More Corporate Failure – And a Win for Labor?

In Has America’s Greatest Generation Begat The Failure Generation?, I summarized the introduction to “The Rise of the Rogue Executive,” where the authors point out, “Business scandals are just another part of the stream of daily news that is full of scandal.”   Well here is the latest example.   Ralphs Supermarkets was indicted on federal charges for engaging in a “company-wide course of criminal conduct involving the hiring of locked-out employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation.”   To make this work, Ralphs managers sent the locked-out, re-hired employees with false identities to other stores where they would not be recognized.   Ralphs concedes some managers acted illegally and they are willing to pay appropriate fines.

For more, see Chicago Tribune and Ralphs News and Info, where Paul Heldman, a Kroger senior vice president states, “Ralphs regrets that a number of its store managers took it upon themselves to violate Company policy and federal law in order to rehire striking workers.   Although we believe many of these managers acted for humanitarian or personal reasons, their actions nonetheless were wrong and contrary to explicit Company policy.”