Employees at a private Wisconsin company owned by two top Republican donors in the US have faced significantly higher rates of Covid-19 infection and have filed numerous complaints about workplace safety to federal authorities, according to a Guardian investigation into Uline.
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Dick and Liz Uihlein, the billionaire founders of the Uline packaging and office supply company who were once dubbed the “most powerful conservatives you never heard of”, have been critics of Wisconsin stay-at-home orders and, some employees fear, used their considerable political clout to try to challenge safety rules in the state.
An internal document seen by the Guardian shows that at least 14% of Uline’s corporate workforce has tested positive for Covid-19 since last April, compared to 8.7% of the population in Kenosha county, where the company’s corporate office is located.
Nearly 19% of the company’s Illinois workplace has tested positive, 23% of its California-based workforce, and nearly 27% of its workforce in Texas.
One complaint filed to federal worker safety regulators, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was received in July 2020, described workplace hazards including: social distancing guidance not being enforced; lax mask-wearing inside the office; symptomatic employees being allowed to continue to work without face coverings; and employees being forced to return to work in close contact with others even when they could feasibly work from home.
In one case, the complaint also pointed to the company’s hosting of a “lunch-and-learn” meeting with former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. A photograph of the meeting showed unmasked employees sitting closely together listening to Walker, a Republican, also standing without a mask.
Uline declined to comment.
In response to Osha, documents seen by the Guardian show that Uline told federal regulators in its July response that it had maintained its “in-office culture” but had allowed employees to work remotely “where possible”.
The company also said it had made special accommodations for people who were considered to be “high risk” according to CDC guidelines on a “case-by-case” basis.
Uline also said it “encouraged” mask-wearing in common areas and when traveling throughout the building and that disposable masks had been made available to guests and employees “free of charge”.
Osha said in a letter to the employee who filed the complaint that it felt the “case can be closed” based on Uline’s response.
Current and former employees interviewed by the Guardian describe a work environment that they believe takes a haphazard approach to safety, and one in which the founders’ conservative political views – including its opposition to Wisconsin’s stay-at-home orders, which Uline said it abided by – pervade the work environment.
Workers at Uline’s corporate offices are also made to follow strict rules on attire, including, for women, making sure their suit jacket is closed when walking through the building, and wearing pantyhose with skirts from November to April.
“The official stuff from HR will say to ‘distance’, but most people don’t really distance. Liz has meetings without masks,” said one employee who agreed to speak to the Guardian.
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“I honestly feel like Liz and Dick are so powerful that they can do whatever they want. I feel the government isn’t even able to protect the people here,” the employee said.
Part of the feeling of helplessness, the person said, stemmed from knowing how politically powerful the Uihleins are. The couple donated $80m to Republican candidates and causes in the 2020 election, including to support Donald Trump’s campaign.
Richard Uihlein has nearly single-handedly financed an Illinois-based political action committee with a $24.5m donation in the 2020 election cycle. The group, called Restoration Pac, spent nearly $19m attacking Democratic candidates in the last election cycle – in eight races. Seven of the eight Democrats the group attacked, including Joe Biden, Jon Ossoff, and Raphael Warnock, won their races. Restoration PAC lists four main priorities on its website: “stopping antifa”, defunding Planned Parenthood, “supporting the police”, and implementing voter ID laws.
The Guardian previously reported that the Uihleins lobbied against Wisconsin’s stay-at-home rules during the earlier stage of the pandemic, and claimed the crisis had been “overhyped”. The couple later tested positive for Covid-19. Among other action, the couple circulated a petition to employees to have the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, removed from office. At the time, last April, Liz Uihlein told the Guardian in a short phone interview that only 15 Uline employees had tested positive for the virus.
Experts who closely follow Wisconsin politics say the Uihleins have been a powerful force is shaping statewide politics, including support for Republican state lawmakers and former governor Walker, whose allies now serve as judges in the state supreme court.
“During the pandemic we had heard a lot of complaints that they were not taking the public health guidance as seriously as they should and that employees were being told they had to come in to work in person, even though you know they knew that they could do their job remotely,” said Melissa Baldauff, a Democratic strategist and former senior aide to Governor Evers.
She added: “They were were definitely one of the loudest voices objecting to the governor’s efforts to keep people safe … It is a pretty great strategy if you can afford it, to buy the legislature, and buy the [state] supreme court. That way you’re guaranteed a victory, no matter what. They essentially got two out of three branches of government.”
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