Letters to the editor

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AT&T statements

Departing CEO collects, employees disconnected, economy put on hold

Editor, The Times:

I'm a middle-management employee of AT&T Wireless (AWS). I and many of my colleagues were saddened to learn that our chairman, John Zeglis, and the AWS board have decided to sell the company to Cingular ("Biggest Northwest buyout to alter wireless landscape," Times, page one, Feb. 18). The next sound you'll hear on the Eastside is a giant sucking sound, of over 5,000 current AWS jobs leaving Washington, with the survivors of the coming layoffs going to Atlanta, where Cingular is based.

The corporate elites at AT&T Wireless will get their multimillion-dollar severance packages, and immediate vesting of their tens of thousands of shares of AWS stock; while under the current severance plan, the typical laid-off AWS employee will get one month of pay for each year of employment with AWS, up to six months severance total. That's it!

Although AWS is supposedly headquartered in Redmond, chairman Zeglis' AWS main office is in New Jersey, not Washington state. To my knowledge, he's a legal resident of New Jersey, so he has his golden parachute and no real ties to this state or its employees.

This is just another example of corporate elites doing what's best for themselves rather than what's best for the shareholders and employees.
- Morris Jaffe, Bellevue

Cool bundle, hot prospects

Let me see if I understand this right. AT&T Wireless has done so badly as a company that it was bought out. John Zeglis, the chief executive who presided over its failure, will walk away with at least $18 million.

Meanwhile, the people who bought the stock take huge losses and thousands of his employees will be kicked out onto the street with a few weeks' severance pay. If they're lucky.

John Zeglis, you are a shining example of the very worst in American life. I hope you enjoy what's left of this short existence, because something tells me your next life will be spent in a much hotter place than Seattle.
- Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle

Capital pains

Embarrassment of riches

One would expect a local Times commentator to be informed at least to the extent of reading The Times. Collin Levey appears to be concerned that the Democrats are "business bashing" ("It's as if Democrats just discovered capitalism," guest commentary, Feb. 19).

From The Times Business & Technology section of Feb. 19:

"IBM told to make back payments to older workers in pension lawsuit" ("Judge rules, IBM's clever but ineffectual response to law changes rules late in game");

"Washington ranchers buoyed by antitrust verdict against Tyson";

"Old rodeo rider must lasso costs" ("hatchet man," "tens of thousands of layoffs");

"Stewart prosecutors describe stock spikes" ("securities fraud charge");

"Bristol-Meyers Squibb faces federal accounting inquiry";

"SEC, 5 specialists reportedly settle";

"Enron charges expected against Skilling";

"Infospace settles with shareholders" ("false and misleading information");

"Oracle chief seeks support for PeopleSoft hostile bid."

This on an otherwise quiet Thursday morning. For the information of Levey, read The Times once in a while, before you pontificate about "bashing."
- Carl Schwartz, Sammamish

Guns and butter substitute

I was very grateful to read Collin Levey's well-reasoned column regarding Halliburton and the Democrats' attacks on corporations simply trying to do business in the new global economy. It is outrageous to assume that the Halliburton corporation has taken on the "cleanup" of Iraq from venal, profit-based motives. I am sure they will not only not make a profit, they will obviously go bankrupt as a result of this huge undertaking.

I have worried in the past that Vice President Cheney was somehow involved in the selection of Halliburton for this task, since he still owns stock in Halliburton, and I feared a huge conflict of interest on his part. I see now that is a completely "fatuous" thought — as Levey so clearly pointed out.

Thanks to Levey, I will now stop worrying about how many men and women died to provide a contract for Halliburton and will instead start worrying about how many men and women died to provide the H. J. Heinz Co. a contract for congressional condiments and ketchup.
- Toni Cross, Seattle

Good China

Cracks overlooked

In his rush to explain why everyone who disagrees with Collin Levey's opinion on free trade has a lack of understanding, Eric Tronsen displays his own ("Targeting Markets," Letters to the editor, Feb. 18). Apparently, the American ideal of government by the people and for the people is simply a nuisance to Tronsen and his ilk. They seem to believe that profit motive alone will lead to a better world for all people, despite massive historical evidence to the contrary.

To support sending jobs to China, Tronsen attempts to link his opponents with legal abortions in the U.S. This is exactly the kind of baloney one would expect from a conservative demagogue. Ironically, under the Chinese dictatorship, abortions are mandatory. Under his business model, "comparative advantages" also might include that in China, subversives, such as those advocating democratic freedoms, are routinely executed.
- John Hribernick, Edmonds

Afghan redesign

Flowers under Bush

Something is going right in Afghanistan: I am a coordinator for a pottery factory in India, and while delivering pottery to one of our customers the other day, a group of businessmen from Afghanistan were being given a tour of this major nursery. The leader of the group went out of his way to come and shake my hand and smiled and said, "Thank you, American."

I was touched and glad that they are now planning on planting and growing in that land.

Not everyone hates the American presence there. We must be doing something right in Afghanistan — they are planting!

Keep leading, George Bush; things are going to turn.
- Charles Hartzell, Kirkland

Uncle Sam wants yours

Granny get your gun

Regarding Alan Greenspan's testimony, it seems that to pay for the Iraq war and the attendant deficit, all the Bush administration has to do is extend the retirement, by three years, of baby boomers ("Fed chief: Pay for tax cuts by trimming Social Security," Business & Technology, Feb. 13).

So now we've conscripted the elderly!
- Greg Salwitz, Seattle

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