CHICAGO, July 23 (UPI) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson says the Chapter 11 filing of WorldCom Inc., the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, this week pushed corporate and executive greed to another level and will further harm laid-off employees, swindled investors and confused consumers.
Jackson called some corporate accounting practices "legalized thievery" at a news conference at the 36th Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Convention on Monday. Jackson said 17,000 former WorldCom employees should be classified as secured creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, executives who cheated their employees and stockholders should be forced to make restitution, the professional licenses of accountants convicted of cooking WorldCom's books should lose their licenses and shareholders should have the right to approve executive and board compensation, including stock options.
Jackson said President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were the wrong people to fight corporate corruption because they are too close to the problem. He said an independent commission should be established to investigate corporate shenanigans.
"Mr. Cheney has to go underground," said Jackson. "He's not running from (alleged terrorist mastermind Osama) bin Laden, he's running from Halliburton. Cheney was chief operating officer of Hallibuton, an oil company whose accounting practices are the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
"Bush is less able to fight this fight because he is deeply enmeshed in that culture," said Jackson.
Jackson said with several members of the administration now under a cloud, organizations that have traditionally fought for workers rights must step up to protect workers pensions, salaries and severance packages.
The conference held seminars on predatory lending and discriminatory business practices that are unfair to minorities.
Jackson said a so-called "skin tax" exists at some insurance companies, which historically used race-based actuarial tables, giving African-Americans and Hispanics risky job classifications to justify higher premiums. The state of Illinois in May reached a $27 million settlement with United Insurance Co. of America, a unit Unitrin Insurance Group, to make restitution to blacks who bought racially underwritten industrial life or burial insurance policies worth significantly less than the years of premiums paid.
Jackson also attacked predatory lending in which companies charge minorities higher interest-rates for mortgages and home-repair loans accompanied by inflated fees and called for passage of federal hate-crimes legislation.
"There must be research and then recovery from robbery," said Jackson. "We need to know how much money did they make and what did they invest in."
National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy said it is important for women's groups to expand gender issues to work in the broad movement of civil rights for all.
"It is incredibly important that we work together," Gandy said, "that the women's community work toward making sure there's full inclusion on every level and that communities of color work for the women in their midst to make sure they have full rights and responsibilities."
