How Monsters Grow

Jonathan Tasini | Blog: Working LIfe
March 27, 2006

We have a deadly mix in the economy: start with so-called "free trade" and globalization, add in a good helping of the disappearance of anti-trust laws, mix in the collapsing health care system and, then, for good measure, add a little dash of political parties rushing to please big corporations and, presto, you have corporations that rampage through communities.

I thought about this after I came upon the strike at Sikorsky Aircraft. The mainstream media has basically ignored this on-going strike of 3,600 Teamsters, now in its fifth week. What the company wants is sounding like the usual demand: health care givebacks.

But, check this out. This is no General Motors: Sikorsky made $2.8 billion last year. And it is part of the huge conglomerate United Technologies, which has grown partly because the government has adopted a "bigger is better" attitude for corporations, essentially burying anti-trust laws. According to the AFL-CIO's Executive Pay Watch (a very useful tool), UT's CEO George David "raked in $13,356,928 in total compensation including stock option grants from United Technologies. From previous years' stock option grants, the United Technologies executive cashed out $83,621,610 in stock option exercises. And George David has another $155,630,600 in unexercised stock options from previous years." This is not a poor company.

Want more evidence of greed-gone-mad? The workers even agreed to give up a $2,000-per-person signing bonus and cut back the wage increases it had negotiated (from 10.5 percent to 9 percent over three years) just to keep the current health plan. The company refused and won't even come back to the negotiating table.

No, what we have here is a company that is essentially preying on 3,600 workers. In one sense, Sikorsky smells blood--it is waving the banner of rising health care costs to wring out more money from workers, even though the company is financially healthy. In fact, the nasty nature of this corporate abuser is obvious: the workers said, "here, take back our wages, we just want to keep our health plan so we and our families are protected." Nope, said the company. Of course, if we had a national health the company wouldn't be able to play these games.

At another level, this is a perfect story of what the political system, aided and abetted by the two parties, has spawned. It's where flag-waving patriotism is exposed as phony and where love of your country ends at the water's edge of the pursuit of profits, globalization and so-called "free trade."

When it's convenient, Sikorsky portrays itself as a critical part of the country's national defense. It promotes its well-known Black Hawk helicopter on its website: "Take a closer look at the many faces of BLACK HAWK, and see why it has become and will continue to be 'America's helicopter.'...That's why, wherever they fly, BLACK HAWKs share a common heritage. Of power. Survivability. Crashworthiness. And victory." In fact, partly by waving the flag, the Teamsters lobbied hard for Sikorsky to get the contract to build the next generation of Marine One, the presidential helicopter. The company ultimately lost the bid to a British-Italian company (a political payoff from George Bush to Tony Blair).

But, when it comes to lining its pockets, United Technologies, which calls the shots on such issues for its divisions, thumbs its nose. It has even dissed Rep. Curt Weldon, the Republican Vice Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, who has his hand solidly on a $100 billion contract to sole source engines for the Joint Strike aircraft--a contract UT would dearly love to have. Weldon tried to wade into the strike but George David has refused to return his calls. Seems like a lot of money to risk for UT to risk, no?

Add in the globalization of the economy and you have a monster: an arrogant company with a management that is all about enriching itself at the expense of the people who make the company its money. It has no allegiance to the communities that supply the workforce because its interests span the globe.

But, this is what our political system has created. The companies are simply taking advantage of the rules politicians have set up. We can fault the CEOs of these companies but, at least in this case, they aren't, as far as I can tell, breaking the law--they are simply using the system as it has been handed to them, albeit in a most dastardly and disgusting fashion.