The proposed merger of oil giants Exxon and Mobil will create the largest oil company in the world. It will reunite the two largest pieces of John D. Rockefeller s Standard Oil Company, which was broken up in 1911 in the nation’s most celebrated anti-trust case.

And activists this week greeted the merger with outrage. Groups like the Berkeley-based Project Underground and the Public Interest Research Group say the union will contribute to an excessive concentration of financial and political power in a small number of huge corporations, and will threaten the environment, workers’ rights and democratic principles. Already analysts estimate that more than 9,000 workers will lose their jobs as a result of the merger.

Guests:

• Bob Wages, President of the Union of Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers.
• Steve Kretzman, Oil Campaign Director at Project Underground, an oil industry watchdog.

Related link:

• Project Underground