Corporate Criminals Come Clean
At last, corporate crime soon will be ending.
There will be no more deliberate poisoning of workers and communities, as W.R. Grace has engaged in; no more killing for profit by the likes of Philip Morris and Firestone; no more crass violations of anti-sweatshop laws by Nike, The Gap, and many others; no more price fixing and outright fraud by such powerhouses as Archer Daniels Midland and Prudential.
How do I know that our society has reached this crime-free nirvana in the corporate suites? Because The New York Times informs us that corporate America is cleaning up its own act by 1) writing “ethical guidelines” to govern internal behavior, and 2) hiring “corporate ethics officers” to engage employees in “ethical training.” Isn’t that swell?
Mattel Inc. embarked on a social audit to make sure that none of its toys, mostly made in China, were being produced by exploited workers. What a relief to know that Mattel’s hand-picked auditors found no exploitation whatsoever! Never mind that independent human rights groups disagree — Mattel has forgiven itself. Lockheed Martin found in a survey that half of its employees did not report bribery or other misconduct they witnessed for fear that management would retaliate. So guess what management did? It launched a “trust us” PR campaign among the rank and file. That ought to fix the problem.
Aside from feel-good, public relations BS, what’s behind all of this superficial corporate introspection? Well, it seems the Justice Department has ruled that top corporate executives convicted of crimes can get more lenient treatment from the courts if they show that they have created “good-citizenship ethics programs” in their companies.
What a crock! The only way to stop corporate crime is to make the criminals do the time.
What’s in a Name?
Are there any boundaries to the greed of pro football owners?
In short, no. Today’s case is the Denver Broncos team, which since its beginnings has played in the renowned “Mile High Stadium.” But now the old Mile High Stadium is being bulldozed and turned into a parking lot for a brand new, $400 million Bronco stadium, 75% of which is paid for by area taxpayers.
A regressive sales tax forces hundreds of thousands of local residents to pay to subsidize greedy stadium owners, but now the greedheads want even more. They want to change the name from “Mile High Stadium” to something that could be Anywheresville — like “AT&T Broadband Stadium.” That really gives you a sense of civic pride, doesn’t it?
At issue, of course, is money. Lots of it. AT&T reportedly has offered as much as $89 million to turn this publicly financed stadium into its own private billboard. The private owners would make a killing on this deal, so they’re pushing hard to sell the “naming rights” to some corporate outfit like AT&T.
The good news is that the people of Denver are rebelling: A poll shows that some 70% of the citizens want to keep their city identity, rather than cash in for a corporate logo on their stadium. Mayor Wellington Webb is in the forefront for the folks on this one, declaring: “Not everything should be for sale.” That’s exactly right! The stadium doesn’t belong to the team owners or to AT&T — it belongs to the people of the Mile High City.
Rewarding Failure
Corporate CEOs are on another firing binge, dumping hundreds of thousands of American workers this year. Yet have you noticed that these same CEOs are upping their own pay, getting fatter than butcher’s dogs?
What if CEOs actually had to do a good job before getting a pay raise? That would sure spoil the fun of, for example, Ed Whitacre Jr. Ed’s the big honcho at SBC Communications Inc., our country’s largest “local” phone company. SBC has snapped up control of local phone service in 13 states and several foreign countries, now advertising that SBC is “your friendly neighborhood global communications company.”
In the process of merger-mania, not only has SBC jacked up people’s phone rates, but it’s also made a mess of phone service. Customers are waiting weeks to get a new phone installed. And forget about repairs. As a Michigan business customer who had his phone disconnected for three days told the Associated Press, calling for service was a joke: “You might as well give up your afternoon,” he said. “It’s impossible to get a live person, much less someone who cares.”
SBC executives blame “a smaller, less experienced workforce.” Hello! Who fired over 5,000 experienced workers when SBC took over these local companies? Did Ol’ Ed take a hit for all this management mess? No, sir! In addition to his salary, Ed got a $6 million dollar bonus, plus a stock payment of $6.5 million, and a $5.3 million “special bonus and retention award.”
If you can get $18 million a year for firing workers, raising rates, and cutting service — why should any CEO give a damn about doing a good job?
This article appears in November 24 • 2000.