I'm tired of reading about the job layoffs daily while witnessing the lavish spending and bad decisions of incompetent CEOs. After watching the attitudes of auto executives change under congressional questioning, I decided to do something about it and started a petition.
To: U.S. Congress
During an unprecedented economic downturn, some American companies are needlessly laying off workers. These layoffs are the decisions of CEOs and executives who earn many times what the average worker makes and often get multi-million dollar bonuses. Ironically, these executives -- not the workers -- are often the reason for a company's difficulties.
We believe that unneeded layoffs are a tremendous threat to the U.S. economy. Simply put, workers without jobs can't afford to buy goods or services. The massive layoffs are creating a spiraling, downward cycle in the economy that effects not just the families of these laid off workers but everyone.
We realize that sometimes a company must lay off workers. However, we agree with the sentiments of CEO Barry Diller, who recently said:
"The idea of a company that's earning money...not losing money... to have cutbacks so they can earn another $12 million or $20 million or $40 million in a year where no one's counting is really a horrible act when you think about it, on every level. First of all, it's certainly not necessary. It's doing it at the worst time. It's throwing people out to a larger unemployment heap for frankly no good reason. It's not that you don't want to earn as much money as you can -- it is your obligation, of course -- but companies have obligations beyond that and they certainly have obligations beyond that at certain times, in the times in which they operate."
We call on the members of Congress to hold immediate hearings and to call the CEOs of these companies to account for themselves and these harmful layoffs. Let the American people see the CEOs answer questions in a public forum, explain their decisions and discuss their executive pay packages.
The recent example of the hearings with the big three automakers have shown that CEOs can change their behavior under public scrutiny. We hope these hearings will bring about public awareness and get the executives of all American businesses to act in a manner befitting the times and more beneficial to all.
Sincerely,
Please sign the petition here. If you want to help, please share with this others and feel free to contact me via email at Stranahan@gmail.com . I have a website up and running at StopLayoffs.org