Out the Door

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Out the Door

January 1, 2003
By BOB HERBERT 




 

Merry Christmas. Get lost.

That, essentially, was the message Robert Pagein received
from his employers - make that former employers - at
Verizon Communications.

<snip>

Mr. Pagein's comforting belief in a system that looks out
for the ordinary worker evaporated with the arrival of his
layoff notice. As a not-so-merry Christmas and then a
not-so-happy New Year approached, he found himself thinking
more and more about the big bucks - the tens of millions of
dollars - being pocketed by top Verizon executives like
Ivan Seidenberg and Larry Babbio.

It's one thing to acknowledge that there are inequities in
the system, he said. But it's "really tough" to accept that
you can be thrown out of work by executives who take
extraordinary sums out of a company whether their business
decisions are wise or not.

"We were laid off, effective immediately," he said. "
`Merry Christmas, thanks for working at ground zero and
breathing the dust. . . .' They told us we were heroes and
used the pictures of us at ground zero to sell themselves.
Now we're out." 

Last spring Verizon reported a first-quarter loss of $500
million. The company attributed the loss to a tough economy
and a $2.5 billion write-down for bad investments. By the
third quarter it was reporting earnings of $4.4 billion.
But officials said the layoffs, the first in the history of
the New York telephone company, were inevitable because the
economy is still in trouble and competition is increasing.

Company officials said the total compensation in 2001 for
Mr. Seidenberg, Verizon's chief executive, was $13.4
million, and for Mr. Babbio, $24 million.

Figures released by the Communication Workers of America,
which represents the laid-off employees, showed that from
1997 through 2001, Mr. Seidenberg collected more than $56
million in salary, bonuses and stock options, and that Mr.
Babbio, the company's vice chairman, collected more than
$78 million. 

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/01/opinion/01HERB.html?ex=1042440793&ei=1&en=
3f85a5fc2e1b5e5a

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