http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/corporation/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Tue, 01 May 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3141/our_profit_margin_could_be_your_life/ The back of some crappy beer-soaked tavern is not where one expects an awakening of political consciousness. But if you've out come to see hardcore punk band HeWhoCorrupts (HWC), you're going to have one--smoky and sweaty though it may be. At some point late in the evening (or more likely, early in the morning), the CEO of HWC, Thomas Camaro, will take the mic and deliver his annual report in the form of a 12-song set. His suit is screenprinted with the company logo. His lackeys mill around, helplessly awaiting his lead like standard-issue office drones. When he begins, Camaro will outline a strategic economic program the likes of which you have never seen. At the end of a set… music corporation Fred Weir Mon, 14 May 2007 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3200/doing_it_for_themselves/ The Florida tomato pickers of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) rolled into Chicago in blustery April, ready to stand before McDonald's corporate headquarters and press their demands that the fast-food behemoth take responsibility for the miserable way its tomatoes are farmed. It proved unnecessary. As more than 1,000 tomato pickers and their allies wound their way to Chicago, McDonald's unexpectedly agreed to all of the coalition's demands. The groundbreaking settlement will almost double salaries for farm workers, reveal where the company buys its tomatoes and create a monitoring plan expandable to other corporate buyers. McDonald's capitulated two years into the campaign, and on the eve of the coalition's call to boycott the company. It followed a similar deal the… agriculture corporation labor Fred Weir Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3282/a_win_in_the_water_war/ Bill Lokyo never expected to find himself embroiled in a six-year battle over water with a multinational corporation and city officials in Stockton, Calif. "We all thought this would only be a one-year fight," Lokyo says. But Lokyo and the group Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton (CCOS) felt compelled to challenge a rushed deal that turned the city's publicly owned water system into a for-profit venture. This month, their perseverance paid off when the city finally sent privatization packing. "We believed that we were right," Lokyo says. "And when you believe that, you just can't stop." In 2003, against the wishes of many Stockton residents, the city signed a 20-year contract with the company OMI-Thames to manage its wastewater, water… corporation water Fred Weir Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3319/holy_toyland/ Julien, my four-year-old son, had two plastic action-figures locked in mortal combat. "Who will win," he asked, looking up at me, "Spider-Man or Moses?" We discussed their relative strengths, and he settled on the superiority of Spider-Man. The Moses toy had only a big staff in one hand and a couple stone tablets in the other--not very impressive next to Spidey's web-slinging power. Also, my son reasoned, Moses, with his long white beard and bathrobe, looked "too old" for serious battle. This kind of bizarre conversation may soon be repeated all over the country when the Tales of Glory action-figures start selling at Wal-Mart stores this fall. A company called "one2believe" is marketing the faith-based dolls "to find a way… corporation religion Fred Weir Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3350/merc_is_the_new_crack/ The United States is in throes of a deadly addiction, according to Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. In "Can't Win with 'Em, Can't Go To War without 'Em: Private Military Contractors and Counterinsurgency," a report released this month, Singer argues that America is hooked on private security contractors. "[Our reliance on private security contractors] has created a dependency syndrome on the private marketplace that not merely creates critical vulnerabilities, but shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction," Singer writes. "If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to private military contractors and counterinsurgency, the U.S. has locked itself into a vicious cycle. It… corporation military iraq war Fred Weir Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:59:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3384/snoops_get_a_direct_line/ It seemed like shocking news last week when the telecommunications giant Verizon admitted it has readily allowed warrantless national security investigators to browse customer records on thousands of occasions. But given the revolving door between the telecom industry and federal government, no one should be surprised by their cozy relationship. According to OpenSecrets.org, a Web site run by the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C., the worlds are well connected: There are no shortage of government officials who once worked in the telecommunications industry, and no shortage of telecommunications industry execs who once worked for the government. Many of the men and women who have hopped the fence--sometimes more than once--between government and telecom have done so via predictable… corporation civil liberties Fred Weir Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3378/pirates_of_private_equity/ Employees knew that Hastings Manufacturing Co., a family-owned auto-parts supplier 30 miles south of Grand Rapids, Mich., was in deep water. Facing financial pressure, 375 employees--two-thirds of whom were in the United Auto Workers' (UAW) bargaining unit--conceded $1 million in benefits to save their company, relinquishing newly negotiated pay raises and agreeing to cover part of their own health care costs. But according to UAW Local 138 Chief Steward Kim Townsend, who testified before the House Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee in September, when Hastings' management declared bankruptcy and was taken over by the private equity firm Anderson Group in December 2005, the slicing didn't stop there. Sick days were cut in half, an existing two-tier wage system with a… corporation economy Fred Weir Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3406/the_new_road_to_serfdom/ In the early '80s, as Margaret Thatcher attempted to hack away at England's substantial public sector, she found a frustrating degree of public resistance. The closer she got to the bone, the more the patient wriggled and withdrew. Thatcher doggedly persisted, yet her pace wasn't fast enough for right-wing Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek, her idol and ideological mentor. You see, in 1981, Hayek had traveled to Gen. Augusto Pinochet's Chile, where, under the barbed restraints of dictatorship and with the guidance of University of Chicago-trained economists, Pinochet had gouged out nearly every vestige of the public sector, privatizing everything from utilities to the Chilean state pension program. Hayek returned gushing, and wrote Thatcher, urging her to follow Chile's aggressive… books corporation theory Fred Weir Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3408/treaty_of_detroit_repealed/ In 1950, General Motors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) signed the "Treaty of Detroit." The landmark contract helped create mass prosperity and growing equality in America over the next two decades by setting a standard for other unions that even many non-union employers felt pressure to approximate. Workers shared in rising productivity, and unions shifted to employers many of the risks that come from life in a capitalist economy. The UAW won comprehensive health insurance, pensions, cost-of-living adjustments and income protection during economic downturns. But the new contracts that the Big Three--GM, Chrysler and Ford--negotiated this fall effectively repeal that treaty. For more than three decades, auto executives, driven by the consequences of globalization and their own bumbling mismanagement,… corporation labor Fred Weir Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3412/saving_a_public_park/ By most measures, the citizens of Benton Harbor, Mich., are not materially wealthy. The city's residents are predominantly black--92 percent--and the median family income is $19,250, barely two-thirds of the minimum basic family budget, as calculated by the Economic Policy Institute. One of the few sanctuaries for the city's working-class residents is Jean Klock Park, a popular public beach that offers spectacular views of Lake Michigan. But if the city's other large constituency, the home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation, gets its way, the park will be turned into a private golf course. Whirlpool, its developer allies and their front group, known as the Cornerstone Alliance, have persuaded city commissioners to approve a plan to turn the park into three holes… corporation environment Fred Weir Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3419/public_libraries_for_profit/ In late October, Jackson County, Ore., re-opened the doors to 15 of its public libraries after a lack of funds had forced them shut on April 6--the largest library closure in U.S. history. However, as patrons returned to the bookshelves in the southern Oregon county, they learned that their libraries are now under private, for-profit management. Oregon suffered a $150 million budget shortfall--and Jackson County a $23 million loss--in fiscal year 2007, after the federal government failed to renew a $400 million annual subsidy designed to help rural communities suffering from the decline in timber-logging revenue. Though Congress eventually extended the funding by one year, Jackson County commissioners, strapped for cash, voted to outsource library services to the Maryland-based Library… corporation privatization Fred Weir Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3445/king_of_the_crop/ Two buddies from Yale trek to northern Iowa, buy an acre of farmland, start growing corn and make a documentary about the experience. Sound like a trite tale of East Coasters playing Midwest farmers? It could be, if not for the filmmakers' sincerity and their message in the new movie, King Corn. Director and producer Aaron Wolf follows the two recent Yale graduates--his cousin Curt Ellis and Ellis' friend Ian Cheney--as they travel to Iowa to investigate the state's corn production. Cheney and Ellis each had a great-grandfather who lived in the same rural town of Greene, Iowa, so the trip, in some ways, is also an exploration of their roots. This connection to their heritage gives Ellis and Cheney… agriculture corporation movies Fred Weir Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3450/beware_the_credit_industrial_complex/ My daughter is a freshman in college and is learning a lot, including how to manage her money. Recently, she got a powerful initiation into the predatory practices of banks--a lesson more and more of us are learning each month. She made a miscalculation and thought she had more in her account than she did. When she went to make a withdrawal from an ATM machine, the bank let her, even though she was in deficit. Comerica bank continued to let her make such withdrawals, and charged her $32 a pop for doing so. A $4 charge at a coffee shop became a $36 charge with the fee. A $6 sandwich became $38. She had never authorized the bank to… corporation Fred Weir Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3455/warning_drug_ads_can_make_you_sick/ Jane's family is suffering from plagues of biblical-lite proportions. Her teenage son is unruly and easily distracted. Her daughter has menstrual cramps, is 12 pounds overweight and shy. Her husband sleeps fitfully and has occasional heartburn and irregularity--not to mention that his libido is falling and his cholesterol rising. As for Jane, her menopause generates more heat than a blowtorch. Her knees twinge, her breasts are less perky and her jaw line more blurred. Her personality is flat and her legs restless. All of them are less happy than they think they should be. Although there is a diagnosis, pill or surgical treatment for each of their ills, the family members could simply be suffering from exposure to advertising that… corporation medical health Fred Weir Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3453/acid_mining_michigan/ The wild and picturesque Salmon Trout River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is home to the last breeding coaster brook trout on the south shore of Lake Superior. This native fish is awaiting classification to endangered species status by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. But the Upper Peninsula has also coexisted with the copper and iron mining industries since the late 1800s. And its newest mining suitor, Kennecott Minerals Corporation, wants to build sulfide--or "acid mines"--that could irrevocably harm the local environment and the surrounding Great Lakes ecosystems. Kennecott, a Utah-based subsidiary of multinational Rio Tinto, has become a Michigan land baron. Since 1994, the corporation has acquired more than 500,000 acres and leased 26 percent of all mineral rights… corporation environment regulation Fred Weir Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3456/inside_the_beast/ What follows is a transcript, obtained by In These Times, of a Keynote luncheon attended by 300 oilmen. The luncheon was part of GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil and gas conference, held in Calgary, Alberta in June. It speaks for itself. S. K. Wolff, a policy analyst at the National Petroleum Council (NPC) and the alternative energy program adviser at ExxonMobil, steps to the podium. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry [ExxonMobil ex-CEO and current NPC head] Lee Raymond couldn't make it today--he's in Washington, discussing a landmark NPC study before he publicly announces the study's conclusions later today. But I am very pleased to give you a sneak preview of that study, which shows that the United States and Canada… corporation theory Fred Weir