Andy Stern, International President of SEIU, today issued the following statement:

"Today's announcement that Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo will receive a severance package totaling $115 million-including free rides on the company jet and his country club bills paid up until 2011-amounts to little more than a "golden parachute."Coming on the heels of Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal's own $161.5 million severance deal, it is clear that corporatism's ethos of enriching companies while impoverishing people is alive and well.
 
"We have a moment here. 

"With examples of unchecked greed trumping patriotism and fairness proliferating all over this country-and with CEOs profiting excessively while workers don't even have health care-it's critical we hold our financial institutions accountable to our economy and the fundamental beliefs we hold dear. Wouldn't this be a great time to prioritize what those families who lost their homes in the subprime meltdown need rather than Angelo Mozilo's next golf game?

"It is past time for us to put this country's working families first-instead of the CEOs of financial institutions who are enriching themselves at the expense of their employees, the communities in which they operate, and the consumers who keep them in business."

For more information, visit www.bigbadbanks.org.

 

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