Word: nader
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...organizers were remarkably heterogeneous: Ralph Nader and his allies among union leaders, politicians and economists, but also Actor Ed Asner and Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The cause: taking a poke at U.S. corporations on April 17, "Big Business Day." The place: demonstrations at 150 cities around the country. The charges: from the predictable (pollution, consumer gouging, union busting, governmental corruption) to the obscure (opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, causing high taxes and spoiling New York City's subway system). The reaction: a fairly large yawn...
Most of Big Business Day was more predictable. Nader denounced U.S. corporations as "legal Frankensteins" that usurp human rights; a local labor leader declared a union war on business. In the National Visitor Center Gallery at Union Station, a "Corporate Hall of Shame" was erected for eleven companies, including Exxon, Citicorp and Du Pont...
Should companies add more "public" directors, as demanded by powerful leaders, from Ralph Nader to Chairman Harold Williams of the Securities and Exchange Commission? Yes, if these outside directors add a new dimension of thinking, expertness and dedication to the corporation; but no, if they are merely tokens or single-issue obstructionists who would block rather than promote corporate initiatives and company welfare...
...Nader compares giant corporations to self-contained governments, with powers to tax (price fixing), coerce (forcing citizens to live with environmental hazards) and even take lives (concealing information about potentially fatal defects in manufactured goods). And unlike a democratic government, Nader observes, "the 'economic government' is largely unaccountable to its constituencies--shareholders, workers, consumers, local communities, taxpayers, small businesses and future generations...
...impose strict sanctions on corporate irresponsibility (to the tune of fines double the damages incurred and longer jail sentences) in an effort to fight what Nader has dubbed "crime in the suites." Furthermore, the act would prohibit the abuse of employees exercising First Amendment rights or refusing to engage in illegal activities...