‘Say on Exec Pay’ Bill Advances in House
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A key congressional committee took another step toward reforming the way Wall Street works yesterday. By a vote of 40-28, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 3269, the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act. The act would help end the excessive compensation practices that encourage executives to take excessive risks that ultimately hurt employees, shareholders and taxpayers.
The bill would give shareholders a “say on pay” and allow them a nonbinding vote on executive pay. It also would require that independent directors from outside of management serve on compensation committees.
Says committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.):
This bill is the first step toward comprehensive financial regulatory reform. I look forward to having this bill on the House floor soon, and I also look forward to changing the status quo.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act ‘Long Overdue’
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced today by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), is “common sense legislation [that] would bar discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression…it is urgently needed and long overdue,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Click here to read Sweeney’s full statement.
World Bank Scuttles Anti-Worker Index
The World Bank’s decision to revise the controversial labor-market ratings in its flagship publication, Doing Business, is long overdue and a “significant step” in the right direction, global union and political leaders say.
Every year, the World Bank rates nations based on criteria that in principle rank countries’ “ease of doing business.” The bank measures 10 separate indicators. But unions, academics and activists have criticized Doing Business as a one-sided publication, focused almost exclusively on a narrow “private investor” perspective, with little regard for social impact.
Boston-Area Congress Members Back Employee Free Choice Act
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| U.S. Reps. Barney Frank, Stephen Lynch and Mike Capuano joined Greater Boston Labor Council President Lou Mandarini and Vice President Patricia Armstrong in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. |
Richard Rogers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council, reports on the campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members from the Boston area met with members of Congress yesterday to press for quick action on the Employee Free Choice Act, a critical bill to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
U.S. Reps. Barney Frank, Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch attended the meeting at Plumbers and Pipe Fittters Local 12 in Dorchester. Some 75 union leaders and activists of the Greater Boston Labor Council took part, as all three members of Congress publicly pledged their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, the first viable effort to reform America’s broken labor laws in over a generation. (U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, another Boston-area member, also is a supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act.)
