Channel: Corporate Greed
SEC Proposals Would Expose Conflicts on CEO Pay
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The AFL-CIO today applauded rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to give shareholders better information about the potential conflicts of interest of compensation consultants who help set pay for senior corporate executives.
A December 2007 congressional report found that CEOs of companies that use compensation consultants who have potential conflicts, such as providing management with other services, received considerably higher pay than CEOs of companies that used independent compensation consultants.
In a statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said “better disclosure is needed to bring these conflicts of interest out of the shadows.”
Outsized compensation packages for senior executives hurt shareholders, including pension plans investing the retirement savings of America’s working families. Labor union members participate in pension plans with more than $4 trillion in assets. Union-sponsored pension plans hold about $450 billion in assets. Excessive pay packages for top executives are a giveaway of our members’ money.
CWA, IBEW Back New ‘Golden Coffin,’ Corporate Governance Rules at Verizon
If I were my own boss, I might not be too critical of my performance or stingy with my pay and benefits. But in the corporate world, if you are the CEO and the chairman of the board, you’re pretty much your own boss.
Today in Louisville, Ky., Verizon shareholders, including members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW), are voting on three corporate governance proposals that would:
- Separate the role of chairman and CEO;
- Allow shareholders to pool their votes in director elections; and
- Allow shareholders to decide if an executive deserves a “golden coffin.”
Executive PayWatch: CEO Perks Rise as Workers’ Wages, Jobs Wilt
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Even as the U.S. economy went into a tailspin, the median salary for CEOs of 200 large corporations increased by 4.5 percent to $1.08 million. On top of that, these corporations keep plying executives with generous freebies, despite the public outcry over private jets and other executive perks.
The 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site, which launches today, points out that the perks for executives rose on average by 12.5 percent in 2008 to $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker. Even more appalling is the practice of rewarding executives who drive their companies into the ground.
For example, the site reports that in 2007—the year the financial crisis began to unfold—the top 10 recipients of the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) collectively paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total annual compensation. That averages nearly $25 million per CEO to run companies that might have gone bankrupt if not for billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance.
Health Insurance Industry Gets the Profits, Patients Get the Shaft
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A wide range of approaches and proposals mark the debate on health care reform. The insurance industry group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), has a pretty “simple plan” says Ethan Rome, deputy campaign manager for Health Care for America Now! (HCAN).
They get the profits and we get the shaft.
Rome and some 100 union, health care and community activists, including members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and Working America, rallied outside AHIP’s National Policy Forum at Washington, D.C.’s Ritz-Carlton hotel this morning.
Calling for “real reform and not rhetoric,” the group denounced AHIP’s “astroturf” health care reform campaign orchestrated by private, for-profit health insurance executives that is masquerading as a grassroots initiative.
Wal-Mart: Recession Profiteer
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Bank and insurance CEOs aren’t the only ones getting rewarded for horrendous behavior in this recession. There’s Wal-Mart, whom Newsweek now has anointed as “Our Corporate Savior.” (Hat tip to dakine01.)
“Wal-Mart recently announced that its same store sales in January were up 2.1 percent, which was more than forecast. With the company’s huge network of stores and ability to strong-arm suppliers, Wal-Mart offers shoppers good merchandise at prices which becomes more and more attractive as the downturn continues.”
The brutal truth is that Wal-Mart is profiting in the midst of misery because of policies that, like those of the financial services industry, fueled the nation’s economic disaster. While banks rolled up and peddled collateralized debt packages like cheap tuna wraps, Wal-Mart’s assault on America’s economy came from another angle–everyday low wages. By paying the vast majority of its workers little more than the minimum wage and offering health care plans most can’t afford, Wal-Mart shifted its corporate expenses to taxpayers.
BushWatch: First MBA President Leaves Behind an Economic Wasteland
Eight years of President Bush’s economic tax cuts for the rich and job-killing actions have devastated working families. Just look at the smoking crater of the economy he’s leaving behind—7.2 percent unemployment, 2.6 million jobs lost last year alone, home foreclosures up by 81 percent in 2008, a plunging stock market, failing banks. Heck of a job, Bushie!
Our BushWatch retrospective today looks at a few of his more notable moves—mostly aimed at helping the wealthy and corporate world, with little regard for the rest us. For a complete listing, go to BushWatch and click on “Jobs and the Economy” and “Tax Cuts for the Wealthy” in the top box.
In early 2001, the man who molded Bush’s economic brain set the tone for the next eight years. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said U.S. corporations should pay no income tax. Further, he said the capital gains taxes for businesses should be abolished and “able-bodied” adults should take care of their own retirement needs and medical expenses.
Owner of N.Y. Crane Rigging Co. Indicted on Manslaughter
The owner of the crane rigging company who was involved last March in New York City’s high-rise crane collapse that killed six workers and a woman in a nearby building was indicted yesterday on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment.
The crane collapsed as workers were “jumping” the crane or installing new sections to the crane so it could extend higher as construction work continued. Workers were attaching a six-ton collar to the crane to anchor it to the 18th floor of the building.
Before installation was complete, the slings holding the collar broke and the collar fell, pancaking two other support collars and leaving the crane unattached to the building. The crane then toppled backward across the street, damaging a 19-story apartment and demolishing a four-story town house.
Lawsuits? What Lawsuits?
Wal-Mart has gotten into the lawsuit settling business, announcing Tuesday it was settling 63 cases pending in 42 states–with the settlement woth at least $352 million, The New York Times reports. The announcement followed a similar settlement for more than $54 million involving 100,000 Minnesota employees. Both settlements came in cases accusing Wal-Mart of failing to pay workers what they were due, including for time worked “off the clock.”
Bailout Billionaires, Kill the Middle Class
We know how the bridge loan to automakers is being spent because the Bush administration made sure they only got aid after agreeing to tough stipulations.
So that accounts for $14.5 billion of our taxpayer money. But what about the rest of the $335.5 billion that went to Wall Street financial firms?
On “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough pointed out today that we do know how Wall Street spent $1.6 billion: on chauffeurs, company jets, home security, country club memberships and stock options.
Wall Street Execs Get Grinch of the Year for Scrooging Workers
So many potential Grinches, but only one top Grinch spot to fill. So voters in the Jobs with Justice (JwJ) ninth annual Grinch of Year contest picked the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.
Each December, voters in the Grinch of the Year contest tap the CEO, corporation or politician who has done the most to “scrooge” workers. This year, in addition to greed-first CEOs, the field of Grinch candidates included anti-worker corporate lobbyist Richard Berman and soon to be out-of-office Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Popular write-in candidates included Blue Diamond Growers, American Airlines, United Airlines and that perennial favorite and 2002 winner, George W. Bush.
Over the years, especially under the Bush administration, the bank chiefs, hedge fund sorcerers and stock traders successfully lobbied for deregulation of the financial industry and, in turn, made record profits. But at a price. Millions of Americans lost good jobs and the nation’s economy is in the worst shape it’s been since the Depression. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the market, Wall Street is sending the bill to working people—the very ones who have been forced out of their homes, out of their jobs, out of their health care and out of their pensions by Wall Street’s greed.
