-Caveat Lector- > You Don't Know Jack > By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > The clock is running out for Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric. It > is > also winding down for Don Morrison, a dairy farmer in upstate New > York. > > For two decades, Welch has led the one-time appliance company, > transforming it into the world's most transnationalized conglomerate > with > a finance subsidiary as its profit center. The subject of almost > unqualified adulation from the media and market analysts, he may end > his > tenure with a loud thud. > > Scheduled to retire this year, Welch extended his reign by an > additional > year to oversee GE's gobbling up of Honeywell. European regulators > are now > raising serious concerns about the monopolistic effects of the deal, > and > appear poised to block it. Welch, who has made his reputation by > pushing > all cost-cutting and market-dominating measures to the extreme, may > find > that, in his final act, the law and society finally set some limits > on > him. > > Don Morrison knows all too well the effect of Welch's hard-driving > effort > to cut expenses and externalize costs, and he hopes it is not only > the > European antitrust regulators who find the spine to stand up to > Welch. > > The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected in August > to > issue a final decision on whether it will dredge the Hudson River to > clean > up a GE-created PCB mess on the river bed -- at a cost of $460 > million to > GE. > > Until 1976, a broad array of U.S. manufacturers used PCBs > (polychlorinated > biphenyls) for insulation in electrical equipment. In 1976, Congress > banned their manufacture and sale, following evidence that PCBs cause > cancer and other harmful health effects. Since the banning, new > evidence > suggests PCBs also disrupt the endocrine system and lower > intelligence > levels of children exposed in the womb. > > From the 1940s to 1976, GE dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the > Hudson River, creating what is now the nation's largest Superfund > site. > > Don Morrison knows all about it. "Twenty-five years ago," he says, > "the > state dug sludge out of the river, and put it on land adjoining mine. > I > figured if they let them put it in the river, it can't be that bad. > So it > didn't bother me. � When they asked permission to push it [against my > house], I said sure. My kids played in it, they grew up in it." > > Don Morrison's wife died of colon cancer at the age of 49. "We can't > prove > it, but we believe that PCB had a tremendous amount to do with it." > Now he > lives in fear that his children will suffer from a similar fate. > > Morrison and other survivors want GE at least to remedy the problem, > 25 > years after PCBs were outlawed in the United States. > > In December 2000, EPA announced that it agreed, saying that after 16 > years > of studies, it had determined to clean up a 40-mile stretch of the > Hudson. > Under the Superfund law, GE would be liable for the costs of cleanup. > > GE claims that it supports cleaning the river, and that it has acted > responsibly to reduce its daily PCB pollution to three ounces. But it > says > dredging will stir up sediments and make the problem worse. > > EPA retorts that the ongoing public health and environmental > consequences > of the PCB pollution are severe, with PCBs at river bottom continuing > to > enter the food chain. New technologies, agency experts say, address > concerns about spreading contaminants by dredging. > > But GE isn't just making arguments. In fine Jack Welch style, GE has > pulled out all the stops to block the dredging plan. GE's Hudson > River > lobbying dream team includes former Senate Majority Leader George > Mitchell > and former House Appropriations Committee Chair Robert Livingston. > Among > other hardball tactics, the company deployed NBC President and GE > Vice > Chair Robert Wright to lobby New York City Council members against a > bill > endorsing the dredging project. (Think direct intervention from the > head > of a TV network, which owns a major station in New York, might give > GE > some leverage?) > > GE certainly has lots of friends in the Bush administration, and in > the > Congress. > > On the other hand, EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman endorsed the > dredging > when she was governor of New Jersey. And the Bush administration is > under > pressure not to announce any more environmentally stupid and harmful > policy decisions with an obvious tilt to corporate interests. So the > outcome of the final EPA decision remains very much in doubt. > > The GE of Jack Welch has made its mark by pushing it workers, > suppliers > and the law to the limit, and often beyond. > > But his strategies, though lavishly praised by Wall Street, are > basically > inhuman, as Don Morrison and many others can testify. > > As Jack Welch's reign comes to an end, it is time for the society to > say > the clock has run out on Welch's model of comprehensive and global > management by stress. The first way to deliver that message is for > EPA to > authorize the go-ahead of the Hudson dredging, without delay. > > [For more on the GE-Hudson River issue, see www.cleanupge.org.] > > > Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate > Crime > Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based > Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: > The > Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: > Common > Courage Press, 1999). > > (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell > Mokhiber > and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to > friends or > repost the column on other lists. 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