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CWA Seeks Shareholder Controls for CEO Pay, Perks
CWA members put the public spotlight on several key corporate governance issues at shareholder meetings this season.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., nearly 400 CWA members and retirees, joined by a contingent of IUE-CWA members and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members from New England, took their case to shareholders at the Verizon Communications meeting.
A rally and leafleting outside the meeting were bolstered by members of CWA District 4, which moved the site of its meeting to Fort Wayne to show solidarity in the fight for a fair contract at Verizon. Addressing the crowd were CWA Vice Presidents Jeff Rechenbach, District 4, and Vince Maisano, District 13, along with IUE-CWA Vice President Bruce Van Ess, CWA Local 4371 President Tammy Drollinger, IBEW Local 2222 Business Agent Dave Reardon and Ed Creegan, chair of the Retired Members Council.
More than 200 CWA members attended the meeting, at one point standing and turning their backs on CEO Ivan Seidenberg as he tried to defend fat executive severance packages against a shareholder proposal to limit them.
That resolution, sponsored by the association of Bell Tel Retirees and strongly backed CWA members, won 59 percent of the vote, with shareholders calling on the board to seek shareholder approval for lucrative "golden parachutes" in future executive contracts. A CWA-backed resolution to limit CEO compensation to 50 times that of the average Verizon worker won 18 percent of the vote.
The same day, CWAers supported IUE-CWA members and retirees at the General Electric annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., urging shareholder support for proposals to tie executive stock options to performance, to limit executive severance and retirement packages and to require GE to adopt a workplace code of conduct.
In Kansas City, Mo., members of Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701, urged shareholder support for two resolutions. One, to exclude pension income in determining executive compensation, got 18 percent of the vote. The other called on IBM to give all workers, regardless of age, the same retirement medical insurance and pension choice as employees who were within five years of retirement in 1999. It gained 14 percent of voted shares.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., nearly 400 CWA members and retirees, joined by a contingent of IUE-CWA members and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members from New England, took their case to shareholders at the Verizon Communications meeting.
A rally and leafleting outside the meeting were bolstered by members of CWA District 4, which moved the site of its meeting to Fort Wayne to show solidarity in the fight for a fair contract at Verizon. Addressing the crowd were CWA Vice Presidents Jeff Rechenbach, District 4, and Vince Maisano, District 13, along with IUE-CWA Vice President Bruce Van Ess, CWA Local 4371 President Tammy Drollinger, IBEW Local 2222 Business Agent Dave Reardon and Ed Creegan, chair of the Retired Members Council.
More than 200 CWA members attended the meeting, at one point standing and turning their backs on CEO Ivan Seidenberg as he tried to defend fat executive severance packages against a shareholder proposal to limit them.
That resolution, sponsored by the association of Bell Tel Retirees and strongly backed CWA members, won 59 percent of the vote, with shareholders calling on the board to seek shareholder approval for lucrative "golden parachutes" in future executive contracts. A CWA-backed resolution to limit CEO compensation to 50 times that of the average Verizon worker won 18 percent of the vote.
The same day, CWAers supported IUE-CWA members and retirees at the General Electric annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., urging shareholder support for proposals to tie executive stock options to performance, to limit executive severance and retirement packages and to require GE to adopt a workplace code of conduct.
In Kansas City, Mo., members of Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701, urged shareholder support for two resolutions. One, to exclude pension income in determining executive compensation, got 18 percent of the vote. The other called on IBM to give all workers, regardless of age, the same retirement medical insurance and pension choice as employees who were within five years of retirement in 1999. It gained 14 percent of voted shares.