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NABET Tackles Disney's 'Exorbitant' Stock Options
As NABET-CWA begins negotiating a new contract with ABC, the union has submitted a shareholder proposal urging corporate owner Disney to adopt a policy that links grants of stock options to executives' performance on the job.
"Compensation policies for senior executives should provide challenging performance objectives," the proposal states. "In the absence of measurable criteria of performance, stock option grants have the potential to excessively compensate executives without a corresponding reward for shareholders."
Such change is badly needed because of Disney's "exorbitant" stock options given to top executives over the years, the resolution says. According to the company itself, the five top corporate officers exercised options worth more than $721 million between 1997 and 2001 and CEO Michael Eisner alone exercised more than $680 million in the same period. Meanwhile, the price of company stock dropped 14.7 percent.
NABET's contract with ABC, affecting 5,000 workers nationwide, expires March 31. Bargaining began Feb. 25. NABET President John Clark opened negotiations by telling the company the union believes ABC has a "strong and viable future both as a broadcaster and as an employer" and that "our membership, with its tremendous skills, talents and professionalism, is the best source of manpower to do the work the company needs to get done to achieve its future successes in the coming years."
While he told ABC that he's hopeful bargaining will go better than it did in the last round when members were locked out for several weeks, he cautioned that, "We're not here to roll over and agree to demands that we and our members may believe are unjust, unnecessary or unreasonable... Please be advised that we are not interested in making further sacrifices in the livelihoods of our membership to make up for the poor business
decisions made by management - especially in view of the recent bonuses, worth millions of dollars, that were paid out to the top executives of The Walt Disney Company."
"Compensation policies for senior executives should provide challenging performance objectives," the proposal states. "In the absence of measurable criteria of performance, stock option grants have the potential to excessively compensate executives without a corresponding reward for shareholders."
Such change is badly needed because of Disney's "exorbitant" stock options given to top executives over the years, the resolution says. According to the company itself, the five top corporate officers exercised options worth more than $721 million between 1997 and 2001 and CEO Michael Eisner alone exercised more than $680 million in the same period. Meanwhile, the price of company stock dropped 14.7 percent.
NABET's contract with ABC, affecting 5,000 workers nationwide, expires March 31. Bargaining began Feb. 25. NABET President John Clark opened negotiations by telling the company the union believes ABC has a "strong and viable future both as a broadcaster and as an employer" and that "our membership, with its tremendous skills, talents and professionalism, is the best source of manpower to do the work the company needs to get done to achieve its future successes in the coming years."
While he told ABC that he's hopeful bargaining will go better than it did in the last round when members were locked out for several weeks, he cautioned that, "We're not here to roll over and agree to demands that we and our members may believe are unjust, unnecessary or unreasonable... Please be advised that we are not interested in making further sacrifices in the livelihoods of our membership to make up for the poor business
decisions made by management - especially in view of the recent bonuses, worth millions of dollars, that were paid out to the top executives of The Walt Disney Company."