How United Airlines’ Rapacious, Scandal-Ridden CEO Screwed Over His Own Company

[marmar]

(In These Times) Jeff Smisek, the guy forced by scandal to resign last week as CEO of the world’s fourth-largest airline, is a major reason American workers can’t get a raise.

Smisek and his overpaid boardroom buddies nationwide have swindled American workers and American communities in a scam to amass wealth for themselves and well-heeled stockholders. They’ve extracted value from corporations and put it in their pockets and shareholders’ purses almost to the complete exclusion of investing in their corporations to create new wealth and prosperity.

CEOs like Smisek began sucking the financial lifeblood out of corporations in the 1970s. That’s when corporations stopped raising worker wages in tandem with rises in productivity and curbed research and development. Instead, corporations spent increasing portions of profit on dividends and stock buybacks. This goosed CEO compensation while squashing worker pay. Over four decades, it has degraded corporations and produced the worst income inequality since the Great Depression.

Smisek’s failed leadership at United Airlines illustrates exactly how this CEO self-dealing scheme works to the advantage of wealthy executives and shareholders while damaging workers, communities, customers and corporations.

Under Smisek, passengers, workers and taxpayers found the skies decidedly unfriendly. ...............(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18412/united_airlines_CEO_greedy

[SamKnause]

1. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Story after story.

Corporation after corporation.

Bank after bank.

CEO's after CEO's.

Military contractors after military contractors.

Big oil corporations after big oil corporations.

The IMF and the World Bank continue their assault on the masses.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

White collar crime is bankrupting the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kimbutgar]

2. My hubby works for United

Management is terrible, morale down and the workers are frustrated. I'm glad this jerk is gone.

[Frustratedlady]

3. That huge compensation package is criminal and insane. Why would he draw that much? eom