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CEOs Protected by Big Contracts Make Sure Their Employees Aren’t |
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The AFL-CIO’s new Executive PayWatch data shows that many CEOs and top execs have contracts that give them high pay, job security and numerous benefits. Yet these same executives are fighting a vicious battle to prevent their workers from having an opportunity to get workplace contracts by opposing passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
A big double standard is at work here—corporations are giving generous contracts to top execs with one hand while suppressing workers’ freedom to form unions with the other.
Take Wal-Mart, one of the most active opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act and its workers’ freedom to form unions. Wal-Mart went so far as to warn store managers not to vote for Obama last fall, and former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott summed up corporate opposition to Employee Free Choice like this:
We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.
When it comes to top executives, though, Wal-Mart has a different attitude about contracts. The mega-retailer offers generous health and retirement plans and promises two years’ salary to executives who are fired. It’s a sharp contrast to the low wages and lack of security provided to ordinary Wal-Mart workers.
Then there’s Bank of America, a corporation that hosted an anti-Employee Free Choice Act conference call, complete with requests to donate to political candidates and lobbying front groups, just days after being approved for taxpayer bailout funds. While actively opposing legislation to give workers the freedom to choose how to form a union, Bank of America gives generous contracts to top executives. And while Bank of America fights workers’ attempts to bargain for a share of the value they create, CEO Ken Lewis got millions in pay and bonuses.
The corporate culture that rewards top executives while fighting against giving workers their fair share has to stop. This deep imbalance of power has undermined not only individual working families, but the whole economy. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers the ability to form a union and bargain for a fair contract without corporate interference.
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No employee or retiree represented by a Union, or any worker who would like to earn a living wage and have a voice on the job, should ever spend a penny at Wal-Mart for the reasons above and more. Let’s let our representatives know that working Americans need this passed.
I would go further than APWS-Michelle. I would not spend a penny on any company that opposes free choice (in some cases one has no choice, but most of time one does). I would not spend monies in any congressional district that their fearless leader opposes free choice. I would not vacation in any state where senator opposes labor programs and on and on.