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STRICTLY BUSINESS/The Charlotte Post
Feds monitor Texaco settlement
By Jim Fitzgerald
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -
Federal regulators will have
power to monitor Texaco’s
treatment of blacks under an
agreement reached Friday
that gives a federal agency a
role in the company’s antidis
crimination settlement.
The agreement “reflects our
serious concerns with the
employment practices at
Texaco,” said James Lee,
regional attorney for the
Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.
The EEOC had investigated
Texaco’s hiring and promotion
practices and found them to
be racially discriminatory.
That was before the separate
civil suit became a national
embarrassment to Texaco
with the release of tape
recordings in which executives
mocked blacks and plotted to
destroy documents.
Shortly after Texaco
announced a tentative $176
million settlement of the suit
in November, the EEOC asked
federal Judge Charles Breiant
to let it intervene "to protect
the public interest.”
The agreement is contingent
on final court approval of the
civil settlement, which
includes back pay and raises
to black employees and vari
ous programs to diversify
Texaco’s work force and
improve working conditions
for black employees.
The agreement allows the
EEOC to moni
tor the progress
of those pro
grams, specifies
how future com
plaints will be
handled and
orders Texaco to
provide the
EEOC with
detailed infor
mation on every
promotion,
including the
race of each
applicant.
Cyrus Mehri,
an attorney for
the plaintiffs,
said the EEOC
agreement “com
plements what
we've done here
and makes clear
exactly what
Texaco has to
do.”
Texaco
spokesman
Chris Gidez said
the agreement is
consistent with
measures Texaco has already
announced and “we believe
fully satisfies all the EEOC’s
concerns.”
The tape recordings were
made by an executive who
said he wanted to keep accu
rate minutes. He gave them to
the plaintiffs in the civil suit
after he lost his job in a corpo
rate reorganization.
U.S. oil companies under fire
Continued from page 6A
workplace, no one in big oil has
taken it on, Graham said.
“I can’t think of one oil execu
tive who has been outspoken on
the issue of bias in the work
place. That tells you some
thing,” Graham said.
Texaco agreed to the record
settlement payment after a dis
gruntled former executive
released a tape in which top
company officials were heard
using racial slurs, mocking the
black cultural festival Kwanzaa
and plotting to hide or shred
documents sought by the plain
tiffs.
At Shell, a group of black
workers is suing for $100 mil
lion, alleging a system of racial
and sex discrimination. A sec
ond group of Shell employees
filed suit last February charging
racial discrimination by the
Racial, sexual harassment suits
have corporations on the run
company.
Plaintiffs like Wilson Jackson,
49, say the company has held
down black employees by with
holding deserved promotions
and merit awards and has low
ered positive evaluations for
black workers. They also charge
Shell failed to reprimand work
ers for racist conduct at work.
'The first trial is schedided for
September in U.S. District
Court in Sem Francisco.
“Caucasians ... move up faster
than blacks who do the same or
a better job,” said Jackson, who
stiU worfe at Shell.
Jackson, who has worked in
Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana,
Ohio and Michigan in 27 years
at the company, said he beheves
that if he were white he would
have been promoted to senior
management years earher.
“They do things like give the
African Americans the toughest
territories to work in, they bust
their humps and then get
moved when they become suc
cessful,” he contended. “You get
left with nothing.”
Jackson said he stayed at the
company for nearly three
decades “because I’m not a quit
ter. Once years passed by, I felt
I had too much invested here to
just walk away.”
Shell denies the charges amd
said in a statement, “We take
the issue of diversity and equal
opportunity very seriously.”
Pete Brown, a spokesman for
the Independent Petroleum
Association of America,
acknowledged a lack of minori
ties in the upper reaches of the
oil industry but denied racism is
to blame.
“Most of the major oil compa
ny top executives and CEOs
come from the geophysics or
chemistry fields, and we haven't
seen minorities attracted there,”
Brown said. “Minorities usually
are in the downstream areas of
the company like marketing
and accounting.”
Brown added: “I think most
people in the oil business are
smart enough to know that
racism can cost you money, not
only in a discrimination suit but
also because you might be hold
ing back someone who can
make you money.”
Meet with CPA before deciding
Continued from page 6A
ing out what kind of assistance
you require and your ultimate
expectations. Are you looking
for a CPA who can help you
work toward meeting a specific
need, such as funding your
child’s college education or sav
ing for retirement?
Do you want someone who can
develop a comprehensive finan
cial plan and help you to imple
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interested in tax planning
strategies or in having someone
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needs, the better you’ll be able
to express them to the CPA.
Conducting the interview
During the interview, let the
CPA know clearly the kinds of
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profiles of t3q)ical clients, and
avaQabihty to work with you.
It’s also important to get a feel
for the chemistry that develops
between you and the CPA you
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By carefully considering the
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to select a CPA with whom you
can develop a long-term rela
tionship. Be sure to talk openly
about how the CPA will be com
pensated for his or her services.
Normally, CPAs base their fees
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financial situation, the experi
ence level of the CPA, and the
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five will aU impact the level of
your CPA’s fees.
MaximiziDg the relationship
To lay the groundwork for a
more productive relationship,
you should organize your finan
cial mformation. Depending on
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need information about your
assets and liabilities, retirement
and other company benefits,
current insurance coverage, and
additional financial data. AU of
these have £m important bear
ing on your financial future -
and the ability of you and your
CPA to work together to reach
your goals. In addition to under
standing your goals, it's also
helpful for your CPA to know
Insurance costs can be trimmed with work
Continued from page 6A
terns.
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ly depending on in what part of
the coimtry you live.
Life insurance
If you are part of a two-income
couple with no dependents,
maybe you don't reaUy need life
insurance. But if you have a
famUy that would be financiaUy
crippled at your death, you
should be covered.
The National Insurance
Consumer Organization sug
gests you be covered at an
amovmt equal to five years of
your income, plus an added
amoimt for emergencies.
Life insurance comes in two
basic formats, term and cash
value. Term is basically a death
benefit polity and can be bought
as a poUcy to be renewed each
year at a higher premium, or
with a guaranteed level premi
um. Ceish value insurance com
bines a death benefit with a sav
ings or investment plan.
With a cash value policy you
have the choice of providing a
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Cutting insurance costs
Considering the fact that of
every dollar spent on insurance
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Thursday, January 9, 1997
Inner city businesses
can thrive, according
to university study
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAINESVILLjE, Fla. - Black-owned businesses can thrive in inner-
cily neighborhoods, even earning more money than their suburban
counterparts, according to a new study from the University of
Florida.
“Some of the largest and most profitable firms owned by blacks are
foimd in the iimer dty, despite research suggesting that only ‘mom
and pop’ businesses exist there,” said Russell Benjamin, a UF gradu
ate student in political science, who surveyed 102 black-owned busi
nesses in Jacksonville and Daytona Beach.
Also, many of the businesses su'e not in traditional fields such eis
retailing, nightclubs and beauty or barber shops but in emerging
areas such as law, medicine, insurance and real estate, he said.
“Not all of the inner cily is an entrepreneurial and social waste
land,” Benjamin said. “Some black businesses in emeiging fields stay
in the inner city and do well. Perhaps this is because many of the gov
ernment offices designed to assist black business development are
located either in the inner city or very near to it.”
In the UF survey, the median 1993 sales figure for black businesses
in the inner cities of Jacksonville and Daytona Beach was $161,000,
compared with $105,000 for those on the outskirts. Many inner-dty
businesses drew their customers fiom outside the inner city.
“Despite the prevailing belief that inner-city black businesses are
disadvantaged because they are cut off fiom good markets and cus
tomers who have money, this research shows that such firms can be
successful,” said James Button, a UF poUtical science professor who
supervised Benjamin’s work.
“That’s important because healthy businesses in the inner dty can
not only beef up the area’s tax base - providing money for education
and other services - but raise the standard of living by produdng
more jobs for inner dty residents, who are disproportionately poor
and black.”
Lack of minority set-aside contracts, exclusion from ‘good ol’ bo/
networks and difficulty getting loans when banks ‘redhne’ poor black
communities are problems the entrepreneurs dted.
Farmers criticize loan process
Continued from page 6A
the problem for years.
Eddie Slaughter, one of the
witnesses at the Albany hear
ing, said the USDA has been
harassing him about a $200,000
from loan.
“I don’t want to fight my gov
ernment any more,” said
Slaughter, who has a 221-acre
farm near Buena Vista. “I don’t
weint to be £mgry any more.”
Slaughter said blacks need
more representation on county
agricultural conunittees, which
control farm losms, quotas and
disaster payments. The three-
member committees, usually
dominated by influential whites,
are not sensitive to the needs of
minority farmers, he said.
“You’ve got hundreds of thou
sands of dollars coming info
these counties,” he said in an
interview. “The system is run by
good ol’ boys. It is a close-knit
group that controls the money.
They don’t want you to see how
the money flows, how it’s spent
or even how much is coming in.”
Quitman County farmer
Willie Head said there are about
65 black farmers in his coimty
and since 1986, only two or
three have been given federal
crop loans.
“Hard work alone doesn’t get
it,” he said. “To me there is
some discrimination. These
local committees aren’t fair.”
Democratic Rep. Sanford
Bishop, who represents
Georgia’s heavily agricultural
2nd Congressional District, said
he gets frequent complaints
about the committees, which
are elected by farmers.
Glickman said the committees
are likely to be a priority of his
task force.
“We have a real opportunity to
make positive change in the
area of civil rights enforcement
at USDA and to ensure that
both our employees and cus
tomers are treated fairly and
with dignity,” Glickman said. “I
am committed to bringing about
that change.”
something about your attitudes
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keep your CPA up to date on
various turning points in your
personal and professional life.
Such life events as a marriage,
divorce, the birth of a child, a
new home, death of a spouse,
and changes in your career can
all impact your tax habUity and
personal financial plan.
Money Management is a week
ly column on personal finance
prepared and distributed by the
North Carolina Association of
Certified Public Accountants.
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