Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
From the "Things that refresh your day" category we have this story. It is no secret that corporate America has been lining up against working Americans on such essential initiatives as the Employee Free Choice Act, Universal Healthcare, Wages, outsourcing and other priorities. Well, now that Americans actually own most of these entities our friends in the labor movement are fighting back hard.
Yes, these leaders are calling corporate America and the banks out on their complete failure in helping crash the American economy:
Union leaders are pushing to reshape the boards of directors of some of America’s largest companies, hoping to use government bailouts as leverage to fundamentally alter the way the companies are run in the years to come.
In a previously unreported May 18 letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the AFL-CIO called for the resignation of Michael Armstrong and John Deutch as directors of Citigroup.
"In our view, these directors had catastrophically failed to protect shareholders from excessive exposure to credit, market, liquidity and operational risk," wrote AFSCME President Gerald McEntee and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Companies like Citigroup that have received taxpayer assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program should be held to the highest corporate governance standards."
http://www.politico.com/...
Having already been effective in this approach the unions object to the un-Democratic way these corporate leaders were re-elected after obviously failing their shareholders:
The union-led campaign against corporate directors already has claimed the job of American International Group board member James F. Orr III, chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation. He decided not to stand for reelection in late May, along with two other AIG board members. McEntee was among the shareholder activists who sent a March 31 letter to government trustees blasting Orr for his service on the AIG board’s compensation committee at the time it approved millions of dollars in controversial bonuses to some of the very AIG employees whose bad market bets brought the company down.
In the latest case, the union leaders say they object to the April 21 reelection of Armstrong and Deutch because the two men received 1.1 billion votes against their election. And although they received 2.7 billion votes for reelection, the union claims that 1.7 billion of those votes were cast by stockbrokers on behalf of shareholders who otherwise would not have voted their shares. So-called broker voting is allowed under corporate governance rules, but the unions complain that the brokers vote in lock step with management and that elections in which they cast ballots on behalf of their clients are not a true reflection of shareholder intent.
Of course, Citigroup defended its failed leaders and system, including one man that had to be pardeoned by former President Clinton:
"Citi’s board of directors have diligently carried out their responsibilities during one of the most severe market downturns in decades," said spokeswoman Molly Millerwise Meiners. "The board also rotated committee chairs and members in July 2008. There is no basis for any recommendations against directors."
Armstrong is the former CEO of AT&T, and Deutch was director of the CIA during the Clinton administration. During his tenure as the nation’s top spy, Deutch was caught up in a controversy over allegations that he had kept classified materials on unsecure home computers. President Bill Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office.
The Chamber of Commerce's response was entirely predictable, and laughable:
What is going on here is a concerted effort to push an activist agenda," said Tom Quaadman, executive director of the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Should 150 years of corporate governance law be thrown out to satisfy political agendas? We think that’s wrong."
When 150 years of corporate governance leads to the greed and dowright dishonesty that culminated in being allowed to run roughshod over all other Americans under George W. Bush, producing failed policies that allowed that greed to totally crash the American economy and cause millions of people to lose billions of dollars in their 401ks and other investments, you bet it should be thrown out. That is not called "political agenda" it is called common sense, justice and oversight.
Union leaders were unapolegetic and promised that additional directors will be targeted after the Citigroup situation is resolved. After all, thier sizeable pension funds give them the right to some say:
We want all directors to be concerned that we will go after them, because that’s the way we will keep them accountable," said Richard Ferlauto, the director of corporate governance and pension investment for AFSCME and a leader of the anti-director effort. "We are pretty good at identifying directors who we think are not up to the job."
Ferlauto said his coalition will target additional directors once the Citigroup situation is resolved. Union pension funds are shareholders in the companies in question, he added, and have every right to agitate for better results from the companies.
"The, quote, ‘muscle’ here isn’t union muscle; it’s ownership muscle," Ferlauto said. "As owners, we have every incentive to make the companies thrive and prosper."
Of course, the unions are right on this. All Americans have bought these companies with their tax dollars and all should have some say in how they operate and whether the same failed greed-mongers get to crash them into the ground again. It is well past time we held their feet to the fire.
And from now on the leaders of Corporate America should take notice. Working men and women are tired of the short end of the stick while constantly bailing out the greediest and least patriotic among us. It is time to fight back!!!