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CWA Members Mobilize at Shareholder Meetings
CWA members are continuing their campaign of mobilization and activism at corporate annual meetings this season.
Members of CWA Local 1701, Alliance@IBM, leafleted outside the IBM Corp. annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., urging IBM shareholders to adopt a resolution to exclude pension fund income from the calculation of executive bonuses and other performance-based compensation.
Linda Guyer, CWA Local 1701 president, noted that of IBM’s net profit of $8 billion in 2001, $904 million was from pension fund earnings. “That means 13.2 percent of the sum used to calculate executives’ incentive compensation had nothing to do with how they ran the business,” she said.
Inside the meeting, Guyer and several Alliance members raised questions about employee benefits, working conditions and layoffs. The proposal to exclude pension income won 19.9 percent of voted shares, guaranteeing that the issue can be raised at next year’s shareholder meeting. Another proposal, to provide all employees with the same choice about retirement medical insurance and pension as is now available to employees within five years of retirement, gained 14 percent of the vote, about the same as last year.
A rally following the meeting brought supporters from Jobs with Justice, the AFL-CIO and other unions, and religious and community groups from Louisville.
At the General Electric Co. annual meeting in Waukesha, Wis., IUE-CWA members and retirees and CWA supporters also backed a proposal calling on the GE board to exclude pension fund income from the calculation of executive compensation.
In 2001, GE’s pension fund generated $2.1 billion in income, or 10.6 percent of pre-tax profits. These earnings don’t add any income to the company but do boost senior executives’ pay. The proposal gained 13.2 percent of voted shares.
Including pension income in the executive compensation formula creates an incentive to keep pension benefits low, said Bob Santamoor, IUE-CWA GE Conference Board representative.
For workers who lose their jobs to plant closings, like those affected by the August shutdown of the Philadelphia power systems plant, the low pension benefits are even more bad news, because the plan favors those who work at least 35 years, said Ray Rondinelli, president of the IUE-CWA Local 88119 Retired Members Club.
At GE locations nationwide the day of the shareholder meeting, IUE-CWA members wore stickers that declared “It’s Our Pension, Not GE’s.” Workers also held solidarity rallies in Fort Wayne and Tell City, Ind.; Philadelphia; Cleveland; Louisville; Lynn, Mass.; and Schenectady, N.Y.
In other shareholder actions, passenger service agents at American Airlines and American Eagle, along with pilots, flight attendants and other workers from the airlines, rallied and picketed outside American’s headquarters in Dallas, the site of the company’s annual meeting.
Members of CWA Local 1701, Alliance@IBM, leafleted outside the IBM Corp. annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., urging IBM shareholders to adopt a resolution to exclude pension fund income from the calculation of executive bonuses and other performance-based compensation.
Linda Guyer, CWA Local 1701 president, noted that of IBM’s net profit of $8 billion in 2001, $904 million was from pension fund earnings. “That means 13.2 percent of the sum used to calculate executives’ incentive compensation had nothing to do with how they ran the business,” she said.
Inside the meeting, Guyer and several Alliance members raised questions about employee benefits, working conditions and layoffs. The proposal to exclude pension income won 19.9 percent of voted shares, guaranteeing that the issue can be raised at next year’s shareholder meeting. Another proposal, to provide all employees with the same choice about retirement medical insurance and pension as is now available to employees within five years of retirement, gained 14 percent of the vote, about the same as last year.
A rally following the meeting brought supporters from Jobs with Justice, the AFL-CIO and other unions, and religious and community groups from Louisville.
At the General Electric Co. annual meeting in Waukesha, Wis., IUE-CWA members and retirees and CWA supporters also backed a proposal calling on the GE board to exclude pension fund income from the calculation of executive compensation.
In 2001, GE’s pension fund generated $2.1 billion in income, or 10.6 percent of pre-tax profits. These earnings don’t add any income to the company but do boost senior executives’ pay. The proposal gained 13.2 percent of voted shares.
Including pension income in the executive compensation formula creates an incentive to keep pension benefits low, said Bob Santamoor, IUE-CWA GE Conference Board representative.
For workers who lose their jobs to plant closings, like those affected by the August shutdown of the Philadelphia power systems plant, the low pension benefits are even more bad news, because the plan favors those who work at least 35 years, said Ray Rondinelli, president of the IUE-CWA Local 88119 Retired Members Club.
At GE locations nationwide the day of the shareholder meeting, IUE-CWA members wore stickers that declared “It’s Our Pension, Not GE’s.” Workers also held solidarity rallies in Fort Wayne and Tell City, Ind.; Philadelphia; Cleveland; Louisville; Lynn, Mass.; and Schenectady, N.Y.
In other shareholder actions, passenger service agents at American Airlines and American Eagle, along with pilots, flight attendants and other workers from the airlines, rallied and picketed outside American’s headquarters in Dallas, the site of the company’s annual meeting.