U.S., Canadian Workers Blast Golden Parachutes for Walker’s Banker Backers

[Donnachaidh]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/03/22/u-s-canadian-workers-blast-golden-parachutes-for-walkers-banker-backers/

In a show of cross-border solidarity today, Canadian union members joined their U.S. counterparts in a march and rally at the Vancouver, B.C., shareholder meeting of a Canadian bank that bought the Wisconsin bank where top executives gave big campaign contributions to Gov. Scott Walker (R). Those execs now are about to pop open their “golden parachutes.”

In December, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) announced it was buying Marshall & Ilsley (M&I) Bank for $4.1 billion, even though the bank has underperformed by nearly 40 percent during the past four years compared with regional banks of a similar size, according to a report from the CtW Investment Group. In addition, it has yet to repay $1.3 billion in taxpayer bailout money through the TARP program.

But BMO has agreed to pay $18 million in severance payments to Mark Furlong, M&I chairman and CEO, along with $65 million in severance to 15 other M&I executives. BMO also has agreed to pay for the executives’ taxes that are generated by these huge payments.

According to election records, Furlong and other M&I executives were the largest non-party donors to Walker’s campaign.

More at the link --

[Hotler]

1. Fuckers, All of them. n/t

[asjr]

2. Sometimes it simply doesn't pay to get

out of bed in the morning. Morality went the way of the mastadon. Nothing will change. Our mfg companies will never return. They employ too many underpaid workers. It may be too late for us. I hate to be pessimistic but that is how I see it.