Washington, D.C. Activists to Tell CEOs: "No More Business As Usual!"

September 25, 2002

by NOW Staff

As corporate executives gather in Washington D.C. for the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings, activists and workers from around the world will meet at AFL-CIO headquarters on Thursday, Sept. 26 to discuss the effects of globalization on working families.

Topics will include how corporations search the world for countries with cheap labor and weak protection of workers' rights, as well as how thousands of workers lost their jobs after the collapses of Enron and WorldCom while top corporate management received millions in severance and stock profits.

Following the forum, which is sponsored by the AFL-CIO and endorsed by National Organization for Women (NOW), the Rainbow Coalition and other progressive organizations, activists will take a stand against corporate greed at a "No Business As Usual" rally outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where Business Week magazine is sponsoring an event for CEOs.

NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives called on elected officials, and in particular Attorney General John Ashcroft, to take responsibility for stopping corporate abuse and to prosecute those whose corporate corruption resulted in loss of jobs and their employees' retirement accounts.

"Workers—particularly women workers—and their families pay the price when companies ignore the law," Vives said. "We demand that members of Congress put workers first. Politicians who support greedy, unethical corporate executives who destroy jobs and manipulate the law will not get our vote in November."