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Company CEOs and State Governors Get the Rewards - Workers Get the Shaft. Between 1980 and 1995, factory wages rose 70 percent, while consumer prices increased 85 percent. In contrast, during the same period, corporate profits jumped 145 percent and executive pay skyrocketed 499 percent. Following are some outstanding examples of CEO rewards - and why they were rewarded: AT&T Chairman Robert Allen laid off 40,000 workers, and received his highest-ever pay package - $15.9 million! Boeing CEO Frank Shrontz laid off 23,000 workers and earned $5.9 million! American Home Products Corp. Chairman John R. Stafford laid off 4,000 workers and got $9.7 million, a 132 percent raise! Scott Paper's Al "Chain Saw" Duncan laid off 11,000 workers,
and in 2 years kept $100 million for himself! According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the top 22 CEO job-slashers in 1995 were rewarded with $37 million (the increased value of their stocks/stock options), not including their average annual pay of $4.5 million. Business Week reported that executive salaries and bonuses jumped by 25 percent at the 20 companies with the largest announced layoffs! The 135,000 member California State Employees Association noted that Republican Governor Pete Wilson's pay rate is "handsome compensation for a man who robbed the state pension system in order to balance the budget . . ." The So-Called American Dream Continues More workers were affected by mass layoffs in the third quarter of
1996 than in 1995, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were
2,870 mass layoffs affecting 50 or more workers in last year's third quarter,
involving 306,522 workers who applied for unemployment compensation. Add
to that 40, 964 workers who were let go in 498 mass layoffs in September
1996.
General Motors Chairman earned $7.1 million Detroit - General Motors chairman Jack Smith received a pay package of $7.1 million last year, up 15 percent from 1996. Smith's pay, like that of other Big Three top executives, rises or falls on the performance of his company. GM earnings rose 34 percent last year. Smith received the same salary in 1997 as he did in 1996 -- $1.75 million. But the GM board gave him an 11 percent pay hike to $1.95 million as of January 1. Smith's bonus rose 53 percent to $2.45 million in 1997, and his other compensation rose to $2.8 billion. TBN YOU DECIDE - WHO DOES THE AMERICAN DREAM SERVE? MCI offers chairman $10.5 million bonus Washington -- MCI Communications Corp. promised Chairman Bert C. Roberts a $10.5 million bonus to remain with the company through 1999. Roberts' bonus is coming from money the Washington, D.C., telecommunications company set aside to keep people from leaving amid MCI's acquisition by WorldCom Inc. MCI said in November that it had set aside $420 million for bonuses. MCI promised its five highest-paid officers a total of $38 million, according to documents MCI filed Wednesday, April 22, 1998, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ameritech CEO Defends Layoffs Hundreds of Ameritech employees and shareholders swamped a raucous annual meeting Wednesday, April 22, 1998, one day after the telephone company announced 5,000 layoffs. Attendees pelted chief executive Richard Notebaert with questions about the layoffs, poor service and dealings overseas. Virginia Markewych, a Chicago shareholder, questioned the need for luxury items such as high-priced tickets to Chicago Bulls basketball games, and golf and tennis tournaments for big corporate clients. The Chicago-based company on Tuesday said the layoffs are part of a profit-boosting plan to cut expenses by $3 billion in the next five years. Notebaert, defending the layoffs in light of continued profits, explained that the company cannot rest on its success. The company's success includes 18 consecutive quarters of earning growth of 10 percent or more, excluding charges taken.
City School Board Raises its Pay 75% Feeling better about the job they've done lately, members of one City Board of Education voted Tuesday to increase their pay by 75 percent. The board voted unanimously to increase its pay from $400 a month per member to $700 a month per member. The five members go from making $4,800 a year to making $8,400 a year before taxes. Not bad for a part time job. While the school system remains on the state's "Caution List" of systems with low academic performance among its students, board members defended the pay hike. |
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