Trillium’s 2013 Corporate Engagement Highlights
Over the course of the 2013 proxy season that just ended, Trillium directly engaged over two dozen major U.S. corporations with shareholder proposals and hundreds more via sign-on letters and other forms of outreach. Our shareholder proposal engagements addressed a wide range of concerns including climate change, human rights, discrimination in the workplace, a free and open Internet, privacy and data security, financial institution responsibility, political and lobbying spending, and board diversity. While we cannot cover all of our work here, following are key highlights. Climate Change Fugitive methane emissions from natural gas production have a 72X greater impact on …
Citizens United Explained
Jonas Kron “The Court’s blinkered and aphoristic approach to the First Amendment may well promote corporate power at the cost of the individual and collective self-expression the Amendment was meant to serve.” ~Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the minority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission1 In January, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that the First Amendment protects the use of corporate funds to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for public office. The 5–4 majority reasoned that because corporations are simply groups of individuals with First Amendment rights, those …
2009 Shareholder Advocacy At-A-Glance
Since Investing For A Better World is a quarterly publication, we lack the space to write about all of our advocacy initiatives in depth. But at the end of each proxy season, we attempt to give them all their due at least graphically! Elsewhere on this site, you’ll find the text of every shareholder resolution that we sponsor (and co-sponsor, in which we take a lesser role). Lead Files AT&T Omitted Internet privacy & freedom of expression CenturyTel 30.5% Internet privacy & freedom of expression Chevron 7% Strengthen global environmental standards ConocoPhillips 30.5% Report on impact of tar sands Dominion …
United Health Group – Say on Pay (2009)
RESOLVED Shareholders of UnitedHealth Group request the board of directors to adopt a policy that provides shareholders the opportunity at each annual shareholder meeting to vote on an advisory resolution, proposed by management, to ratify the compensation of the named executive officers (“NEOs”) set forth in the proxy statement’s Summary Compensation Table (the “SCT”) and the accompanying narrative disclosure of material factors provided to understand the SCT (but not the Compensation Discussion and Analysis). The proposal submitted to shareholders should make clear that the vote is non-binding and would not affect any compensation paid or awarded to any NEO. …
‘Say on Pay’ Gathers Steam Heading Into 2009
Are we the only ones wondering why the daily sight of Wall Street and Detroit execs begging for bailouts while making off with millions hasn’t incited rioting in the streets? Consider just one case. Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O’Neal walked away with $161 million dollar exit package shortly before the company’s high stake bets in the mortgage market unraveled, revealing losses that exceeded all the profits the firm had earned over the past 20 years. Investors tallied their losses, taxpayers subsidized the takeover of Merrill, and thousands of employees joined the ranks of the unemployed. How did we arrive …
UnitedHealth Group – Say on Pay (2009)
RESOLVED The shareholders of UnitedHealth Group request the board of directors to adopt a policy that provides shareholders the opportunity at each annual shareholder meeting to vote on an advisory resolution, proposed by management, to ratify the compensation of the named executive officers (“NEOs”) set forth in the proxy statement’s Summary Compensation Table (the “SCT”) and the accompanying narrative disclosure of material factors provided to understand the SCT (but not the Compensation Discussion and Analysis). The proposal submitted to shareholders should make clear that the vote is non-binding and would not affect any compensation paid or awarded to any …
SEC Proposals Threaten Shareholders Rights To File Resolutions
2007 By Shelley Alpern The cicada is a locust-like insect that emerges from a long hibernation every umpteen years to create an incessant buzzing on some areas of the East Coast. Equally annoying in death as in life, when spent, cicadas drop from trees en masse, littering once-pleasant lawns and parks with piles of crunchy carcasses.Ten years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) floated proposals for public comment that, if implemented, would have drastically curtailed shareholder rights. Like a cicada, the critics of the shareholder resolution process have resurfaced with different but equally dismaying ideas. In 1997, the story …
SEC Proposals Threaten Shareholder Advocates' Rights to File Resolutions
The cicada is a locust-like insect that emerges from a long hibernation every umpteen years to create an incessant buzzing across the country. Equally annoying in death as in life, when spent, cicadas drop from trees en masse, littering once-pleasant lawns and parks with piles of crunchy carcasses. On this tenth anniversary of the last Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last attempt to cripple shareholder advocacy, the commission has again floated potentially drastic changes to the shareholder resolution process that make our advocacy many times more difficult. In 1997, the story had a happy ending. After a barrage of support …
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