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The
Horizon/Alaska Customer/Employee Association Inc.'s ESOP and CSOP Organizational Tidbit of
the Day: One of the positive outcomes of the monumental Enron debacle is
acceleration of needed reforms in corporate governance. (Desperately needed at the AAG). Unfortunately, some in the
federal government are contemplating changing existing ESOP legislation to
drastically reduce the amount of employer stock employees are allowed to hold in
their 401(k)s. (Enron employees lost around $1billion on their stock held
through their 401(k) retirement programs.)
This would be a mistake and set back the burgeoning ESOP/CSOP
movement. What's needed is broader sharing of corporate
power by employee and customers to oversee potential abuses by greedy
management teams and boards, which is what appears to have happened at
Enron.
If employees and customers can't trust ourselves (we
are the corporation) enough to
hold our stock as a critical investment in our future, why the heck are we working here anyway? You
want strangers to hold our stock? You want to make it easier for cross 'n skull
boners to accomplish hostile takeovers of our airlines so we all lose our
jobs?
Employees partnered with our customers need to hold more AAG stock. (HACECA supports broad
stock buying plans for both employees and customers.) But as we
stakeholder/shareholders take on more risk, we then deserve
an appropriate, qualified level of representation on the AAG's board to
oversee and help manage our investment.
It's a matter of sharing--a basic
tenet of democracy. Unfortunately, to date, management teams of both Alaska and
Horizon and the AAG Board have shown zero willingness to even talk about these
necessary reforms. Hopefully in 2002, our unions, employees and customers can
organize sufficiently to enlighten the closed minds of our
management--Steve Nieman
The Horizon/Alaska Customer/Employee Co-Ownership Assn.
(HACECA) Inc's website is www.eahsop.org
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