Robert Vigil is 47. He has worked for 23 years at Portland (Ore.) General Electric. Thanks to financial criminality by PGE's corporate parent, Enron, Vigil doesn't have a pension nest egg any more.
Neither does 33-year veteran Tim Ramsey, 55. Nor 21-year worker Al Kaseweter, aged 43. Or 22-year worker Dave Covington, who is 52. Nor Roy Rinard, aged 53. Nor Joe and Diane Rinard, both 47.
And the AFL-CIO, outraged at up to $1 billion in pensions workers lost nationwide - including $2 million for just those seven - is lobbying Congress and urging federal officials to eliminate the widespread financial regulation problems that Enron exposed, Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka says.
Losing it all
Vigil, his colleagues and almost 1,000 of their co-workers are members of IBEW Local 125 in Portland, Ore. They keep the lights on, string the electric lines and undertake repairs for PGE's 700,000 customers.
And, Vigil told a Senate subcommittee in December, they lost their nest eggs because Enron put their 401(k) accounts in its stock. When it crashed into bankruptcy, amid a mass of insider trading and other violations, their pensions did, too.
"As the truth about Enron started to come to light - and as the officers at the top cashed out - we, the employees had no choice but to ride the stock into the ground," Vigil told the Senate Consumer Affairs subcommittee.
Enron's top brass were politically connected. PGE worker Donald Eri reminded senators that its execs were on extremely close terms with Republican President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The executives walked away with almost $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Enron execs froze the workers' 401(k) accounts by changing account managers in the critical three weeks as the firm went bust and its stock crashed. Vigil called that "robbery."
No protection
The 26-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act was intended to prevent workers' losing their shirts, and their pensions, when a company crashes, Trumka told lawmakers in a separate hearing on the $63 billion Enron collapse. But it didn't, because of law-breaking and lax regulation.
"Enron talked about a future of transparent markets" for electrical power - especially deregulated markets, which it lobbied for, Trumka said. "But its own chief financial officer openly bragged that...'We don't want anyone to know what's on those (Enron) books. We don't want to tell anyone where we're making our money.'"
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For good reason. Trumka painted a portrait for lawmakers of: insider dealing between Enron and dummy companies run by its own executives; an accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, so dependent on Enron consulting fees that it could not afford to blow the whistle on shady practices; and "independent" directors tied to Enron by other corporate links.
Enron insiders, including CEO Ken Lay - a big donor to Bush's primary campaign in the year 2000 - got out with millions, Trumka noted. When workers tried to push 401(k) claims in spite of the account freeze, the executives threatened to withhold workers' severance pay, he added.
"Now Enron employees' only hope of recovering the retirement money they entrusted to their own company lies in the hands of the courts," Trumka declared. IBEW Local 125's business manager has met his union's attorneys and the AFL-CIO general counsel's office about the case. He also hired an outside attorney to probe a class action suit.
Tighter regulation needed
The AFL-CIO has gone farther, Trumka said. It formally asked the federal Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 12 to return to stricter regulation of company pension funds, managers and accountants.
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"We asked the commission to tighten the definition of who is an independent director" and to force directors--who are supposed to be financially responsible to stockholders - to "disclose the full range of ties that exist between directors and the corporate officers they oversee.
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"And we need a variety of steps to ensure that public auditors are always looking at firms they audit with a reasonably fresh eye," Trumka said.
Trumka urged lawmakers to push what may be a reluctant SEC to crack down hard on the structural abuses that could lead to more Enrons. Otherwise, "The interests that profit from the loopholes that brought us Enron will prevail again," he warned.
"We will fight as hard as we can to get our money back" both for labor investment funds that lost money in Enron and for the workers, Trumka said. "But the truth is that only strong government action can insure investors are not victimized again in this way."
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
Read the workers' testimony on the IBEW website: http://www.ibew.org/stories/01daily/0112/011218_enron.htm
>
Read Trumka's testimony on the AFL-CIO website: http://www.aflcio.org/publ/test2001/tm1212.htm
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Robert Vigil is 47. He has worked for 23 years at Portland (Ore.) General Electric. Thanks to financial criminality by PGE’s corporate parent, Enron, Vigil doesn’t have a pension nest egg any more.
Neither does 33-year veteran Tim Ramsey, 55. Nor 21-year worker Al Kaseweter, aged 43. Or 22-year worker Dave Covington, who is 52. Nor Roy Rinard, aged 53. Nor Joe and Diane Rinard, both 47.
And the AFL-CIO, outraged at up to $1 billion in pensions workers lost nationwide – including $2 million for just those seven – is lobbying Congress and urging federal officials to eliminate the widespread financial regulation problems that Enron exposed, Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka says.
Losing it all
Vigil, his colleagues and almost 1,000 of their co-workers are members of IBEW Local 125 in Portland, Ore. They keep the lights on, string the electric lines and undertake repairs for PGE’s 700,000 customers.
And, Vigil told a Senate subcommittee in December, they lost their nest eggs because Enron put their 401(k) accounts in its stock. When it crashed into bankruptcy, amid a mass of insider trading and other violations, their pensions did, too.
“As the truth about Enron started to come to light – and as the officers at the top cashed out – we, the employees had no choice but to ride the stock into the ground,” Vigil told the Senate Consumer Affairs subcommittee.
Enron’s top brass were politically connected. PGE worker Donald Eri reminded senators that its execs were on extremely close terms with Republican President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The executives walked away with almost $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Enron execs froze the workers’ 401(k) accounts by changing account managers in the critical three weeks as the firm went bust and its stock crashed. Vigil called that “robbery.”
No protection
The 26-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act was intended to prevent workers’ losing their shirts, and their pensions, when a company crashes, Trumka told lawmakers in a separate hearing on the $63 billion Enron collapse. But it didn’t, because of law-breaking and lax regulation.
“Enron talked about a future of transparent markets” for electrical power – especially deregulated markets, which it lobbied for, Trumka said. “But its own chief financial officer openly bragged that…’We don’t want anyone to know what’s on those (Enron) books. We don’t want to tell anyone where we’re making our money.'”
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For good reason. Trumka painted a portrait for lawmakers of: insider dealing between Enron and dummy companies run by its own executives; an accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, so dependent on Enron consulting fees that it could not afford to blow the whistle on shady practices; and “independent” directors tied to Enron by other corporate links.
Enron insiders, including CEO Ken Lay – a big donor to Bush’s primary campaign in the year 2000 – got out with millions, Trumka noted. When workers tried to push 401(k) claims in spite of the account freeze, the executives threatened to withhold workers’ severance pay, he added.
“Now Enron employees’ only hope of recovering the retirement money they entrusted to their own company lies in the hands of the courts,” Trumka declared. IBEW Local 125’s business manager has met his union’s attorneys and the AFL-CIO general counsel’s office about the case. He also hired an outside attorney to probe a class action suit.
Tighter regulation needed
The AFL-CIO has gone farther, Trumka said. It formally asked the federal Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 12 to return to stricter regulation of company pension funds, managers and accountants.
online pharmacy purchase lipitor no prescription with best prices today in the USA
“We asked the commission to tighten the definition of who is an independent director” and to force directors–who are supposed to be financially responsible to stockholders – to “disclose the full range of ties that exist between directors and the corporate officers they oversee.
online pharmacy buy premarin online no prescription pharmacy
“And we need a variety of steps to ensure that public auditors are always looking at firms they audit with a reasonably fresh eye,” Trumka said.
Trumka urged lawmakers to push what may be a reluctant SEC to crack down hard on the structural abuses that could lead to more Enrons. Otherwise, “The interests that profit from the loopholes that brought us Enron will prevail again,” he warned.
“We will fight as hard as we can to get our money back” both for labor investment funds that lost money in Enron and for the workers, Trumka said. “But the truth is that only strong government action can insure investors are not victimized again in this way.”
Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
Read the workers’ testimony on the IBEW website: http://www.ibew.org/stories/01daily/0112/011218_enron.htm
>
Read Trumka’s testimony on the AFL-CIO website: http://www.aflcio.org/publ/test2001/tm1212.htm