Comcast fired 500 despite claiming tax cut would create thousands of jobs

Apparently, Comcast fired about 500 salespeople shortly before Christmas, despite claiming that the company would create thousands of new jobs in exchange for a big tax cut. Comcast apparently tried to keep the firings secret while it lobbied for the tax cut that was eventually passed into law by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in late December. The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed the Comcast firings this week in an article based on information from an anonymous former employee, Comcast documents, and other sources in the company. The former employee who talked to the Inquirer "could not be identified because of a nondisclosure agreement as part of a severance package," the article said. The Inquirer headline notes that Comcast was able to implement the firings "quietly," avoiding any press coverage until this week. The firings happened around December 15. On December 20, Comcast announced that, because of the pending tax cut and recent repeal of net neutrality rules, it would give "special bonuses" of $1,000 to more than 100,000 employees and invest more than $50 billion in infrastructure over the next five years