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CWA Mobilizes at Sprint, GE, IBM Shareholder Meetings
In this season of corporate annual meetings, CWA members and retirees are asking shareholders to make companies more accountable to employees, retirees and stockholders.
At the Sprint Corp. annual meeting in Overland Park, Kan., John Howard, assistant to the CWA vice president for Telecommuni-cations, told shareholders that CWA had proposed a resolution to prevent executives from receiving merger-related benefits unless the merger actually takes place, but withdrew it after Sprint executives said the company would institute the policy.
The proposal would prevent a recurrence of the “money grab” two years ago when top level executives left Sprint with generous merger-related benefits, even though the merger was not completed, Howard said.
He then asked Sprint CEO William T. Esrey to confirm that the Sprint board of directors in fact adopted the policy. Esrey responded, “that has been our policy.”
Howard reminded shareholders that Sprint workers were also stockholders and cared very much about the success of the company. But he said the arrogance exhibited by Sprint management toward workers is a disservice to employees and shareholders, adding that workers want “a little more respect and a little less paternalism.”
Nearly 100 members of CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers demonstrated outside the meeting; the two unions represent about 10,000 workers at Sprint.
IUE-CWA members and retirees and CWA supporters are calling on General Electric Co. to use the highly overfunded pension fund to provide real pension increases for retirees, not to artificially inflate profits and boost executive pay.
A CWA resolution on the agenda of the company’s April 24 annual meeting in Waukesha, Wis., calls on the board of directors to exclude pension fund income in the calculation of compensation for senior executives.
In 2001, the pension fund generated $2.1 billion in income, or 10.6 percent of pre-tax profits.
“The inclusion of pension income in executive compensation formulas distorts the concept of pay for performance. Executives and senior management should focus on improving the business,” IUE-CWA President Edward Fire said.
Members of CWA Local 1701, Alliance@IBM, will be in Louisville, Ky., urging IBM shareholders to adopt a similar resolution introduced by CWA on executive compensation. Linda Guyer, Local 1701 president, noted that of IBM’s net profit of more than $8 billion in 2000, $1 billion was from pension fund earnings. “That means 12.5 percent of the sum used to calculate executives’ incentive compensation had nothing to do with how they ran the business,” she said.
Also on the agenda at the IBM meeting: a proposal calling on the board of directors to provide the same choice about retirement medical insurance and pensions as is now available to employees within five years of retirement.
At the Sprint Corp. annual meeting in Overland Park, Kan., John Howard, assistant to the CWA vice president for Telecommuni-cations, told shareholders that CWA had proposed a resolution to prevent executives from receiving merger-related benefits unless the merger actually takes place, but withdrew it after Sprint executives said the company would institute the policy.
The proposal would prevent a recurrence of the “money grab” two years ago when top level executives left Sprint with generous merger-related benefits, even though the merger was not completed, Howard said.
He then asked Sprint CEO William T. Esrey to confirm that the Sprint board of directors in fact adopted the policy. Esrey responded, “that has been our policy.”
Howard reminded shareholders that Sprint workers were also stockholders and cared very much about the success of the company. But he said the arrogance exhibited by Sprint management toward workers is a disservice to employees and shareholders, adding that workers want “a little more respect and a little less paternalism.”
Nearly 100 members of CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers demonstrated outside the meeting; the two unions represent about 10,000 workers at Sprint.
IUE-CWA members and retirees and CWA supporters are calling on General Electric Co. to use the highly overfunded pension fund to provide real pension increases for retirees, not to artificially inflate profits and boost executive pay.
A CWA resolution on the agenda of the company’s April 24 annual meeting in Waukesha, Wis., calls on the board of directors to exclude pension fund income in the calculation of compensation for senior executives.
In 2001, the pension fund generated $2.1 billion in income, or 10.6 percent of pre-tax profits.
“The inclusion of pension income in executive compensation formulas distorts the concept of pay for performance. Executives and senior management should focus on improving the business,” IUE-CWA President Edward Fire said.
Members of CWA Local 1701, Alliance@IBM, will be in Louisville, Ky., urging IBM shareholders to adopt a similar resolution introduced by CWA on executive compensation. Linda Guyer, Local 1701 president, noted that of IBM’s net profit of more than $8 billion in 2000, $1 billion was from pension fund earnings. “That means 12.5 percent of the sum used to calculate executives’ incentive compensation had nothing to do with how they ran the business,” she said.
Also on the agenda at the IBM meeting: a proposal calling on the board of directors to provide the same choice about retirement medical insurance and pensions as is now available to employees within five years of retirement.