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`WE WANT OUR RIGHTS!'--American workers came to Labor Day
2001 with a strong sense that when it comes to life on the job, we can do
better, according to a new survey released Aug. 30. Fully 68 percent of
workers say workplace rights need more protection, and employers inspire
little or no trust among two-thirds of workers--resulting in a strong 56
percent majority who say new laws are needed to hold corporations
accountable for the way they treat employees. The poll, conducted by Peter
D. Hart Research Associates for the AFL-CIO, shows that workers place a
high value on rights at work--such as the rights to earn a decent wage and
have personal privacy on the job--but many think employers are doing a
poor job protecting those rights. "American workers have issued a
report card to corporate America and stamped it 'unsatisfactory,'"
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. In alarming findings, the poll shows
almost half of black workers say they have experienced racial
discrimination at work and nearly a quarter of women say they have been
sexually harassed on the job. And while more than three-quarters of
workers say management or stockholders benefited from the recent economic
boom, 81 percent of them say employees would sacrifice the most in an
economic slowdown. You can download the full report and take action on
workers' rights at www.aflcio.org.
CEOS CASH IN--The nation's top corporate executives
continue to enjoy substantial pay hikes while Wall Street slides and
workers face the biggest job cuts in a decade, according to a study by the
Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. "Never
over these [last eight] years, however, has there been such a blatant
pattern of CEOs benefiting at the expense of their workers as the year
2000," says the report, entitled Executive Excess 2001: Lay-offs, Tax
Rebates and the Gender Gap, Eighth Annual CEO Compensation Survey. To read
the report, click on www.ips-dc.org.
THE BELOW LINK ISN'T NEWS FROM CORPORATE AMERICA,
IT'S NEWS ABOUT OR TO CORPORATE AMERICA.
COWARDLY ACTS
EMPLOYERS GAGGING--Legislation passed by the New York State
Assembly and agreed to by the state senate and Gov. George Pataki (R) bars
employers receiving state money from using the funds to influence union
organizing. Employers and business groups claim the measure is a gag order
that violates their First Amendment rights. The law will require employers
receiving state funding to keep financial records and submit to audits to
ensure state funds aren't used to pay for activities that either promote
or deter union organizing, such as training managers or conducting captive
audience meetings.
SKEWED CORPORATE VALUES--The American Management Association's
2002 Corporate Values Survey of corporate executive members reveals that
32 percent of respondents said their companies' public statements
sometimes conflicted with internal messages and realities. Another 36
percent said their organizations would always do what's legal, but not
always what would be perceived as ethical. And others indicated their
companies' stated values were adhered to only some of the time, including
ethics/integrity (23 percent), accountability (37 percent) and respect for
others (37 percent). For an executive summary of the survey, visit www.amanet.org/research/index.htm
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08/29/02
CORPORATE GREED EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS--Just when it seems corporate
corruption reached its peak, startling new revelations lurch onto center
stage. A new study finds that the CEOs of failing companies under
investigation for accounting irregularities made 70 percent more money
than the average CEO.
The top executives of companies under investigation by the SEC, Justice
Department and other agencies raked in an average $62 million annually. By
contrast, the CEOs of firms listed in the annual Business Week executive
pay survey is $36 million. By the same token, employees at the 23 firms
under investigation suffered a total of
162,000 layoffs in the past 18 months.
Also, the same firms lost more than $530 billion in share value, about 73
percent of their total value. While the CEOs are cushioned by the huge
sums they raked in, workers saw their retirement securities go up in smoke
and shareholders are left holding a mostly empty bag.
The report points out that if worker pay had increased as fast as CEO pay
over the past decade, the average worker would have earned $101,156 last
year instead of the much more modest $25,467 in worker pay. The report was
produced by United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based advocacy group; and
the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, DC, - based think tank.
The report is available at www.FairEconomy.org.
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