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Highlights
for week ending July 15, 2000
- Lou
Gerstner's legacy at RJR Nabisco and American Express. Lou
Shadow comments on Gerstner's legacy. Extracts: "His unfortunate
legacy is really twofold. ...he did not address a fundamental flaw in
IBM's financial relationship with its overseas subsidiaries and as a
consequence a huge liability has built up which could in itself swamp
the Company...Secondly he has changed IBM's culture,and in so doing
destroyed loyalty and commitment."
- CPR
comments on IGS future profitability
- Important:
Use of IBM resources pertaining to the class action lawsuit
- Allegedly, Lawrence
R. Ricciardi, wrote a letter in reply to Jimmy Leas, the author
of the IBM 2000 Annual Meeting stockholder proposal on pension and retirement
medical. The text of Mr. Ricciardi's letter was posted for a short time
on the IBM Pension club on Yahoo but was later
retracted. The letter resulted in several comments, including these:
- Have
you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration
of Independence?
- IBM doesn't track overtime anymore...read
speculation about why not
- Overtime
policy is "just a bit different" in IBM Germany than in the
U.S.
- Now that Lou has harvested our pensions and medical benefits, he's
found another way to make money...he's harvesting
hardwood trees at the IBM Country Club in Union, NY!
- Important
information on H1B visa limits
- "Many people who leave 'dot-coms' find a bonus in returning to
their former employer--a bridge over their service gap that means more
money at retirement." But...your former employer has to have an
"old fashioned" defined-benefit pension, not a defined-contribution
pension that IBM now favors. See
L.A. Times article.
- "After nearly a century of union management warfare in the U.S.,
a series of nationwide surveys showing that union shops dominate the
ranks of the country's most productive workplaces may come as a surprise.
In fact, according to Lisa M. Lynch of Tufts University and Sandra Black
of the New York Federal Reserve, economic Darwinism--the survival of
the fittest championed by generations of hard-nosed tycoons--may be
doing what legions of organizers could not: putting an end to autocratic
bosses and regimented workplaces." See
article in Scientific American.
- Important
call to action: "The House Ways and Means Committee is expected
to act this month on a bill that would remove current protections on
workers' early retirement benefits, as well as limit their rights to
sue their employers and pension plan administrators when earned benefits
are reduced." Sample
letter. A
later update.
- Read
about why House Bill 1102 is so dangerous, and why you should contact
your representatives in Congress. (See the item immediately above
for a sample letter). Excerpt: The most significant provisions will
shift tax benefits to higher-income taxpayers. Virtually every significant
provision is designed to grant tax benefits to participants in plans
who earn more than $100,000 annually. The likely result is to shift
the tax burden from higher-income taxpayers to lower-income taxpayers
and to take benefits away from middle- and lower-income taxpayers. I
believe it is likely that the effects of Portman-Cardin, were it to
pass, would be to expand retirement plans that benefit only owners of
businesses and to reduce dramatically the benefits granted to non-owner
employees in small business plans."
- Union
organizers hand out flyers in Somers cafeteria. Comment
from Jim Mangi, IGS Southbury employee.
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