CWA Launches Assault on Bad Corporate Policies

CWA made a case for responsible corporate governance at IBM, General Electric and AT&T this week, at the first of several shareholder actions on the calendar this spring.

"Because our members own stock in many of these companies, we once a year have the opportunity to air our views on how they should be run," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "We build a broad base of support among these corporations' owners when we oppose excessive CEO pay and corporate boards run amok, and we strengthen our position for bargaining."

Representatives of the Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701 on April 26 turned out at the company's annual meeting in Tulsa, Okla., to support a resolution calling for simple majority rule on all matters requiring shareholder approval rather than the supermajority previously required. The measure passed with 61.5 percent of votes cast.

Also at the meeting, Janet Krueger, an Alliance@IBM member and former IBM worker, submitted a resolution calling for clearer, "plain English" disclosure of executive compensation, which includes restricted stock, stock options and long-term incentive plans. That resolution received more than 40 percent of shares voted. Jim Askew, another Local 1701 member, took CEO Sam Palmisano to task at the meeting on changes to the company's 401(k) plan between 1991 and 1995 that will cause older workers to retire with 40 to 50 percent less than they previously could have expected. 

On the same day, IUE-CWA members leafleted outside General Electric's shareholder meeting in Philadelphia and, as part of the Coordinated Bargaining Committee of GE unions, supported shareholder resolutions demanding that directors be elected by majority vote and that its board include a union retiree. The majority vote proposal drew 18 percent of shares voted. The proposal for a retiree board member received 4.3 percent.

CWA Communications and Technologies Vice President Ralph Maly spoke at the AT&T annual meeting in San Antonio on April 28, making a direct appeal to "new AT&T" CEO Ed Whitacre to enforce commitments made to "old AT&T" members through collective bargaining. CWA and Whitacre have enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect as evidenced by good contracts as SBC, honored with integrity by both parties, he noted. Maly pointed out that following the merger of SBC and the old AT&T, CWA members enthusiastically ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, yet 600 have been laid off because the new company has not enforced the job security language regarding the old AT&T part of the business. 

District 6 Retired Members Chapter President Bobby Brown challenged the board for approving the billions in funding necessary to achieve a series of mergers and acquisitions over several years while refusing to increase pension payments to retirees and implementing increases in copays for health care and prescription drugs.

Preparing for additional shareholder meetings later in the spring, CWA has submitted its own resolution for the Verizon meeting scheduled for May 4 in Overland Park, Kan. Opposing interlocking directorships, the proposal would prevent directors from sitting on the boards of other directors' companies. For example, as in at least one case, the union sees a clear conflict of interest in Verizon directors — who must vote on huge health care expenditures — also sitting on the boards of pharmaceutical companies.

CWA leaders from Texas to New England have been hard at work collecting proxies from members and retirees and organizing leafleting in support of the Verizon proposal. District 6 members in red shirts and other unionists from the San Antonio Central Labor Council will pass out handbills outside the meeting comparing "Ivan the Terribly Greedy," referring to CEO Ivan Seidenberg, to 16th century Russian conqueror Ivan the Terrible. Their flier condemns Seidenberg for "outrageous corporate greed, destruction of shareholder value threatening employees' futures and undermining Verizon's long-term interests."

It points out that in 2005 Verizon stock fell by 26 percent and earnings by 5.5 percent, the company froze management's pension plan, and major credit agencies downgraded the company's debt. Meanwhile Seidenberg was rewarded with a 48% pay hike and $15 million toward his retirement.

Other demonstrations of support are being organized by District 1 at Verizon locations in New York and Boston.

In a challenge to Comcast, CWA, IBEW and religious activists are planning a prayer vigil in Philadelphia on May 17, the night before the Comcast shareholder meeting. While drawing attention to Comcast's unionbusting, CWA members at the meeting will support a resolution calling for each share of stock to be of equal weight in voting. Currently CEO Brian Roberts and his family own about 2 percent of Comcast's stock, but their shares are designated a special class, worth 33 percent in voting, virtually ensuring their complete control of the company.