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Union Members Press Corporate Reform at Comcast
Philadelphia, Pa. -- Shareholders at the Comcast Corp. annual meeting today made a strong bid to reform corporate governance at the company.
A contingent of about 50 union members – from the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – leafleted shareholders outside the meeting, then, as shareholders themselves, went inside to further press for shareholder democracy and good corporate governance.
The CWA Members' Relief fund introduced a proposal calling for the establishment of a one-share-one-vote corporate structure. After the meeting, the company reported that the proposal received 34.1 percent of the shares cast. Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts, however, controls a guaranteed one-third of total voting strength while holding only three percent of total equity. Even if all outstanding shares were voted, the proposal clearly received a majority of support (51.2 percent) among public shareholders. The actual vote is likely to be significantly higher.
Comcast will not release the true vote count until it files its next quarterly earnings statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vince Maisano, special assistant to CWA President Morton Bahr, pressed Comcast to relinquish the super-majority rights of the Roberts family, and called on Roberts to support the call for shareholder democracy. According to Maisano, shareholders who are taking the actual investment risk are marginalized by the voting strength of the Roberts block. The one-share-one-vote structure governs the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies. Institutional Shareholder Services and major institutional investors and financial advisory firms supported the measure.
Among other proposals intended to restore good governance to Comcast: a call for an independent board of directors and to separate the positions of chairman and chief executive officer; both now held by Roberts. Another measure, presented by the IBEW, called on Comcast to end the poison pill provisions it adopted at the time of its merger with AT&T Broadband.
CWA and supporters also questioned why six of the company's top officers have employment contracts, yet workers are blocked in their efforts to bargain a fair contract or gain an independent voice on the job.
More information is available at www.comcastwatch.com
A contingent of about 50 union members – from the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – leafleted shareholders outside the meeting, then, as shareholders themselves, went inside to further press for shareholder democracy and good corporate governance.
The CWA Members' Relief fund introduced a proposal calling for the establishment of a one-share-one-vote corporate structure. After the meeting, the company reported that the proposal received 34.1 percent of the shares cast. Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts, however, controls a guaranteed one-third of total voting strength while holding only three percent of total equity. Even if all outstanding shares were voted, the proposal clearly received a majority of support (51.2 percent) among public shareholders. The actual vote is likely to be significantly higher.
Comcast will not release the true vote count until it files its next quarterly earnings statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vince Maisano, special assistant to CWA President Morton Bahr, pressed Comcast to relinquish the super-majority rights of the Roberts family, and called on Roberts to support the call for shareholder democracy. According to Maisano, shareholders who are taking the actual investment risk are marginalized by the voting strength of the Roberts block. The one-share-one-vote structure governs the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies. Institutional Shareholder Services and major institutional investors and financial advisory firms supported the measure.
Among other proposals intended to restore good governance to Comcast: a call for an independent board of directors and to separate the positions of chairman and chief executive officer; both now held by Roberts. Another measure, presented by the IBEW, called on Comcast to end the poison pill provisions it adopted at the time of its merger with AT&T Broadband.
CWA and supporters also questioned why six of the company's top officers have employment contracts, yet workers are blocked in their efforts to bargain a fair contract or gain an independent voice on the job.
More information is available at www.comcastwatch.com