In the second of three "No More Business As Usual" national actions, more than 1,000 activists and workers--including laid-off Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom employees--joined AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and New York City Central Labor Council President Brian McLaughlin outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street July 30 to demand government and business leaders curb crippling greed and corruption.
"When corporate criminals invade our workplaces and our markets to steal our jobs and our savings, we must react every bit as decisively as when thieves enter our homes and try to bring harm to our loved ones," Sweeney said.
Sweeney outlined a five-point action plan to correct corporate corruption:
1. A single new, higher corporate governance standard for companies traded on major U.S. stock exchanges. The standard would include accounting of stock options as costs, prohibitions on CEOs selling stock while on the job, a strong voice for workers and their pension funds in choosing corporate directors and a ban on offshore tax havens.
2. Congress should write these standards into law, and immediately approve legislative proposals that put workers first in bankruptcy proceedings and make genuine retirement plan reform the first order of business in Congress this fall.
3. The AFL-CIO will file suit on behalf of the 17,000 laid-off WorldCom workers to get the severance pay they are owed. A similar suit for Enron workers won them an unprecedented $34 million.
4. Starting with companies on the Standard & Poor's 100 list, the AFL-CIO will use the $6 trillion power of workers' pension funds to demand corporate accountability through shareholder, cyber and street actions.
5. The AFL-CIO will demand accountability among legislators by mounting an aggressive voter information and mobilization campaign based on candidates' corporate accountability records. On Oct. 19 union members and their allies will convene a national "No More Business As Usual" day of action to educate and energize voters.
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AFL-CIO President John Sweeney talks with members of the crowd on Wall Street July 30. |
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Laid-off workers at the rally included: Cara Alcantar, a WorldCom wireless division staff specialist, who lost most of the $8,000 in her 401(k) account because she put all her contributions in now nearly worthless company stock. Debra Johnson, a single mother of three and senior administrative assistant at Enron, who lost not only her pension and 401(k) balance worth $47,000 but originally did not receive a penny of severance. And Coretta Robinson, an Arthur Anderson senior executive assistant and single mother of three, who now survives on unemployment insurance.
Said Robinson, "I feel something must be done to prevent a corporation from abusing its employees as Enron, Andersen and WorldCom have done. Why should thousands of innocent people pay the cost for the greed that exists in upper management? Why should the future goals, careers and finances of thousands of innocent people be taken away or jeopardized because of corporate greed? This is not right, this is not fair, and that's why I'm fighting back and speaking up at every given moment."
Alcantar asked business leaders and politicians to restore her faith in corporate America. "My commitment is to remain honest, work hard and try to believe that I am not considered an expense but rather a respected, working-class American," she said. "It is now time for corporate America to commit to us, its workers, by joining in a new generation of companies that can grow but still care, lead by example and play fair."
Sweeney announced the AFL-CIO will go to court to demand that laid-off WorldCom workers receive fair severance settlements. WorldCom has yet to lift the $4,600 severance ceiling to what individual workers are owed. Enron workers, who originally suffered the same treatment, were able to organize a public campaign to support their claims that eventually won them severance payments as high as $13,500.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 30, the "No More Business As Usual" campaign goes to Boston where AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and UNITE President Bruce Raynor will insist that Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest mutual fund company, disclose how it votes on shareholders' key corporate governance reform proposals.
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"Nearly 100 years ago, robber barons hijacked our country and our wealth by taking advantage of the legal and regulatory voids created by our change from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Now we're faced with 21st century corporate pirates who took advantage of our transition from an industrial to an information economy to kidnap working families and take us back to the past."
John J. Sweeney
President, AFL-CIO
