Taking initiative.If you own stock, you have an important vote. That's the message the Equality Project, a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City-based group, is trying to get out in its effort to secure protections for gay and lesbian employees at many of the nation's top companies. The group, which includes investors, lawyers, and financial professionals, lobbies companies through letters and at shareholder meetings, but its most important tool is the shareholder resolution. Anyone who has owned $2,000 or more worth of company stock for at least a year qualifies to put a resolution up for vote at an annual shareholder meeting, says Diane Bratcher, president of the Equality Project. With that in mind, her group organizes large shareholders of public companies to sponsor resolutions asking management to include sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. in corporate nondiscrimination policies. Most recently, the Equality Project convinced the boards of directors at American International Group
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) (NYSE: AIG; TYO: 8685 ) is a major American insurance corporation based in New York City. Inc. and Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box Inc. to do just that. It's currently involved in a pitched battle pitched battle n. 1. An intense battle fought in close contact by troops arranged in a predetermined formation. 2. A fiercely waged battle or struggle between opposing forces. with ExxonMobil. At a May 30 meeting, 13% of the voting shares Voting Shares Shares that give the stockholder the right to vote on matters of corporate policy making as well as who will compose the members of the board of directors. Notes: Different classes of shares, such as preferred stock, sometimes don't allow for voting rights. supported the institution of a nondiscrimination policy--a sizable enough group that the issue qualifies for another vote next year. "The point is that shareholders are speaking up," said Shelley Alpern, assistant vice president of investment company Trillium Asset Management, one of the ExxonMobil resolution's shareholder sponsors. But shareholder resolutions can be a double-edged sword. In May a small group of conservative shareholders at AT&T sponsored a resolution to try to eliminate the existing protections for gay and lesbian employees under the company's nondiscrimination policy. Though the board of directors recommended a vote against the resolution, it won 6.9% of the voting shares, which means the shareholders can resubmit Verb 1. resubmit - submit (information) again to a program or automatic system feed back return, render - give back; "render money" the proposal next year. "Our adversaries can mobilize as well as we can, and we need to be on top of that," Alpern said. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion