AFL-CIO Targets Verizon for Excessive CEO Pay

CWA has launched a website in support of a campaign by the AFL-CIO to oust Verizon board members who voted what it said is excessive pay for company CEO Ivan Seidenberg.  The federation says the board paid Seidenberg $110 million over a five-year period while share prices have sagged.

"I defy anyone to say this guy's earned the money," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told reporters on April 5, outlining the federation's plan to vote against Verizon's compensation committee at the company's May 3 annual meeting. He called Verizon "the poster child for pay for pulse."

The federation has already had discussions with the office of the New York State Comptroller and California State Teachers' Retirement system and planned meetings to win support for its proposals from mutual funds that hold shares of Verizon.

On the CWA investor website, visitors are urged vote "for" Verizon shareholder proposals 4, 5 and 6 to improve transparency and accountability of executive compensation and to vote "no" for directors who sit on the board's compensation committee: Walter Shipley, chair, Richard Carrion, Robert Lane, Joseph Neubauer, Clarence Otis Jr. and John Stafford.

Complete information, including news coverage by the Chicago Tribune and New York Times, is available at http://investor.cwa-union.org/verizon.