Shareholder wealth maximization is a standard of conduct for officers and directors, not a legal mandate. The business judgment rule [which was also upheld in this decision] protects many decisions that deviate from this standard.
This is why the Golden Age of American manufacturing throughout the '50s and '60s was able to raise so many families into the middle class: business decisions were made for the good of the business as a whole, because a well-trained and fairly-treated workforce was more productive and less likely to strike. Preserving the maintenance of the business is what improved shareholder value.
Union-busting and Reaganomics gave us Jack Welch and the pump-and-dump bullshit we see now, not a hundred year old court ruling.
From the article you linked:
This is why the Golden Age of American manufacturing throughout the '50s and '60s was able to raise so many families into the middle class: business decisions were made for the good of the business as a whole, because a well-trained and fairly-treated workforce was more productive and less likely to strike. Preserving the maintenance of the business is what improved shareholder value.
Union-busting and Reaganomics gave us Jack Welch and the pump-and-dump bullshit we see now, not a hundred year old court ruling.
I would need to ask a corporate lawyer to be sure.