(January 22, 2010) — The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has submitted proxy proposals to foster greater director accountability and more reasonable executive compensation among 33 firms.
“Wall Street executives have destroyed trillions of dollars in
shareholder value while lining their own pockets,” said AFSCME
President Gerald W. McEntee in a news release. “Our proposals are
designed to make directors accountable and better focused on long-term
value creation.”
The AFSCME Employees Pension Plan, an institutional shareholder
with more than $850 million in assets, submitted proposals on a range of issues, including executive compensation,
chairman and chief executive roles, and “golden coffin” awards. The news release stated that the
plan’s proposals urge the interests of management to be more closely
aligned with those of shareowners. While a majority of shareholder
proposals fail, dozens have been successful at major companies in
recent years.
AFSCME’s targets include Aetna Inc, American Express Co, Bank of
America Corp, CVS Caremark Corp, Capital One Financial, Charles Schwab,
Dow Chemical Co, Fifth Third Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Hartford
Financial Services Group, Raytheon Co, Wells Fargo & Co, and XTO
Energy Inc.
To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742