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Enron Workers Gather to Share Plight

By: Carrie Johnson
Washington Post, January 30, 2002

Workers hurt by Enron's tumultuous collapse gathered this morning to draw attention to their financial plight and to argue for better federal oversight of corporate accounting practices.

The session, convened by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the AFL-CIO, featured more than a dozen former employees from the firm's Houston headquarters. It comes just days before Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay is scheduled to testify before a congressional committee investigating the demise of the energy firm, which filed for bankruptcy late last year. Some 11 congressional panels are probing company amid a series of accounting scandals.

Dorothy Ricketts, who worked for the company for a dozen years, watched as her 401(k) retirement savings plan plummeted in value from a high of $1 million last year. Ricketts said an Enron policy barred her from taking money out of the plan or investing in other stocks at the same time the Enron shares took a nosedive. The policy is now the subject of lawsuits filed by workers.

"No one should freeze employees from being able to take their money out," Ricketts said. "That should never happen."

Matthew Wackerie said his mother, a six-year Enron employee, lost her life savings along with her job last December. The Houston family no longer has health insurance, Wackerie said, and his mother has taken a temporary job to cover the bills.

"In the end, this is not just about personal pain, this is about public policy," Jackson said. "Most of what happened to these workers was legal. So we have to change that public policy."

The former Enron workers will participate in a prayer vigil at the Securities and Exchange Commission's downtown headquarters and meet with senators this afternoon to advocate for aid to layoff victims and increased vigilance in policing corporate balance sheets.

"Right now for us as employees, we need to have a seat at the table with the other Enron creditors," said Dennis Vegas, a former Enron vice president who said he lost the equivalent of two college educations for his children when the company cratered. "Each day or month we are unemployed it erodes our financial stability for the future."

"We are going to have to convince the Congress that this requires our action now," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.). "Mortgage payments do not wait. Car notes unfortunately do not wait."

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