The headline at BBC says it all; Former Heinz boss in $110 million payday as layoffs continue.
Layoffs for thousands, a payday of unfathomable proportions for the man who engineered the sale of the company.
I've never met William Johnson and cannot vouch for his character one way or the other, but it seems to me that a CEO has a conflict of interest in a buy-out scenario. Do his responsibilities to share-holders clash with the interests of other stake-holders? Who represents the interests of the farmers and the employees who are affected? Does the company have any obligations to the communities in which it does business?
A CEO who has a $110m incentive to pursue a particular course of action is unlikely to consider other options.
Showing posts with label corporate responsibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate responsibility. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
How much longer can Gwyn Morgan's comedy column in the Globe and Mail continue?
Every couple of weeks Gwyn Morgan is given a platform by Canada's newspaper of record, to pontificate on matters close to his heart.
What's close to his heart tends to revolve around certain predictable themes.
Government bad. Private sector good.
Regulation bad. Unfettered exploitation good.
Socialism bad. Capitalism good.
Unions bad. Minimum wage too generous.
You get the picture.
It's a pretty straight-forward regurgitation of the old-school neo-liberal manure wagon.
And in his spare time Gwyn is on the lecture circuit preaching about corporate ethics!
I know!
Every time I write those words, or even ponder such an improbability, I laugh so hard I wet myself, and all that out-of-control belly laughter leads to simultaneously having an asthma attack... then I'm trying to change my shorts while clinging to my puffer for dear life... I swear the man is trying to kill me!
Gwyn made his fortune as CEO of one of the world's biggest gas exploration companies, Encana. Under Gwyn's headship they became a leader in bringing industrial scale fracking to shale formations and fresh-water aquifers near you.
Since his retirement (i.e. waddling away with his pockets bulging with loot after selling out to a Chinese government controlled oil major, aka "the commies") Gwyn found himself sitting in the chair reserved for the Chairman of the Board of SNC-Lavalin, Canada's leading construction conglomerate.
Since Gwyn has graced that chair, his international head of construction operations, Riadh Ben Aissa, has been arrested in Switzerland, where he is awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges.
And today, former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaimer was arrested in Canada on similar charges.
That's quite an ethically challenged operation you preside over, Mr. Morgan.
I can hardly wait to open the Globe and Mail and read your next column on corporate ethics!
What's close to his heart tends to revolve around certain predictable themes.
Government bad. Private sector good.
Regulation bad. Unfettered exploitation good.
Socialism bad. Capitalism good.
Unions bad. Minimum wage too generous.
You get the picture.
It's a pretty straight-forward regurgitation of the old-school neo-liberal manure wagon.
And in his spare time Gwyn is on the lecture circuit preaching about corporate ethics!
I know!
Every time I write those words, or even ponder such an improbability, I laugh so hard I wet myself, and all that out-of-control belly laughter leads to simultaneously having an asthma attack... then I'm trying to change my shorts while clinging to my puffer for dear life... I swear the man is trying to kill me!
Gwyn made his fortune as CEO of one of the world's biggest gas exploration companies, Encana. Under Gwyn's headship they became a leader in bringing industrial scale fracking to shale formations and fresh-water aquifers near you.
Since his retirement (i.e. waddling away with his pockets bulging with loot after selling out to a Chinese government controlled oil major, aka "the commies") Gwyn found himself sitting in the chair reserved for the Chairman of the Board of SNC-Lavalin, Canada's leading construction conglomerate.
Since Gwyn has graced that chair, his international head of construction operations, Riadh Ben Aissa, has been arrested in Switzerland, where he is awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges.
And today, former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaimer was arrested in Canada on similar charges.
That's quite an ethically challenged operation you preside over, Mr. Morgan.
I can hardly wait to open the Globe and Mail and read your next column on corporate ethics!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Boycott Caterpillar!
In his speech at Davos last week Sweden's Finance Minister made a lot of unseemly and unwarranted comments about the situation in Greece.
But he also made a passing reference to "corporate responsibility", a concept that never took root in North America.
It is perhaps overly harsh to say it "never took root". Henry Ford was on the right track with his five dollar day.
Andrew Carnegie built a lot of libraries.
There is a long history of corporate capitalism in America in which a sense of responsibility to the community was at least a consideration in the decisions taken in corporate boardrooms.
Those days are long gone.
The attitude that prevails today is the one all too evident in Caterpillar's decision to close their Canadian locomotive works.
Fuck the workers.
Coming off the best year in its history, Caterpillar can hardly claim that worker concessions are necessary for the company's survival, and they aren't.
The move to shutter Electro-Motive is about nothing other than making an already profitable company even more profitable, and if that means sending 500 working class families to the food bank and onto the dole, so be it.
So you union guys who are climbing into Caterpillar equipment tomorrow, maybe you can give a thought to those 500 workers in London who are out of a job today.
Boycott Caterpillar!
But he also made a passing reference to "corporate responsibility", a concept that never took root in North America.
It is perhaps overly harsh to say it "never took root". Henry Ford was on the right track with his five dollar day.
Andrew Carnegie built a lot of libraries.
There is a long history of corporate capitalism in America in which a sense of responsibility to the community was at least a consideration in the decisions taken in corporate boardrooms.
Those days are long gone.
The attitude that prevails today is the one all too evident in Caterpillar's decision to close their Canadian locomotive works.
Fuck the workers.
Coming off the best year in its history, Caterpillar can hardly claim that worker concessions are necessary for the company's survival, and they aren't.
The move to shutter Electro-Motive is about nothing other than making an already profitable company even more profitable, and if that means sending 500 working class families to the food bank and onto the dole, so be it.
So you union guys who are climbing into Caterpillar equipment tomorrow, maybe you can give a thought to those 500 workers in London who are out of a job today.
Boycott Caterpillar!
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