AFSCME Pension Plan Calls for Corporate Accountability

January 27, 2009

In the wake of our current financial crisis, the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan has announced its 2009 shareholder program with an emphasis on reasonable executive pay and more director accountability. The AFSCME Plan is an institutional shareholder with more than $850 million in assets that works to ensure that the retirement benefits promised to public employees are safe and secure. In 2006, the AFSCME Plan was first to file "Say on Pay" proposals requiring shareholder approval of executive compensation. In a statement released today, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee explained the importance of the 36 shareholder proxy proposals submitted for consideration at annual meetings this spring:

“The failure of boards to properly assess risk, coupled with an emphasis on short term results that produced sky high pay for executives has left us in the worst financial mess since the Great Depression. These proposals will encourage corporate executives to avoid the type of short-term decision-making that has wreaked havoc upon our financial markets.”

Proposals have been filed at: Abercrombie & Fitch; Allstate; American International Group; Ameriprise Financial; Apple; Bank of America; Bank of New York Mellon; Charles Schwab; Citigroup; ConocoPhillipsVS Caremark (CVS); Danaher (DHR); Dow Chemical (DOW); E*TRADE Financial (ETFC); Equifax (EFX); General Dynamics (GD); Honeywell (HON); Huntington Bancshares (HBAN); Ingersoll-Rand (IR); IntercontinentalExchange (ICE); JPMorgan Chase (JPM); Macy’s (M); Moody’s (MCO); Morgan Stanley (MS); Nabors (NBR); Northrop Grumman (NOC); Occidental Petroleum (OXY); Office Depot (ODP); Raytheon (RTN); Safeway (SWY); Tenet Healthcare (THC); Textron (TXT); Valero Energy (VLO); Vulcan Materials (VMC); Wachovia (WB); and Walt Disney Company (DIS). Read the press release for more.