Jerry West, check your facts
Sun, 2007-02-18 16:12
#1
Jerry West, check your facts
Sun, 2007-02-18 16:12
#2
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. I realize that the point of your Feb 1 column was more about wealth distribution than Catalyst Paper specifically ,but that doesn't excuse getting the facts wrong.
It was not "the mill's manager and its chief financial officer" who were handed severance packages; it was the company's CEO and CFO - not the mill's.
They were not "affluent people in Campbell River"; both live and work in Vancouver.
There's an enormous difference in responsibility and salary between the two mill managers and the two corporate executives in question.
That said, their severance packages should be viewed relative to their salaries and seniority. While it might be a large amount of dollars that was given, it's not as exhorbitant as it might seem at first glance if you look at it in terms of how many months of pay they were given for being let go after 25-30 years of time with the company and/or its predecessor companies. And it's simply part of what it takes to recruit senior executives these days.
Don't think it's fair? Apply for those jobs yourself. Good luck.
Tue, 2007-02-20 13:18
#3
Oops, you are correct about Russell Horner Ralph Leverton. Horner, who is the former manager of Elk Falls, was replaced as the CEO of Catalyst, not as the mill manager. The first paragraph of the column should have read:
quote:
Last week the Campbell River Mirror on Vancouver Island reported that Catalyst Paper, the owner of the Elk Falls mill, is changing its CEO and its chief financial officer. The CEO is being handed a severance package of $4.8 million, the chief financial officer a paltry one of $1.6 million.
And, they were in Vancouver, not Campbell River.
But, even considering those changes the amount of severence handed out was excessive, if not by warped business standards at least by any standard of social decency and responsibility.
No matter how many years with the company and how much responsibility Horner had, $4.8 million is grossly excessive. Not one person on the face of the earth deserves that kind of a severence or salary.
If that is what it takes to recruit employees these days (which in many cases it does) then we must face the fact that we have a very sick and greedy system that needs a radical change in values.
Wed, 2007-02-21 21:23
#4
Ok how much work did the CEO do? Did he actually make the product?
And then he getts to leave with a million dollar handshake....???
Thu, 2010-06-10 22:56
#5
M. Spector
Don't think it's fair? Apply for those jobs yourself. Good luck.
Oh, puh-leeze!
The President and CEO of Catalyst Paper Corporation is given a golden handshake of $4.8 million and you come here and ask us to just shrug and say that's "simply part of what it takes to recruit senior executives these days"??
That's 34 times as much as the corporation gave to the United Way in 2005.
This is a company that has been demanding tax concessions from the Port Alberni municipal government. The City has offered them a deal worth about $1.5 million over 5 years, but Catalyst says it's not enough.
Next time the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union demands a wage increase, will the company just shrug and say that's "simply part of what it takes to recruit skilled workers these days"?