Read this article in:
1 August, 2002
I have heard trade union leaders say that what happens on the stock exchange does not interest the individual worker.
This couldn't be further from the truth these days. The crash of some big U.S. companies clearly shows how so-called casino capitalism, ruthless as it is, uses workers' money for gambling. And this isn't happening just in the USA; worldwide the situation is very much the same.
CEOs being granted astronomical figures for compensation while their companies are in deep trouble is happening all over - in Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, just to mention a few. In the USA, managers have been able to collect sums such as 3.3 billion dollars as their companies go bankrupt, making 100,000 workers jobless and thousands of shareholders poorer.
As trade unions, we never liked the old-fashioned managers who ran their companies in a paternalistic way. For them, workplace democracy and workers' influence were a burden rather than an asset. But most of them planned for the future, and to secure the company and jobs in the long term.
On the other hand, the CEOs involved in these bankruptcies have not planned any longer than their nose. Their main concern appears to be driving up stock values so they can cash in on stock options. They almost make trade unions miss the old-style industrialists.
This is why the strong reaction of John Sweeney, expressed on July 30 during his visit to Wall Street, fits perfectly into this.
The AFL-CIO represents 13 million workers who together own pension funds worth 6,000 billion dollars. This money is not supposed to feed a few irresponsible CEOs and make some shareholders richer. It represents the only guarantee for the future of millions of people and their families. The same applies all over the world.
The funds which are manipulated to enrich a few are almost 100 percent money which has been brought together by workers. By saving money for pensions, workers contribute largely to providing a strong and stable base for economic development. The least we can ask is that our money is used to secure our future when we have no other income.
This is why, when John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO say that we will no longer tolerate the greed of short-term speculators and corrupt insiders and will not tolerate companies which overcompensate their executives, the entire trade union movement can only give him its massive and total support.
CEOs who commit illegal acts should be severely punished -- just like anyone else who breaks the law. But that is not enough. What the most recent spate of corporate misdeeds shows is that we need much tighter accounting rules, and government regulators who strictly apply them.