Corporate Greed // Current

Boycott Israel campaign and list of companies to be aware of

Since Israel is consistently breaking International laws, killing innocent people, taking land, blocking much needed medical and... more

WorldPeaceTV
added this

Exxon proposes turning humans into fuel if climate calamity hits

An Exxon janitor who died as a result of a toxic cleanup had his wish fulfilled to be turned into a candle via a new product... more

WorldPeaceTV
added this

Exxon Proposes Turning Humans Into Fuel If Climate Calamity Hits

An Exxon janitor who died as a result of a toxic cleanup had his wish fulfilled to be turned into a candle via a new product... more

WorldPeaceTV
added this

ML&P's CEO David Cole resigns

Company reports $8.7 million 3rd-quarter loss

Kepano
added this

WiFi for Rural America Up in the Air

With airwaves freeing up from the big migration to digital, the FCC has some ideas on what to do with them. In an attempt to... more

WaspintheLotus
added this

AT&T to try limits on monthly internet traffic

AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet service provider, is testing the idea of limiting the amount of data that... more

Bigdog_mike
added this

Wal-Mart has 'perfected the art of union-busting'

Want to understand why so many American workers find it so hard to organize unions in their workplaces? Look no further than Wal-Mart, a researcher for Human Rights Watch says.

Wal-Mart is a case study "of the abysmal workers' rights regime we have here in the United States," said Carol Pier, senior researcher on labor rights and trade for Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental organization that investigates human rights violations around the world.

In a speech last week at the University of Minnesota, Pier described her two-and-one-half-year study of Wal-Mart's labor-management record, which culminated in a 210-page report, issued in 2007, titled "Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of U.S. Workers' Right to Freedom of Association."

The report found that while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus. Many of its anti-union tactics are lawful in the United States, though they combine to undermine workers' rights. Others run afoul of soft U.S. laws.

"I like to think about it as a 'death by small cuts' strategy," Pier told the audience gathered at the University of Minnesota Law School. "And the effect is devastating."

In the course of her research, Pier interviewed dozens of current and former Wal-Mart "associates" (the term the company uses for its employees) and supervisors in six states and pored through thousands of pages of material from the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces U.S. labor law.

Wal-Mart uses a subtle form of union-busting that starts with new employee orientation, where training includes watching an anti-union video, Pier said. The corporation has a 24-hour hotline for managers to report any signs of union organizing activity and a "labor relations team" is quickly dispatched to assess the situation.

Depending on the level of union activity, workers may be subjected to mandatory "captive audience" meetings where they are lectured on the evils of unionism. In some stores, Wal-Mart has crossed the line from subtle to heavy-handed by conducting surveillance on employees, disciplining and firing some.

When those actions are taken – clearly in violation of U.S. labor law – the failings of the system become clear, Pier said. Wal-Mart takes advantage of the exceedingly slow NLRB process to draw out cases for years. When a worker finally wins a case, the company faces no penalty – other than the requirement to reinstate the worker with back pay (minus anything he or she earned in other employment) and to post a notice saying "they won't do it again."

With nearly 1 million employees in the United States, Wal-Mart is the country's largest private employer. Yet none of these workers belongs to a union. Employees at two stores in Quebec, Canada, finally won union representation, but both stores have been closed – the second one earlier this month.

The International Labor Organization has cited the lack of penalties – and the fact that workers can be "permanently replaced" if they strike – as reasons that U.S. labor law fails to meet international human rights standards, Pier said.

more@linkWant to understand why so many American workers find it so hard to organize unions in their workplaces? Look no further than... more

pokesmot
added this

38 responses

19 days ago

Mongolia mining boom destroying rivers, nomadic lives

A mining boom in Mongolia is threatening to devastate the country's rivers and is forcing nomadic herders to abandon their... more

JanforGore
added this

8 responses

25 days ago

Freddie Mac Paid GOP Consulting Firm $2M To Kill Legislation

WASHINGTON — Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated... more

synclaire
added this

2 responses

29 days ago

The world financial mess: Prime example of corporate criminal activity that screwed us Joe's

Want to see why we're in this mess? This Corporation was 'Caught' in their criminal act, how mwny have not been... more

WorldPeaceTV
added this

10 responses

1 month ago

Silencing Indigenous People: Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum promotes Native American Genocide

Philosopher Neil Evernden wrote that vivisectionists cut animal vocal cords so they did not have to hear the tortured animal cry... more

Yoopernewsman
added this

0 responses

1 month ago

Kenya: Government wants to impose GMOS 'by force'

The grand scheme to introduce genetically modified foods into Kenya seemed to shift into top gear after the Ministry of... more

JanforGore
added this

24 responses

1 month ago

Brussels slaps massive fines on 'mafia' of energy majors

Sasol, Total, ExxonMobil and six others have been fined €676 million for participating in a cartel that for 13 years fixed... more

bmltv
added this

0 responses

1 month ago

Following other states, New York may lease assets

Gov. David Paterson is proposing that New York join a growing number of states in leasing assets to private contractors to trim... more

WorldPeaceTV
added this

2 responses

1 month ago

NRDC sues EPA for honey bee pesticide data: their answer: approve bee killing Moventa

This interview is alarming. I really think it is time to shut down some of these agencies and start over. This is criminal. To... more

JanforGore
added this

8 responses

1 month ago

Monsanto and Michael Pollan talk about creating a world that can feed itself

This is like 36 minutes long, but it's definitely worth watching...

Kati_kat
added this

5 responses

1 month ago

McCain's real plan: to privatize social security

GREEN BAY, Wisc. - Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong. It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money in the same markets that had tanked earlier in the week.

The Republican presidential nominee says all options must be considered to stave off insolvency for the government insurance and retirement program, and top McCain advisers say that includes so-called personal retirement accounts like those President Bush pushed in 2005 but abandoned in the face of congressional opposition.

The aides tried to soothe voters concerned about the bankruptcies, takeovers and bailouts on Wall Street by declaring McCain favored only the option of such accounts, just for younger workers, and most likely in a conservative investment vehicle such as bonds.

Private accounts for Social Security are "always an easier sell when the markets are going up instead of going down," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "I don't think this is a good week to sell that one politically, but you're looking at the long term here. You're investing your retirement funds for 20 or 30 years down the road."

A headline Friday in the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader, the leading paper in that battleground state, underscored the political challenge. "Pension funds for workers take a hit," read a story about a roughly $500 million decline the past three months in the state's public pension fund.

Democrat Barack Obama opposes the accounts and has warned they could be a precursor to eliminating the government entitlement program. Critics also note that one of McCain's top economic advisers is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, a free-marketeer who pushed the idea of a privatized retirement system as far back as 1988.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, has suggested shoring up the program by imposing a Social Security tax of no more than 4 percent on earnings above $250,000; currently, only the first $102,000 in income is subject to the tax. Income in the "doughnut hole" between those figures would not be taxed.

McCain calls such a tax punitive and counterproductive. He also says refusing to discuss private accounts amounts to political posturing. He says his willingness to broach the subject is emblematic of his "Country First" campaign motto and harkens back to bipartisan discussions between President Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill Jr. the last time the system was revamped in 1983.

"We have to have some straight talk for America. The Social Security system is going to go broke. It will not be there for present day men and women who are working. And we have to fix it and we have to do it in a bipartisan fashion," the Arizona senator said Wednesday during a town hall meeting with running mate Sarah Palin in Grand Rapids, Mich.

GREEN BAY, Wisc. - Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained... more

synclaire
added this

20 responses

1 month ago

Record corporate bailout reveals the bankruptcy of American capitalism

By Barry Grey

13/09/08 "WSWS" -- - The US government takeover of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has dealt a shattering blow to the ideology of market capitalism, which has been used for decades to justify a relentless assault on the working class and a vast transfer of wealth to the American ruling elite.

The endless invocations of the virtues of private enterprise, individual entrepreneurship and self-reliance, used to demonize socialism and defend a system that exploits the vast majority for the benefit of a financial elite, have been exposed as frauds. When it comes to big capital, losses are socialized. Only profits remain private.

The same forces who year after year have inveighed against “big government” in order to justify the removal of all legal impediments to the accumulation of corporate profits and private fortunes, and carry out the destruction of social safeguards for the working class, have engineered a massive expansion of government power to safeguard the interests of the financial elite.

The bailout has as well exposed the real relations of political power and influence behind the façade of American democracy. The largest government bailout of private companies in world history—whose ultimate cost to taxpayers is likely to reach hundreds of billions—was sanctioned in advance by the Democratic Congress and given instant approval by the leadership of both parties and both of their presidential candidates.

There have been no investigations into the greatest financial scandal in world history. Neither party has any interest in bringing to light the swindling and skullduggery of the Wall Street moguls, because they are both bound hand and foot to those responsible for the financial debacle.

What has been revealed is the existence in the United States, behind the increasingly tattered veneer of democratic institutions, of a plutocracy—the political rule of the rich. When it comes to the basic interests of the financial aristocracy, both parties and all of the official institutions of society snap to attention and do the bidding of their Wall Street masters.

The bailout of the two mortgage giants—which account for 80 percent of new home mortgages in the US—is a demonstration of the historic failure of American capitalism and the profit system on a global scale. It was precipitated by the deepest economic crisis since the Depression of the 1930s, whose epicenter is the United States. The Bush administration moved to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under conditions of a rapid erosion of international confidence in the solvency of not only these two companies, but of the United States government itself.

Over the past several months, global investors, including central banks and government investment funds, primarily in Asia and Russia, have been dumping their vast holdings in mortgage-backed securities issued by the US government-sponsored firms. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a combined liability of $5.3 trillion in mortgage-backed securities which they own or guarantee. The run on their assets has not only intensified the crisis of the two companies, which are massively leveraged and have suffered billions of dollars in losses as a result of the collapse of the US housing market, it has thrown into question the status of all US government debt, including US Treasury bonds.

By Barry Grey 13/09/08 "WSWS" -- - The US government takeover of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie... more