For Immediate Release
Thursday, May 29, 2003
AFSCME Calls on Ingersoll-Rand Board to Return to the U.S.
Company Urged to Follow the Leads of Tyco and McDermott International and Consider Coming Home to America
WASHINGTON —Today at the Ingersoll-Rand Annual Meeting the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' (AFSCME) Pension Plan called on the Board of Directors to restore investor confidence and come home to America.
The AFSCME Employee Pension Plan and the Connecticut Retirement and Trust Funds co-sponsored a shareholder proposal calling on the company to take the necessary steps to return the company from Bermuda to U.S. soil.
"Ingersoll-Rand has hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. defense and homeland security contracts and a mailing address in Bermuda," said Gerald W. McEntee chairman of the Pension Plan and president of AFSCME. "That's bad business for America and for shareholders who lose significant accountability when American companies flee from the United States to Bermuda and other off-shore tax shelters."
"Ingersoll-Rand must stand up for America, come back home to the United States, restore shareholder confidence, and pay taxes like the rest of us. The proposal before the Ingersoll-Rand board is a continuation of our efforts — and is a signal to all companies that shareholders' voices will be heard this proxy season," McEntee added.
Public employee pension trusts held for the benefit of AFSCME members own approximately 2,000 shares of Ingersoll-Rand common stock. AFSCME Pension Plan representatives presented the proposal at the annual meeting on Thursday, May 29, at Ingersoll-Rand company offices in Davidsonville, NC.
In response to corporate flight, the AFSCME Plan joined a cross-section of U.S. institutional investors, state treasurers, and other labor unions in calling on expatriate companies to reincorporate back to the U.S. Stanley Tool Works backed away from plans to relocate off shore last year. Meanwhile, McDermott International (NYSE: MDR) and Tyco International (NYSE:TYC) have both agreed to review a return to the U.S.
AFSCME is the nation's largest public service and health care workers union with 1.4 million members.
