Monthly Archives: January 2009 - Page 2

Battle Royale Over EFCA, Part II

Posted by on January 29, 2009 No comments

This is the second installment in a three-part series on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The third and final installment will be published next Wednesday on Global Investment Watch.

A Dress Rehearsal for the Big Day

In March of 2007, organized labor forced a dry-run on its top legislative agenda – comprehensive labor law reform. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) handily 241 to 185 (bill H.R. 800). The House voted pretty much along party lines with only two southern democrats “dissenting” (Dan Boren of Oklahoma and Gene Taylor of Mississippi). In the Senate, the bill met more opposition as it was filibustered successfully after only 51 Senators voted for cloture, nine less than the required 60 (note: one Democrat, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, was absent so they were really only eight away). Truth be told, the legislation had little chance of making it through Senate then. Plus, President Bush would have vetoed it anyway.

What that 2007 vote did, however, was to shape labor’s money spending strategy for the 2008 election cycle. Namely, that dress rehearsal helped the AFL-CIO’s political affairs department pinpoint precisely who could be counted on to back EFCA, who opposes it outright, and who is still on the fence. Now that Democrats are coming off successful election victories at virtually all levels of state and federal government, the playing field is very different. Both the Senate and the House have many more Democrats than they did in 2007 and the battle lines look far more favorable for passage of EFCA than they did just a few months ago. Most importantly, labor now has an apparent ally for working people in the Office of the President.

At present, organized labor seems within tortuous reach of having the required votes in the Senate to pass EFCA (the bill is safe in the House). In November, the Democratic party picked up eight seats in the Senate (Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and – for now – Minnesota). That gets them to the 60 necessary to avoid a filibuster. So passage is a done deal, right? Not so fast.

Read more »

High Noon

Posted by on January 28, 2009 No comments

A noontime roundup of business and politics.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane! No, It’s HubrisMan!

In today’s Financial Times, the new Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner had to make the call to Citibank officials to tell them that it might not be a wise idea to buy that $50 million jet they recently ordered. It seems that executive hubris know no limits at Citibank.

FT.com

Santander Covers It’s Madoff Losses

Banco Santander, the Spanish bank, announced that it would repay victims of the Bernie Madoff fraud in an attempt to stave off lawsuits and preserve its reputation.

FT.com

Sen. Chris Dodd Get’s Bailout Money?

OpenSecrets.org reports that Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and is now charged with shaping legislation to jump-start the economy and help floundering companies is getting some bailout money of his own, to wit:

Dodd’s most generous donors include many of the companies that have filed for bankruptcy or sought government help over the last six months: Citigroup ($428,300), Morgan Stanley ($211,300), American Insurance Group ($280,250) and Lehman Brothers ($154,300). Despite the companies’ support, when the Senate was called on this month to release the second half of the $700 billion bailout money, Dodd called for stronger oversight provisions and limits on executive compensation for the companies receiving a handout.

Senator, perhaps the guys at Citigroup will let you borrow their plane.

Opensecrets.org

Human Rights Today: 1/28/2009

Posted by on January 28, 2009 No comments

The daily update of human rights events around the world.

COLOMBIA: FARC killed more than 300 hostages

Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC killed more than 300 of its hostages, Ervin Hoyos of Caracol Radio’s Las voces del secuestro (voices of abduction) said Tuesday. Colombia Reports

DRC: Conflict Risk Alert

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have struck a deal for military cooperation that risks a new escalation of combat in the eastern Congo and an even greater humanitarian crisis without assurances that it will solve the region’s political and security problems. International Crisis Group

GAZA: U.S. Envoy Urges Cease-Fire After Gaza Violence

Israeli warplanes bombed what the military described as smuggling tunnels on Egypt’s border with Gaza early Wednesday in reprisal for the death of an Israeli soldier as a senior American envoy pursued President Obama’s first foray into Middle East peace diplomacy. NY Times

U.S.: The Employee Free Choice Act & Human Rights

The briefing paper details some of the glaring deficiencies in current US labor law that significantly impair the right of workers to freely choose whether to form a union. Human Rights Watch

The Challenges of Homelessness – The Man on the Street

Posted by on January 28, 2009 No comments

Sam Gross, the “Man on the Street,” talks about what it means to be homeless in America.

Can We Vote Yet?

Posted by on January 27, 2009 2 comments

In October of last year, I wrote about the Department of Labor’s Interpretative Bulletin Relating to the Exercise of Shareholder Rights. In that post, Americans Must Not Vote, I noted that, “the U.S. Department of Labor issued and Interpretive Bulletin Relating to Exercise of Shareholder Rights for pension funds regulated by ERISA, the federal pension law. The crux of the ruling was that U.S. pension funds subject to ERISA may no longer vote their proxies if they want to avoid the risk of investigation and possible prosecution by the federal government.”

As the Obama Administration begins the task of cleaning up the mess left by the Bush Administration, we are witnessing a rejection of various regulations imposed on Americans in the name of ideology or cronyism. Within a few days of taking office, President Obama has directed the Department of Health & Human Services to repeal its infamous “Gag Rule” relating to organizations receivDepartment of Laboring federal assistance from offering abortions. Yesterday, the Administration announced plans to allow states to set their own pollution emission standards – something that the Bush Administration resisted so as to placate big business.

As the 2009 proxy season rapidly approaches, it remains imperative that institutional investors, including pension plans regulated by the Department of Labor, be able to exercise their rights as shareholders. The financial calamity facing investors and other stakeholders necessitates that corporations and their officers and directors be held accountable. Without shareholder voices leading the way at this year’s spate of annual meetings, public company officials will get, in effect, a free pass with respect to their failed management. The Department of Labor will bear primary responsibility for this misdeed.

Can we vote yet? Time will tell.