Tag Archives: Chief executive officer

This is not a drill. This is an emergency.

Our financial system is being attacked in Congress, and if it collapses again because of reckless greed, working people will bear the brunt. CEO-backed politicians will raid our Social Security, our Medicare and our public services to bail out the fat cats. Take action now.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell your members of Congress: Deregulation leads to financial crises. Don’t deregulate Wall Street and then rob working people to pay for the bailouts that will follow.

In 2008, Big Banks and Wall Street CEOs created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As a result, 14 million Americans still are unemployed today.

But even though unemployment is high and our economic recovery is pathetically slow and fragile, corporations are lobbying furiously to undo the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Many parts of this new Wall Street Reform Act—including a requirement that outrageous CEO pay be publicly compared with worker pay—haven’t even gone into effect yet. But already, House Republicans are siding with corporate CEOs, trying to repeal the bill piece by piece.

What’s the Big Bank/CEO/House Republican plan? Deregulate. And if the economy collapses again because of reckless greed, rob working Americans to pay for bailouts while the rich get richer.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—and that if deregulation leads to another financial panic, we won’t pay a dime for bailouts.

This is serious. This is the time to take action. As House Republicans pick at pieces and “provisions” of financial reform, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that deregulation brought our economy to the brink of collapse. That didn’t happen all at once, either. It happened in pieces since the 1970s. Little by little, corporations pushed their agenda, and they got away with it.

That’s why working people must push back hard when corporations and greedy CEOs lobby for even a small piece of deregulation.

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—if deregulation leads to another financial crisis, we’ll know exactly whom to blame.

So far, this week Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed repealing several important provisions of Wall Street reform, including CEO-to-worker compensation disclosure—before they even go into effect. They also want to create new loopholes in the law for private equity fund managers, companies that use derivatives, credit rating firms and companies that issue up to $50 million in securities.

The fact is, America deserves to know what CEOs make compared with their workers, and we simply cannot afford to deregulate Wall Street.

But more broadly, we can’t give an inch and allow the deregulators to bankrupt America again.

Efforts at repealing pieces of Wall Street reform are just the beginning of Wall Street thinking it can return to its old ways. We’ve got to put that notion to rest, right now.

Tell your members of Congress you oppose repealing any part of Wall Street reform, that you demand CEO-to-worker pay ratios be made public and that working people can’t afford more financial disasters.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann

Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. BREAKING NEWS: A Wisconsin judge just issued a restraining order against the recently passed bill killing public employee bargaining rights. You can read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=IWj7usJ61FDarYEuMmAMp2gmjdx9rGEF

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Urgent: Tell the U.S. House to End the Budget Insanity …AFL-CIO -repost

02/20/2011 Nativegrl77

Repost …

This week the House will vote on Republican scorched-earth budget cut proposals that would amputate critical government services working families rely on every day. They want to slash education—from Head Start to Pell Grants for college. Cut food safety inspections. Cut job safety inspections. Cut investments in infrastructure. Cut the money to send out Social Security checks. And eliminate hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs.

This week the U.S. House will be voting on extremist budget proposals that essentially would shut down critical services for working families this fiscal year. House Republicans claim it’s deficit control. It’s not. It’s an all-out assault on America’s middle class and naked political payback to CEOs who poured millions into the 2010 elections.

Sign the petition telling representatives to stop wasting time on outrages like this.

>> http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=JwmLLkAvQ9Z2eaO7KyjEHVAYly69wHrp

Then, forward this message to your friends and urge them to sign, too. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=Bw132snZIJsEpBwz1ZhVLumJZ0bcS%2BhP

This isn’t “fiscal responsibility” or “deficit control.” It’s a bald-faced attack on America’s middle class as political payback to CEOs who poured millions into the 2010 elections. CEOs don’t like job safety regulations, so the politicians they elected will cut the funding and fire the inspectors. CEOs don’t want environmental safeguards, energy improvements or curbs on health insurance companies, so their politicians will just defund the programs.

Sign the petition. Tell representatives: Get to work creating jobs and reviving our economy and stop wasting time on outrages like this.

Then, forward this message to your friends and urge them to sign, too. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=JwmLLkAvQ9Z2eaO7KyjEHVAYly69wHrp

The Republican proposals would propel us squarely in the wrong direction—toward an America we do not want to be. If we don’t stop this budget insanity now, services ordinary Americans count on could cease for months or fail to function at all in this fiscal year.

Think about what America will be like with no occupational safety and health inspections or investigations of workplace fatalities and disasters. No National Labor Relations Board elections to enable working men and women to have a stronger voice on the job, collectively bargain, or choose whether to form a union. No certainty about when the Social Security checks will arrive.

This isn’t about deficit control. It’s about legislating working America out of the way of limitless corporate profits.

Stop this budget insanity. Sign the petition. Tell representatives: Get to work creating jobs and reviving our economy and stop wasting time on outrages like this.

Then, forward this message to your friends and urge them to sign, too. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=Bw132snZIJsEpBwz1ZhVLumJZ0bcS%2BhP

The budget madness isn’t limited to the federal level. In state after state, Republican legislators and governors whose election campaigns raked in the corporate contributions are ignoring the job crisis and playing politics-as-usual with the lives of working families. They’d rather take modest pensions and collective bargaining rights away from public employees than win them for working families struggling without. Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin is so determined to make people with decent middle-class jobs suffer and end collective bargaining for public employees that he’s told the National Guard to be ready in case working people strike or rise up.

Wow.

And if that’s not extreme enough, a Missouri state senator, Jane Cunningham (R), proposes ending the ban on employing children younger than 14 and limiting the hours children may work.

Don’t let the budget insanity go any further. Let’s stop it now.

Sign the petition. Tell representatives: Get to work creating jobs and reviving our economy and stop wasting time on outrages like this.

Then, ask your friends to sign, too.

Thank you for taking action.

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann

Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

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Three Days to Stop CEOs from Stealing Shareholder Votes

10/18/2010 Nativegrl77

The recently passed Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act gives shareholders—including workers’ pension funds—the chance to vote on CEO pay. But Big Business front groups are putting together devious loopholes, and we only have three days to stop them.

Take Action: Don’t let Big Banks and Wall Street brokers stamp out “say on CEO pay.”

Starting in 2011, shareholders will be able to vote on CEO pay packages. This is great news because:

1. Even if you don’t have any sort of pension, or own any stock, the bottom line is the new Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will help rein in CEO pay if it’s allowed to work. That’s a good thing for working people and the whole economy.

2. Pension funds hold TRILLIONS of dollars in assets belonging to people who are currently working, as well as retirees. So starting in 2011, there’s a chance to use the collective power of working peoples’ pension money to rein in out-of-control CEO pay that goes against the interests of shareholders.

But the new law is already in danger. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other Big Business groups are lobbying hard for devious schemes to gut the new law’s “say on CEO pay” provisions, and we only have three days to stop them. They want the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to give corporations more control over the proxy voting system—which is how most shareholders would cast votes on CEO pay.

You can help stop their proposals by sending a public comment to the SEC. But hurry! The deadline to submit your comment is Wednesday, Oct. 20.

Tell the SEC: Shareholders should vote on CEO pay—not Big Banks and Wall Street brokers. (If you add your own words and personalize your comment, even a little, it will make a much bigger impact.)

If Big Business wins on CEO pay, the rest of us lose. The Chamber wants to give Big Banks and Wall Street brokers power to vote on behalf of shareholders—knowing they’ll almost always vote to rubber-stamp excessive CEO pay. And the Business Roundtable wants to weaken investor privacy protections so corporations can send shareholders junk mail soliciting votes in favor of…whatever votes management wants.

Send your public comment to the SEC: Don’t let Big Banks and Wall Street brokers rubber-stamp CEO pay.

Groups representing Big Business are hoping to sneak through these seemingly “technical” changes while nobody’s paying attention. But the fact is, these proposals will undermine the voting rights of shareholders in corporate elections—and because shareholder voting rights will rein in CEO pay, that’s a big deal for everyone who cares about working people in America.

We need your help to make sure the voices of working families are heard in this debate, loud and clear. Can you help? Personalize and submit a public comment now. It only takes a moment.

Thanks for making sure working people keep their say on CEO pay.

Sincerely,

Manny Herrmann, Online Mobilization Manager
AFL-CIO

P.S. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is already trying to buy our elections with gobs of money from secret donors. Don’t let the Chamber undermine our new rights to rein in excessive CEO pay, too. Tell the SEC to put the interests of shareholders—including working families and the pension funds that hold our retirement dollars—before the interests of corporate executives who are trying to suck the rest of us dry.

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Job Tracker …

10/09/2010 Nativegrl77

Search Working America’s Job Tracker to find corporate traitors in your area.

Every day, more U.S. workers are told “You’re fired!” Not because they did something wrong—and not because the work they do isn’t needed anymore—but because their jobs are being shipped overseas.

So our friends at the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America created Job Tracker—a website that exposes which companies are guilty of outsourcing our jobs. Just enter your ZIP code, and Job Tracker will find corporate traitors near you.

Search your area for companies that have sent jobs overseas, risked the safety and health of workers or violated their rights.

When we see the plant near us closing or mass layoffs in the next town over, it’s hard to know the disturbing scope of the problem—after all, corporations don’t want to publicize unpopular, anti-worker actions, and the government doesn’t track every job lost to outsourcing in one easily assessable place.

I was shocked to learn from Job Tracker that 13 companies right in my area are outsourcing jobs, and a shocking 6,515 companies have safety and health violations! Want to know what things are like in your community? Get the stats on greedy companies near you, and report any missing companies you know about.

By making this information public, Working America is putting greedy CEOs on the defensive. For the first time, working people have one place to see the real impact of outsourcing, bad trade deals and currency manipulation. Every corporate traitor Working America exposes—and every company you and your friends, co-workers and family add—makes a stronger case for holding corporations accountable.

So check out Job Tracker, and if any companies are missing, tell us about them. We’ll research your submissions and add them to the site when we verify the information.

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. Corporations aren’t going to stop moving jobs out of America unless we force them to stop. That starts with compiling concrete information on just how much corporate greed is costing America’s workers. Check out Job Tracker, and help us take the first step by shining a light on outsourcing, safety and health violations and labor law violations.