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CWA Puts Focus On Comcast at Disney Meeting
CWA members were out in force for the annual meeting of the Walt Disney Co., urging shareholders to reject Comcast Communications' power grab for Disney and alerting the public to the serious consequences the mega-deal would have for consumers and other media competitors.
Public interest, consumer and media groups held a news conference a day before the meeting, raising concerns about the problems that a combined Disney-Comcast would create for consumers, other cable competitors and content creators.
CWA District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano cited concerns that a Comcast takeover of Disney would create a $120 billion media goliath, one that would continue to control at least one-third of all cable households.
At the shareholder meeting, NABET-CWA leaders representing the 3,000 ABC television and radio employees were on hand as corporate governance and other management issues were raised. The NABET-CWA contingent included President John Clark, Dan Mahoney, assistant to Clark; Vice President Jim Joyce and Local 51016 President Eugene Maxwell.
"The microphones were crowded and shareholders were following the issues," Joyce said.
With a block of Disney shareholders voting "no confidence" in top executive Michael Eisner, the board split his position, giving the chairman of the board post to George Mitchell, a Disney director and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
Just after the meeting, Maisano and CWAers led a march to Comcast headquarters a few blocks away and distributed information spotlighting Comcast's bad reputation on shareholder rights and corporate governance, consumer and community standards and workers' rights.
CWA also told Disney shareholders that despite Comcast's efforts to block it, a proposal calling for a fair voting system would be brought before shareholders at the Comcast annual meeting in May.
Public interest, consumer and media groups held a news conference a day before the meeting, raising concerns about the problems that a combined Disney-Comcast would create for consumers, other cable competitors and content creators.
CWA District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano cited concerns that a Comcast takeover of Disney would create a $120 billion media goliath, one that would continue to control at least one-third of all cable households.
At the shareholder meeting, NABET-CWA leaders representing the 3,000 ABC television and radio employees were on hand as corporate governance and other management issues were raised. The NABET-CWA contingent included President John Clark, Dan Mahoney, assistant to Clark; Vice President Jim Joyce and Local 51016 President Eugene Maxwell.
"The microphones were crowded and shareholders were following the issues," Joyce said.
With a block of Disney shareholders voting "no confidence" in top executive Michael Eisner, the board split his position, giving the chairman of the board post to George Mitchell, a Disney director and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
Just after the meeting, Maisano and CWAers led a march to Comcast headquarters a few blocks away and distributed information spotlighting Comcast's bad reputation on shareholder rights and corporate governance, consumer and community standards and workers' rights.
CWA also told Disney shareholders that despite Comcast's efforts to block it, a proposal calling for a fair voting system would be brought before shareholders at the Comcast annual meeting in May.