done with warehouse work. After Young’s death, his friends published “Long Live Tate,” an album of songs they’d done together.
Mitchell can see Young’s sense of rhythm in Duntate Jr. and wants to nurture it. “I just make beats with him and I try to play his dad’s music,” Mitchell said. “I think he can recognize his voice because he will just stare at the speaker.”
In an odd coincidence, she worked at FedEx in 2017, the year before she met Young. She was hired through a temp agency to unload shipping containers and remembers feeling unprepared to do the job.
“We didn’t know what to do, we were kind of just looking at each other, asking the people that were working there,” she said. “You learn as you go.”
Mitchell is now studying music recording at the University of Memphis, working a part-time marketing job from home and raising her son, who pulled on his mother’s braids as she did a Zoom interview.
The death benefits mandated through the state worker’s compensation means that the temporary agency that hired Young will pay the mothers of both sons $97 per week until the boys are adults.
But to the people who loved Young, that’s not nearly enough, and it’s not justice.
“Justice to me,” Mitchell said, “would be just restructuring (FedEx’s) whole process or setup as far as safety of the employees.”


motherjones--2020-12-24--With His Pardons of Stone and Manafort, Trump Completes His Cover-Up

By pardoning Paul Manafort and Roger Stone on Wednesday night , President Donald Trump concluded a four-year campaign to use his office to cover up his own wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia scandal .
Trump aided and abetted Vladimir Putin ’ s attack on the 2016 election—which had the aim of helping Trump win the White House—by denying this assault was real , while he simultaneously sought to exploit Moscow ’ s operation for his own political gain .
Ever since , Trump has strived to keep this scandal from defining his presidential victory and his presidency , and he has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
With these pardons , that effort , which has largely succeeded , is complete .
Stone and Manafort were among 26 pardons and three commutations Trump issued Wednesday , following a batch on Tuesday .
This slew of pardons is collectively corrupt .
While ignoring thousands of Americans who may deserve clemency but lack the political juice to win presidential assistance , Trump singled out for special dispensation war criminals , the powerful and the connected , friends of his allies , the father of his son-in-law , and corrupt former Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a special category .
Their pardons are part of Trump ’ s crusade to take revenge on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation that detailed the Russian attack that helped Trump win , that led to criminal convictions of Trump aides , and that provided evidence arguably showing that Trump had obstructed justice .
But the pardons are more than that .
They aim to help Trump himself .
Stone and Manafort were each involved in the Russia scandal as it proceeded in 2016 , while reporting directly to Trump .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not behind the leaks targeting the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign , as Trump tried to use him to gather inside information on the WikiLeaks-Russia operation .
And throughout the campaign , Manafort was in covert communication with a former business associate , Konstanin Kilimnik , who was labeled a “ Russian intelligence officer ” in a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report .
That report noted Kilimnik “ may have been connected to the [ Russian intelligence ’ s ] hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raised the “ possibility ” that Manafort himself was connected to this operation .
So top Trump lieutenants were part of the Russia business .
Yet they subsequently lied to or refused to cooperate with investigators .
They hid information from prosecutors and the public .
They covered for Trump .
Now he has rewarded them .
In 2016 , Stone was seen by the Trump campaign as its “ access point ” to WikiLeaks , according to former senior Trump aide Steve Bannon , who testified during Stone ’ s 2019 trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Trump campaign advance notice as WikiLeaks prepared to dump emails that Russian agents had stolen from the Clinton campaign and Democrats and passed to the transparency group .
He was regarded within the top echelons of the campaign as a Trump operative who could gather inside information from WikiLeaks that the Trump team could exploit .
Other testimony at the trial showed that Stone , a self-described dirty trickster , conferred regularly with Trump during the campaign .
Rick Gates , a former Trump campaign aide , testified that on July 31 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee—he witnessed Trump take a call from Stone .
Gates said he couldn ’ t hear what Stone told Trump but that after the call Trump “ indicated that more information would be coming.
” ( Stone was convicted of lying to Congress , obstructing a congressional investigation , and witness tampering , and he was sentenced to 40 months in prison .
Trump commuted that sentence before Stone started serving it . )
In 2018 , Trump told Mueller in writing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about WikiLeaks at all during the 2016 campaign .
Gates ’ testimony suggested that Trump lied to Mueller—which could be a federal crime .
Stone obviously could have cleared this up for investigators , but he refused to cooperate , and he lied to congressional investigators about his efforts to obtain information for Trump from WikiLeaks .
He could have explained what Trump knew of his dealings with WikiLeaks and how the campaign sought to capitalize on the Russian attack .
But he chose not to talk .
Manafort , who was sentenced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for obstruction of justice , tax and bank fraud and violating foreign lobbying laws , ran Trump ’ s campaign from late June to mid-August 2016 .
In that role , he kept tabs on Stone ’ s interactions with WikiLeaks , according to Gates .
At the same time , he was in steady communication with Kilimnik .
For reasons that remain murky , Manafort gave Kilimnik polling data to pass on to Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs , including Oleg Deripaska , a Russian aluminum magnate close to Putin .
“ Manafort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services , particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska , represented a grave counterintelligence threat , ” the Senate Intelligence Committee report said .
And there were other curious aspects to Manafort ’ s relationship with Kilimnik .
In a secret meeting in Manhattan on August 2 , 2016 , and in subsequent contacts that stretched into the following year , Kilimnik pressed Manafort to convince Trump to back a plan that would have handed Putin effective control of much of Eastern Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ According to Mueller ’ s 2019 report , Kilimnik told Manafort in an email that the plan need only “ a very minor ‘ wink ’ ( or slight push ) from [ Donald Trump ] ” to succeed .
Mueller ’ s investigators believed Russia hoped to obtain Trump ’ s support for this so-called Ukraine peace plan as a payback for helping Trump in the election .
In a book published this year , Andrew Weissmann , a top Mueller aid who oversaw the Manafort prosecution , called Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a ‘ quo ’ for all the elaborate ‘ quid ’ ” that Russia had provided Trump in 2016 .
Manafort may never have told Trump about this phony peace plan .
Mueller discovered no evidence he did .
But Mueller found that Manafort , even after he agreed to cooperate with his probe , had lied excessively to prosecutors about the peace plan and other topics .
Mueller terminated Manafort ’ s cooperation deal as a result .
According to Weissmann , prosecutors believed Manafort had decided to lie to prosecutors based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him if he did not implicate the president in any wrongdoing .
Trump gave Manafort ample reason to believe this .
During Manafort ’ s 2018 trial , Trump praised him and Stone for their refusal to “ flip ” and cooperate with Mueller .
This pardon dangling provided Manafort , Stone , and others incentive to adhere to a code of silence .
What exactly Manafort was up to with Kilimnik and what Stone did with WikiLeaks remain mysteries .
As does Trump ’ s full knowledge of their activities related to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his enablers will continue to claim falsely that the Russia scandal was a hoax .
But the reports from Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee show this was a profoundly serious matter that included what appears to be significant wrongdoing on the part of Trump ’ s campaign , his aides , and Trump himself .
With these pardons , Trump made sure the public would not learn the full story about their recipients—or about his own suspicious actions .
With this use—or abuse—of presidential power , Trump is not only protecting his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These pardons don ’ t end the scandal ; they are part of it .

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By pardoning Paul Manafort and Roger Stone on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump concluded a four-year campaign to use his office to cover up his own wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia scandal. Trump aided and abetted Vladimir Putin’s attack on the 2016 election—which had the aim of helping Trump win the White House—by denying this assault was real, while he simultaneously sought to exploit Moscow’s operation for his own political gain. Ever since, Trump has strived to keep this scandal from defining his presidential victory and his presidency, and he has endeavored to hide his own possible criminality. With these pardons, that effort, which has largely succeeded, is complete.
Stone and Manafort were among 26 pardons and three commutations Trump issued Wednesday, following a batch on Tuesday. This slew of pardons is collectively corrupt. While ignoring thousands of Americans who may deserve clemency but lack the political juice to win presidential assistance, Trump singled out for special dispensation war criminals, the powerful and the connected, friends of his allies, the father of his son-in-law, and corrupt former Republican congressmen. But Manafort and Stone are in a special category.
Their pardons are part of Trump’s crusade to take revenge on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation that detailed the Russian attack that helped Trump win, that led to criminal convictions of Trump aides, and that provided evidence arguably showing that Trump had obstructed justice. But the pardons are more than that. They aim to help Trump himself.
Stone and Manafort were each involved in the Russia scandal as it proceeded in 2016, while reporting directly to Trump. Stone promoted the false story that Moscow was not behind the leaks targeting the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, as Trump tried to use him to gather inside information on the WikiLeaks-Russia operation. And throughout the campaign, Manafort was in covert communication with a former business associate, Konstanin Kilimnik, who was labeled a “Russian intelligence officer” in a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. That report noted Kilimnik “may have been connected to the [Russian intelligence’s] hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election” and that information gathered by the committee raised the “possibility” that Manafort himself was connected to this operation.
So top Trump lieutenants were part of the Russia business. Yet they subsequently lied to or refused to cooperate with investigators. They hid information from prosecutors and the public. They covered for Trump. Now he has rewarded them.
In 2016, Stone was seen by the Trump campaign as its “access point” to WikiLeaks, according to former senior Trump aide Steve Bannon, who testified during Stone’s 2019 trial. During the election, Stone gave the Trump campaign advance notice as WikiLeaks prepared to dump emails that Russian agents had stolen from the Clinton campaign and Democrats and passed to the transparency group. He was regarded within the top echelons of the campaign as a Trump operative who could gather inside information from WikiLeaks that the Trump team could exploit.
Other testimony at the trial showed that Stone, a self-described dirty trickster, conferred regularly with Trump during the campaign. Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide, testified that on July 31, 2016—nine days after WikiLeaks had dumped tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee—he witnessed Trump take a call from Stone. Gates said he couldn’t hear what Stone told Trump but that after the call Trump “indicated that more information would be coming.” (Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness tampering, and he was sentenced to 40 months in prison. Trump commuted that sentence before Stone started serving it.)
In 2018, Trump told Mueller in writing that he could not recall talking to Stone about WikiLeaks at all during the 2016 campaign. Gates’ testimony suggested that Trump lied to Mueller—which could be a federal crime. Stone obviously could have cleared this up for investigators, but he refused to cooperate, and he lied to congressional investigators about his efforts to obtain information for Trump from WikiLeaks. He could have explained what Trump knew of his dealings with WikiLeaks and how the campaign sought to capitalize on the Russian attack. But he chose not to talk.
Manafort, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 for obstruction of justice, tax and bank fraud and violating foreign lobbying laws, ran Trump’s campaign from late June to mid-August 2016. In that role, he kept tabs on Stone’s interactions with WikiLeaks, according to Gates. At the same time, he was in steady communication with Kilimnik. For reasons that remain murky, Manafort gave Kilimnik polling data to pass on to Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate close to Putin. “Manafort’s high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” the Senate Intelligence Committee report said.
And there were other curious aspects to Manafort’s relationship with Kilimnik. In a secret meeting in Manhattan on August 2, 2016, and in subsequent contacts that stretched into the following year, Kilimnik pressed Manafort to convince Trump to back a plan that would have handed Putin effective control of much of Eastern Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2014. According to Mueller’s 2019 report, Kilimnik told Manafort in an email that the plan need only “a very minor ‘wink’ (or slight push) from [Donald Trump]” to succeed.
Mueller’s investigators believed Russia hoped to obtain Trump’s support for this so-called Ukraine peace plan as a payback for helping Trump in the election. In a book published this year, Andrew Weissmann, a top Mueller aide who oversaw the Manafort prosecution, called Trump’s possible backing of the Ukraine plan “a ‘quo’ for all the elaborate ‘quid’” that Russia had provided Trump in 2016.
Manafort may never have told Trump about this phony peace plan. Mueller discovered no evidence he did. But Mueller found that Manafort, even after he agreed to cooperate with his probe, had lied excessively to prosecutors about the peace plan and other topics. Mueller terminated Manafort’s cooperation deal as a result. According to Weissmann, prosecutors believed Manafort had decided to lie to prosecutors based on the hope that Trump would pardon him if he did not implicate the president in any wrongdoing.
Trump gave Manafort ample reason to believe this. During Manafort’s 2018 trial, Trump praised him and Stone for their refusal to “flip” and cooperate with Mueller. This pardon dangling provided Manafort, Stone, and others incentive to adhere to a code of silence. What exactly Manafort was up to with Kilimnik and what Stone did with WikiLeaks remain mysteries. As does Trump’s full knowledge of their activities related to Russia’s scheming.
Trump and his enablers will continue to claim falsely that the Russia scandal was a hoax. But the reports from Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee show this was a profoundly serious matter that included what appears to be significant wrongdoing on the part of Trump’s campaign, his aides, and Trump himself. With these pardons, Trump made sure the public would not learn the full story about their recipients—or about his own suspicious actions. With this use—or abuse—of presidential power, Trump is not only protecting his henchmen; he is protecting himself. These pardons don’t end the scandal; they are part of it.