Coke paid hefty bonuses amid sharp job cuts

[UpInArms]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/8107727.htm

ATLANTA - The Coca-Cola Co. paid $8.4 million in bonuses to its top six executives last year as it laid off 3,700 employees, a federal filing shows.

The company also said the present value of retiring Chief Executive Doug Daft's restricted stock awards is $86 million, and it paid out millions last year to companies that some of its directors own or hold a major stake in.

"The reality is things aren't changing very much," said Paul Lapides, a corporate governance expert at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta.

The company said the bonuses and the layoffs -- which represented 7 percent of Coke's work force -- should not be linked.

...more...

this is more crap than I can stand - don't link the pay and perks of the highest paid in any company to the sweat and labor of the guys/gals that are laid off?

Bite me - if I drank soft drinks (and I don't), I would never buy another "Coke" again. :mad:

[rfranklin]

1. Unfortunately, without capital punishment for such crimes...

and relentless enforcement thereof, greed has no shame and will always be with us.

[chillwindblowing]

7. water is better

time to start drinking water. :-)

[BR_Parkway]

17. Yes, Coke was so ethical about it's Bottled Water too!

corporate creeps. They used tap water for their Disanti and it's biting them in the ass!

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9071-1026159,00.html1

[w4rma]

2. Yup. Most of big biz is still gouging Americans (n/t)

[brokensymmetry]

3. That's sad.

I'm not surprised that they don't want the layoffs linked to the bonuses. It might get the peasants all upset. :mad:

[lovedems]

4. So the CEO's could be yacht shopping or looking for the million dollar

vacation home while they send thousands to the unemployment line. Going to the unemployment line means losing your health insurance. I am sure they are patting themselves on the back for "earning" those bonuses.

Life in bu$h's amerika is grand!

[havocmom]

5. Regulate Boardrooms, not bedrooms

Say it loud and often and especially when any neocon wants to tinker with the constitution in regards to which consenting adults should be allowed to marry.

CEOs motivated only by greed are the real threat to life in America.

[rfkrocks]

6. Its the real bling bling!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. $86M = 3700 jobs at $24k a year.

Eye of needle. Camel. Heaven.

[Fovea]

11. Check your math.

I think you dropped a zero.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. $23,243.24

Checks out.

[NashVegas]

14. Added a Zero

I come up with $2,270

[w4rma]

16. RUMMYisFROSTED's math is correct.

37 x 100
x
24 x 1000
---------
888 x 100,000
---------
8.88 x 100
x
100,000
---------
8.88 x 10,000,000
---------
88,800,000
---------
88.8 million

[NashVegas]

18. I was only looking at the listed bonus

of 8.4 million, not the rest. doh!

[aquart]

9. I REALLY feel this should be illegal.

No one should profit from the destruction of lives.

[napsi]

10. As a KO shareholder

I find the compensation package for these people to be repugnant. It would be one thing if KO returned a decent dividend and had any upside to it's stock price in the past 6 years. While KO has been stable in a volatile market over that past few years, they haven't been earning any significant revenues to return value to their shareholders.

As far as the laid off employees of KO, I'm sure they appreciated the fact that Daft flies out of PDK airport on a whim in one of KO's Citations. I'm confident the employees of KO are happy that while they are looking for work, Daft and his cronies are playing golf at Capital City Club. Weekend jaunts to NY with their wives and those new Mercedes autos are just part of a fair compensation package, I'm sure.

I have never had a qualm with high paid CEO's if they run their company prudently and take care of the people that work for them and the shareholders. These bonuses and perk are nothing more than thievery on a grand scale.

[Zero Gravitas]

13. Outrageous

It just goes to show that the values of the GOP/Corporations are not those of America. These parasites are paying themselves huge bonuses as rewards for "cutting costs" which in this case sending 1,000s to the unemployment line. Its time America woke up to the fact that what's good for Wall street is bad for Main Street.

[SoCalDem]

15. I have a friend who works for coke and they are paying for

his college.. They give him 2 extra days off a week and fully pay his tuition and books..and salary for those two days..He's in a management position, but he had no college, so they said.. Go.. we'll pay for it.. When he finishes, he will get promoted and his salary will be approximately double..

He had no desire to go, but his wife made him do it :) She's no dummy :)

[NashVegas]

19. Ah, The Fast Track

Neat how that works. It's a great reward for bright people who didn't go to college. OTOH, it's offtimes a tool for favoritism/old boys club/etc..