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After the Fall of EnronAFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Reverend Jesse Jackson joined former Enron and Arthur Andersen workers on May 30, 2002 at a town hall meeting hosted by the Chicago Federation of Labor to demand corporate accountability with their retirement savings in the wake of the Enron debacle.Held at Roosevelt University, the event attracted over 350 union members, labor supporters and workers concerned about protecting their retirement funds from corporate abuse. The town hall meeting was part of a national tour called “No More Business as Usual,” which is designed to highlight the need for retirement and economic security for America’s working families. AFL-CIO President Sweeney set the tone of the meeting when he announced that the corruption and abuse that brought down Enron and robbed its employees of their safety should never happen again. “The Enron scandal has outraged hard working Americans who believe in playing by the rules and who are striving to build a sound, secure retirement for themselves and their families,” said Sweeney. “Enron is a symptom of the greed that is destroying the public’s trust in major corporations and it will keep happening unless we work together to ensure retirement security for all workers and fight together to put workers first in our economy,” he added. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, an unscheduled addition to the Chicago tour, inspired the crowd by blasting the moral injustice of the Enron and Arthur Andersen executives who falsified investment information and shredded financial documents. “The real crime is the fact that Enron has yet to be indicted while Arthur Andersen has been charged,” argued Jackson. “We should be putting the paper shredders behind bars and not the 7,000 Chicago workers who are now out on the streets without a job,” said Jackson. One of those Arthur Andersen workers, Coretta Robinson,was on hand at the town hall meeting to tell her personal side of the story. Robinson began her career at Arthur Andersen in March 1993 as a contractor. In 1997, she was hired full-time as a Senior Executive Assistant and was laid-off on April 8, 2002. She was 5 months away from being fully vested in Andersen and felt that she was penalized for the wrongdoing of others. Coretta has three children and is now surviving on unemployment income. Her youngest child is graduating from high school this year and as a single parent, she’s worried about her family’s financial future. Coretta and another laid-off Andersen employee have filed suit against the company on the grounds that it violated the WARN Act with the timing of the layoffs. “I was looking to retire from Andersen and working my way up the corporate ladder, but that was all blown away on April 8th when I received notice of my layoff,” said Robinson. “I lost my pension because of someone else’s wrongdoing and I have been financially paralyzed for something I had no knowledge of and nothing to do with,” she added. “Something needs to be done to prevent corporations from being able to abuse employees as my company and Enron have done,” concluded Robinson. Doing something to change the system is exactly what former Enron worker Dennis Vegas came prepared to discuss. Dennis Vegas worked for Enron for over three years. During his tenure he served as Senior Director, Public Relations Latin America for Enron International and was promoted to Vice President, Brand Management and Strategic Marketing for Enron Corp. Prior to Enron, he worked for AT&T, ITT. He was born and raised in New York and has worked and lived in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, New Jersey, and Houston. Following the collapse of Enron, Vegas lost more than a half a million dollars in stock options and his 401K-retirement plan. “Together with the help of the AFL-CIO, we have gained several key victories on behalf of the former Enron workers including recovering over $16 million dollars from our company,” said Vegas. “We have also had 13 hearings on Capitol Hill; stopped Enron from obtaining $30 million to cover legal fees for individuals being sued; and blocked former members of Enron’s Board of Directors from sitting on other corporation boards including Motorola.” “Now we are trying to pass the Kennedy Bill (S1992) supported by IL Senator Dick Durbin, which is the most comprehensive solution to the crisis that has been proposed in Washington, DC,” added Vegas. The Kennedy Bill, as currently drafted, encourages companies to enact defined benefit plans instead of defined contribution plans. It also encourages companies to allow its employees to gain participation in the management of their retiree plans and requires companies to provide 30 days notice to its workers anytime there is a change in retirement plans. The bill would also provide workers with independent financial counseling and hold retirement plans fiduciary responsible and personally liable in the event of mismanagement. Furthermore, it would provide for insurance coverage to protect workers when there is proven misconduct associated with the operations of their 401K-retirement plans. “It would be a travesty if we do not take the lessons learned from Enron and allow this type of fraud to happen again,” demanded Vegas. Fellow worker Debbie Perrotta agreed wholeheartedly with Vegas’ final statement. Perrotta worked at Enron for 5 years as a Senior Administrative Assistant in Enron Intl./India and Enron Energy Services. Debbie felt proud to be part of the “Enron Family” and gave more than 110% to the company because she believed the company would live up to its promises if she worked hard. She also believed that Enron was the key to securing her financial future, and was devastated when she lost her job and retirement savings during Enron’s collapse. “Today, I look back and feel mortified that I believed in the integrity of my supervisors and the Enron Board who told us that our company had never been stronger and that we would work together as a team to significantly raise our stock value,” said Perrotta. “Our company chained us to a sinking ship while they cashed out on their investments,” she added. “While we were suffering financially and emotionally following the bankruptcy, Enron’s upper level executives acquired over $100 million in retention pay and other bonuses. The lesson I, and my fellow workers, learned most from this fiasco is to never let your employer or federal or local government take control of your future. We must stop corporate greed and come together to achieve that goal.” Former Enron worker Wanda Chalk now knows all too well about the corporate greed Perrotta spoke about. Wanda Chalk, a Human Resource Generalist at Enron, was em-ployed there for 15 years. She administered Enron’s severance plan. Wanda and her husband have saved and invested all their lives to be able to pay for their children’s education. Now, they have nothing. She lost up to $60,000 in her 401K plan and is seeking financial assistance to pay for her son’s education. She received a lump sum of $4,500 in severance from Enron and $1650 in vacation pay. “Looking back, I realize there was little in the way of my financial security at Enron. Senior managers would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars recruiting employees for new business ventures and quickly dismantle the entire program leaving these new workers with absolutely nothing,” remarked Chalk. “Everyone at Enron wanted to believe so badly in what we were doing that no one ever doubted his or her own future,” she added. “If we don’t claim our rights now, how will our children be treated when they begin to enter the workforce? We must stop corporate corruption against hard working Americans like ourselves,” demanded Chalk. Following a question and answer portion of the town hall meeting, in which labor leaders and workers had the opportunity to share their own experiences of corporate abuse, AFL-CIO President Sweeney urged all of them to speak with financial advisors about their retirement packages, diversify investments in their 401-K plans and call on their representatives to support legislation addressing retirement security and corporate accountability. Chicago was the ninth stop of a twelve city national tour. These Enron workers along with many others will continue to speak out against their company in hopes that no other worker will ever get “Enroned” like they have. |
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