HARRISBURG, May 11, 2010 -State Senator Jim Ferlo is asking the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) to divest their pension fund of Massey Energy, a company that he says has, “acted negligent at best, criminal at worst.”
In a letter to PSERS Chairman Melva Vogler, Senator Ferlo drove home the point that now is the time for Pennsylvania to act by selling their 46,000 shares of Massey stock. Ferlo is Minority Chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Finance Committee, which has responsibility for legislative oversight of PSERS.
Citing issues that included the April 5th tragedy at Upper Big Branch Mine, embattled Massey CEO Don Blankenship, and Massey stock value which has fallen “from $54.80 to $35.51 with no bottom in sight,” the Senator reiterated that Pennsylvania must act now.
Blankenship personally earned over $17 million in 2009. The total life-time compensation package to the families of the 29 fallen mine workers may not meet that number.
Today’s announcement that Massey will own its first coal mine in Pennsylvania only compounded the urgency of Senator Ferlo’s appeal to PSERS, saying that this is no time for Pennsylvania to be “lowering the bar for worker and workplace safety in our own backyard.”
The State of New York, New Jersey Building Laborers, the AFL-CIO, and the Change to Win Coalition are among Massey investors threatening to divest in Massey if Blankenship is not fired at the May 18 stockholders meeting.
“I support the efforts of other working capital investors who are fed up. But PSERS needs to take a stand here as well. What happened in West Virginia was a tragedy and an injustice, and working people need to hit Massey where it hurts – Wall Street.”
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