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Workers and Shareholders Take Action at IBM, GE
Workers and shareholders challenged two of America’s biggest corporations — IBM and General Electric — to keep their promises about workers’ retirement and job security.
In a major victory for union members and supporters, shareholder resolutions on pension and globalization concerns won a significant number of votes at both meetings, even though none gained enough to be adopted.
Alliance@IBM/CWA members traveled to Cleveland from IBM work sites in New York and New England for the April 25 meeting and were joined by a contingent of Jobs with Justice members for a news conference before the meeting and a rally after the event. At the news conference, Alliance members stressed the need for a workplace organization that can bargain over salary, benefits and working conditions.
“It’s important to recognize that more than half of IBM’s workforce still doesn’t have a choice on the pension plan, or on any other issues that are important to us. IBM’s chief executive officer Lou Gerstner has an employment contract with the board of directors. We deserve one too,” said Linda Guyer, project manager at IBM’s Endicott, N.Y., facility.
Garrett Lanzy, an IBM software engineer also from Endicott, told reporters that IBM employees who joined the Alliance@IBM/CWA “are not anti-IBM. We consider ourselves to be equal stakeholders in our company.”
IBM Corp.’s broken promises were Topic A at the meeting, where shareholders considered a resolution to restore to employees the pension and retiree medical benefits choices they had before IBM threw out their pension plan last summer and substituted an inferior cash balance plan. Last fall’s nationwide mobilization by members of Alliance@IBM/CWA forced IBM to restore some of the lost pension benefits, but the company has kept its drastic cuts in retiree medical coverage in place.
The resolution garnered 300 million shares, or 28.2 percent of voting shares, the highest percentage ever recorded for a first-time shareholder proposition and sufficient votes to automatically be considered at next year’s meeting. It had support from major investors and advisory firms, including Institutional Shareholder Services, the New York State Common Retirement System, the California Public Employee Retirement System, the former chairman of Vanguard Corp. and others.
At the post-meeting rally, some 150 people heard from Cleveland AFL-CIO Executive Secretary John Ryan, Reps. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and other speakers.
In Richmond, Va., more than 100 union members and retirees held a rally and news conference the day before the April 26 meeting, urging shareholders to look at whether GE’s strategy for growth is “globalization gone wrong.”
CWAers turned out in force, including members of Locals 2201, 2252 and 2260 and 2252’s Jim Leaman, who serves as secretary-treasurer of the Virginia AFL-CIO, and leafleted shareholders as they headed into the meeting.
Of the three shareholder resolutions backed by members of the 14-union Coordinated Bargaining Committee, which bargains for GE employees, two won a substantial percentage of the vote. Resolution No. 9, requiring shareholder approval of future pension increases for board of directors members, won more than 32 percent of voted shares, and Resolution No. 3, requiring GE to evaluate the impact of its globalization strategy, drew more than 28 percent. Gaining 7.8 percent of voted shares was a resolution directing GE to adopt and enforce a workplace code of conduct, but all received enough votes to ensure they will be automatically placed on the agenda for the shareholder meeting next year.
The CBC, which includes CWA, will begin bargaining for a new contract covering some 40,000 GE workers next month.
President Edward Fire, who heads the CBC, said “workers and retirees who have made GE one of the world’s most successful corporations deserve retirement security.” Some GE retirees still earn poverty-level pensions, despite the fact that the pension plan accounted for $1 billion of GE’s $10.7 billion in profits last year and despite the increase in pensions GE adopted in mid-April.
In a major victory for union members and supporters, shareholder resolutions on pension and globalization concerns won a significant number of votes at both meetings, even though none gained enough to be adopted.
Alliance@IBM/CWA members traveled to Cleveland from IBM work sites in New York and New England for the April 25 meeting and were joined by a contingent of Jobs with Justice members for a news conference before the meeting and a rally after the event. At the news conference, Alliance members stressed the need for a workplace organization that can bargain over salary, benefits and working conditions.
“It’s important to recognize that more than half of IBM’s workforce still doesn’t have a choice on the pension plan, or on any other issues that are important to us. IBM’s chief executive officer Lou Gerstner has an employment contract with the board of directors. We deserve one too,” said Linda Guyer, project manager at IBM’s Endicott, N.Y., facility.
Garrett Lanzy, an IBM software engineer also from Endicott, told reporters that IBM employees who joined the Alliance@IBM/CWA “are not anti-IBM. We consider ourselves to be equal stakeholders in our company.”
IBM Corp.’s broken promises were Topic A at the meeting, where shareholders considered a resolution to restore to employees the pension and retiree medical benefits choices they had before IBM threw out their pension plan last summer and substituted an inferior cash balance plan. Last fall’s nationwide mobilization by members of Alliance@IBM/CWA forced IBM to restore some of the lost pension benefits, but the company has kept its drastic cuts in retiree medical coverage in place.
The resolution garnered 300 million shares, or 28.2 percent of voting shares, the highest percentage ever recorded for a first-time shareholder proposition and sufficient votes to automatically be considered at next year’s meeting. It had support from major investors and advisory firms, including Institutional Shareholder Services, the New York State Common Retirement System, the California Public Employee Retirement System, the former chairman of Vanguard Corp. and others.
At the post-meeting rally, some 150 people heard from Cleveland AFL-CIO Executive Secretary John Ryan, Reps. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and other speakers.
In Richmond, Va., more than 100 union members and retirees held a rally and news conference the day before the April 26 meeting, urging shareholders to look at whether GE’s strategy for growth is “globalization gone wrong.”
CWAers turned out in force, including members of Locals 2201, 2252 and 2260 and 2252’s Jim Leaman, who serves as secretary-treasurer of the Virginia AFL-CIO, and leafleted shareholders as they headed into the meeting.
Of the three shareholder resolutions backed by members of the 14-union Coordinated Bargaining Committee, which bargains for GE employees, two won a substantial percentage of the vote. Resolution No. 9, requiring shareholder approval of future pension increases for board of directors members, won more than 32 percent of voted shares, and Resolution No. 3, requiring GE to evaluate the impact of its globalization strategy, drew more than 28 percent. Gaining 7.8 percent of voted shares was a resolution directing GE to adopt and enforce a workplace code of conduct, but all received enough votes to ensure they will be automatically placed on the agenda for the shareholder meeting next year.
The CBC, which includes CWA, will begin bargaining for a new contract covering some 40,000 GE workers next month.
President Edward Fire, who heads the CBC, said “workers and retirees who have made GE one of the world’s most successful corporations deserve retirement security.” Some GE retirees still earn poverty-level pensions, despite the fact that the pension plan accounted for $1 billion of GE’s $10.7 billion in profits last year and despite the increase in pensions GE adopted in mid-April.