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IBM Employees to Challenge Outsourcing, Executive Compensation and Retiree Issues at Annual Meeting
Employees of IBM Corp., members of the Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701, will call on shareholders to support several critical resolutions at the IBM annual meeting set for Tuesday, April 26 in Charleston, S.C.
Alliance members and other proposal proponents will be available in front of the Charleston Convention Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr., North Charleston, for media interviews beginning at 8:30 a.m., on April 26, prior to the meeting start. They will also address the annual meeting on key issues.
IBM employees and retirees face many critical issues, such as the loss of jobs due to IBM's increased focus on offshoring and cost cutting that has hit employees and retirees hard, as well as the impact on workers of costly and in many cases, inadequate, medical benefits, said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for the Alliance.
"IBM employees continue to be extremely concerned about job security," said Conrad. "Offshoring and the training of replacements is ongoing, employees are finding that the job performance evaluation system is being used as a club to force workers out of the company in lieu of public 'resource actions,' PC Division employees now find themselves working for a Chinese corporation, and there are rumblings of further job cuts following IBM's recent first quarter announcement."
"Clearly the IBM that many employees and US citizens remember no longer exists. It has become 'just another company,'" Conrad said. Further, IBM management now is blaming the pension plan for the financial woes of the first quarter, when in fact, the clever accounting practices of the past have finally caught up with the company, he added.
Earl Mongeon, Alliance Chapter representative from Vermont, questioned the stockholder meeting process as it has been run in the past. "This meeting is the stockholders meeting, not the Board of Directors and CEO's meeting. Putting the question and answer section after the adjournment is undemocratic and infringes on the rights of stockholders for full disclosure and dialogue. It's time to put good corporate governance back in the IBM stockholder meeting," said Mongeon.
Alliance members are encouraging support for these resolutions:
#4 Pension and Retirement Medical. This resolution calls for an end to age discrimination in retirement policies by allowing all employees, regardless of age, to choose the promised pension and retirement medical insurance plan that were in effect prior to 1995 and 1999, when IBM unilaterally adopted drastic cuts and changes.
#5 Executive Compensation. This resolution directs that the compensation of senior executives will be determined without taking into account "income" that is derived from current defined benefit pension plans. That means senior executives will be compensated on their actual performance, not the additional earnings generated by "pension income."
#6 Expensing Stock Options. This resolution requests that the board of directors establish a policy of expensing the costs of all future stock options issued by the company in the annual income statement.
#7 Disclosure of Executive Compensation. This resolution calls on the board of directors to establish a policy of full and transparent disclosure of all compensation issued.
#8 Offshoring. This resolution requests that the board of directors establish an independent committee to investigate, evaluate and report on the risk to the damage to the company's brand name and reputation resulting from its on-going outsourcing initiatives.
More information is available at www.allianceibm.org.
Alliance members and other proposal proponents will be available in front of the Charleston Convention Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr., North Charleston, for media interviews beginning at 8:30 a.m., on April 26, prior to the meeting start. They will also address the annual meeting on key issues.
IBM employees and retirees face many critical issues, such as the loss of jobs due to IBM's increased focus on offshoring and cost cutting that has hit employees and retirees hard, as well as the impact on workers of costly and in many cases, inadequate, medical benefits, said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for the Alliance.
"IBM employees continue to be extremely concerned about job security," said Conrad. "Offshoring and the training of replacements is ongoing, employees are finding that the job performance evaluation system is being used as a club to force workers out of the company in lieu of public 'resource actions,' PC Division employees now find themselves working for a Chinese corporation, and there are rumblings of further job cuts following IBM's recent first quarter announcement."
"Clearly the IBM that many employees and US citizens remember no longer exists. It has become 'just another company,'" Conrad said. Further, IBM management now is blaming the pension plan for the financial woes of the first quarter, when in fact, the clever accounting practices of the past have finally caught up with the company, he added.
Earl Mongeon, Alliance Chapter representative from Vermont, questioned the stockholder meeting process as it has been run in the past. "This meeting is the stockholders meeting, not the Board of Directors and CEO's meeting. Putting the question and answer section after the adjournment is undemocratic and infringes on the rights of stockholders for full disclosure and dialogue. It's time to put good corporate governance back in the IBM stockholder meeting," said Mongeon.
Alliance members are encouraging support for these resolutions:
#4 Pension and Retirement Medical. This resolution calls for an end to age discrimination in retirement policies by allowing all employees, regardless of age, to choose the promised pension and retirement medical insurance plan that were in effect prior to 1995 and 1999, when IBM unilaterally adopted drastic cuts and changes.
#5 Executive Compensation. This resolution directs that the compensation of senior executives will be determined without taking into account "income" that is derived from current defined benefit pension plans. That means senior executives will be compensated on their actual performance, not the additional earnings generated by "pension income."
#6 Expensing Stock Options. This resolution requests that the board of directors establish a policy of expensing the costs of all future stock options issued by the company in the annual income statement.
#7 Disclosure of Executive Compensation. This resolution calls on the board of directors to establish a policy of full and transparent disclosure of all compensation issued.
#8 Offshoring. This resolution requests that the board of directors establish an independent committee to investigate, evaluate and report on the risk to the damage to the company's brand name and reputation resulting from its on-going outsourcing initiatives.
More information is available at www.allianceibm.org.