Untapped renewable energy source

Vivolium: “as useful as whales, but infinitely more abundant.”

Andy Stern’s big sell-out

The Wall Street Journal reports on a highly unusual development in the area of labor relations law:
Two of the nation’s largest labor unions [SEIU and UNITE-HERE] have struck confidential agreements with large employers that give the companies the right to designate which of their locations, and how many workers, the unions can seek to organize.
The [...]

There’s more than one way to skin a fatcat

IOZ offers a sensible proposal for corporate law reform:
Clearly the solution [to exhorbitant CEO pay] is not to seek legal tools through which executive compensation may be regulated based on some performance metric or blah blah blah, but rather is to make CEOs themselves illegal. My estimation, based on my experience with CEOs of all [...]

KBR uses off-shore shell companies to evade U.S. taxes on Iraq contracts

The Boston Globe reports:
More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in [...]

Watch your back for the man in black

Greensboro film-maker Andy Coon is working on a series of shorts called The Corporate Assassin. The previews suggest something along the lines of The Office meets Zatoichi.
(Thanks to Andy’s brother Sean for the tip.)

California court deals big blow to FedEx, big victory for workers

The California Supreme Court has denied a request by FedEx Ground to review a lower state court ruling that the company’s pickup and delivery drivers are employees despite the company’s labeling them “independent contractors”. As a result, FedEx will have to pay approximately $11 million in back compensation and penalties to its Ground and Home [...]

Report slams FedEx Ground on workers’ rights and civil rights

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and American Rights at Work have issued a report detailing FedEx Ground’s atrocious record of employment discrimination and union busting:
America’s workers have fought long and hard for workplace dignity and a fair share of our nation’s economic prosperity. With the help of leaders from the civil rights and labor [...]

Wal*Mart launches new market-based initiative to change law firm employment practices

Wal*Mart has written its outside legal counsel, complaining about recent pay hikes for law firm associates. The retail giant — which, coincidentally, labels its own wage-slaves “associates” — is unhappy that the firms have tried to pass along the cost in the form of higher billing rates. Wal*Mart — which, coincidentally, is currently the defendant [...]

Corporate law and current events

In my Business Associations class today, I’m covering federal proxy regulations and shareholder proposals. By way of letting the students see a real-world example, I’ve given them Chevron’s 2007 proxy statement, which includes shareholder proposals on human rights, environmental issues, and animal welfare, along with proposals on more traditional corporate governance issues.
Along with the company’s [...]

You can’t spell “shaman” without “s - h - a - m”

There are few things that amuse me more than mystical mumbo-jumbo. The S.F. Bay Area offered a seemingly endless supply of New Age nonsense to keep me laughing. Here in Greensboro, shambolic shamans are in short supply — a fact that generally speaks well of this place, but that does have the unfortunate effect of [...]