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Senators expected to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt

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Lawmakers say they would seek to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t appear at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, senators from both parties told CBS News.

“If someone shows contempt for the people of the United States by not coming to testify both to potentially clear his name, but also to give them insight, then that is a contemptible thing,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the ranking Republican member of the Senate committee investigating Steward. 

The company, which had owned more than three dozen hospitals across eight states, declared bankruptcy earlier this year and has been struggling to find buyers for its facilities. Last week, de la Torre’s attorney wrote to the committee, saying his client would “not participate” in the hearing, asserting the testimony needed to be postponed until after Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings were resolved. 

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, refused to postpone the hearing, where lawmakers will also hear from health care workers and local officials in communities impacted by Steward’s bankruptcy.

For nearly two years, a CBS News investigation has documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while health care workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed. Last month, the company closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 workers jobless, according to the state.    

The decision to compel de la Torre’s testimony is incredibly rare — the last subpoena issued by the committee occurred in the 1980s. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a member of the committee, said he considers de la Torre to “a fugitive on the run,”

“If he doesn’t show up, he’s defying a legal order that he appear,” Markey told CBS News. “Therefore he should be accountable and held in contempt,” adding the committee will work on a bipartisan basis to determine whether de la Torre would face criminal or civil penalties for failing to appear. 

In addition to congressional scrutiny, Steward is the subject of a criminal probe by the Department of Justice. A federal grand jury in Boston is examining the compensation, spending and travel of the company’s top executives, including de la Torre, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News. 

Through a spokesperson, de la Torre has denied wrongdoing. 

Dr. Ralph de la Torre
Dr. Ralph de la Torre in a 2010 file photo.

Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images


“Dr. de la Torre did everything in his power to help Steward Health Care overcome numerous industry headwinds and challenges, including personally purchasing necessary equipment and supplies in order to address the needs of patients and personally guaranteeing loans for the company with his assets,” the spokesperson said in a statement. 

Markey said he isn’t buying that explanation, and accused de la Torre, a former cardiac surgeon, of violating his Hippocratic oath. 

“What Dr. de la Torre and private equity have perpetrated is something that is so heartless, so cruel, and so harmful to the most vulnerable people in our society,” Markey said. 

Louisiana is also home to a Steward hospital, and Cassidy, who is also a medical doctor, said he’s been hearing disturbing stories from his constituents about supply shortages at the facility.

“It’s been unable to pay its bills, and folks are being turned away,” Cassidy said. “We’re told at least one died awaiting transfer. Now, think about that. That doesn’t sound like the United States of America. 

Cassidy said he is committed to working across the aisle with Markey to address some of the financial maneuvers that allowed Steward’s investors to profit as patient care suffered.  

“Although he’s a liberal Democrat and I’m a conservative Republican, we are united in how to make sure people get the health care they need,” he said. 

contributed to this report.



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Teamsters going on strike against Amazon at several locations nationwide

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The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.

The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.

The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.

Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.

At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.

The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.

The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.

Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.

The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.

Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure. 



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Teamsters set to strike against Amazon at New York City warehouse

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Teamsters union launching strike against Amazon in NYC, across country


Teamsters union launching strike against Amazon in NYC, across country

02:12

NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.

The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.

In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.

“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.

“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.

The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.

At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”

Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public

An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.

“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.



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12/18: CBS Evening News – CBS News


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