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Peninsula readers' letters: Sept. 7



From Daily News Group readers


Posted: 09/072010

H-P profit motive

A new study from the Institute of Policy Studies shows that CEOs who fired the most workers during the recession took home the highest pay. According to that study, the CEOs of the fifty corporations responsible for the biggest layoffs were paid an average $12 million—42 percent more than the average pay for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

One, Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard as he was fired a couple of weeks ago. He was fired because he tried to conceal a relationship with a female contractor. Hurd who has laid off more than 30,000 workers at Hewlett-Packard over the last few years, while earning more than $20 million a year. The real scandal at Hewlett-Packard is they might boost their profits in the short term by cutting all of those costs, but I want to point out that these kinds of layoffs can have very serious long-term costs for the workers.

It is a sad story as Hewlett-Packard has dismantled many things that made the company a cut above. I had the chance to meet Mr. Hewlett as he gave to Project Aid-Siberia in the 1990s. He helped millions of people who were without food.
From the very beginning, Hewlett-Packard had a way of doing things that was contrary to the prevailing management strategies. A companywide commitment to involvement. It will be sorely missed as profit has taken over.

Ted Rudow III,MA