It has been left late, half a day to the deadline, but here is a chance to add your name to a shareholder resolution. (Jimmy - Sorry this wasn't sooner.)
DEADLINE: Monday, November 11, 2002 at 5pm
As of November 7, at noon, 205 IBM shareholders have signed on to
cosponsor the IBM Stockholder Resolution on Pension and Retirement
Medical. 54 more who do not own IBM stock have signed on to endorse
the resolution. I believe we will far surpass last year's number of
cosponsors, 242. Please be sure to sign on before the deadline, this
Monday, November 11 at 5pm. The form for signing on as at the end of
this message.
Folks, 2003 IBM Stockholder Resolution on Pension and Retirement Medical
Please add your name as a cosponsor of the 2003 resolution on Pension
and Retirement Medical. I submited the resolution, below, and it is
up for a vote at the next IBM stockholder meeting. Last year 242
stockholders signed on as official cosponsors, and many more were
endorsers of a similar resolution.
You can use the form at the bottom of this email to sign on as an
official cosponsor (if you own IBM stock) or as an endorser (if you
do not own stock). Simply press "forward", then fill in the form and
email to the IBM Corporate Secretary and to me (just to me if you do
not own IBM stock). Alternatively you can cut and paste the form into
your own email. Thanks very much.
THE DEADLINE FOR OFFICIAL COSPONSORS IS: 5pm November 11, 2002
(that's just 9 days from now, so please do not delay).
Please send to corpsecy@us.ibm.com
Please cc James M. Leas
Thanks very much.
Jimmy
Please read and cosponsor by filling out the form found at the bottom
of this page. Please circulate to friends and colleages.
submitted by James Marc Leas for the year 2003 annual meeting
Resolved: shareholders request that the Board adopt the following
policy:
Age discrimination in retirement policies will be ended by allowing
all employees, regardless of age, to receive the same long-promised
retirement medical insurance and pension choice as employees who were
within five years of retirement in 1999.
In 1999 IBM announced new cash balance pension and retirement medical
insurance plans. These plans effectively revoked long-promised plans
for many employees.
IBM divided employees into three permanent groups based on their age
on June 30, 1999. Employees older than 50 with 15 years of service
kept the old medical and could choose between the old and new pension
plans. Employees older than 40 with ten years of service could also
choose between pension plans but were forced into the new retirement
medical. Employees younger than 40 and older employees who did not
have at least 10 years of service were forced into both the new
medical and the new cash balance pension. IBM thus broke its highly
touted and unqualified promise not to discriminate based on age.
Cash balance plans remain under review by the IRS, EEOC, and Treasury
and Labor Departments "to decide whether cash balance plans can be
squared with federal age discrimination laws," according to BNA's
March 7, 2001 Employment Discrimination Report. Whatever the
outcomes, IBM's age discrimination will have serious consequences for
effected employees.
IBM openly acknowledged that the average employee would lose 20% of
retirement pay under the cash balance plan. The Wall Street Journal
estimated losses as high as 50%.
IBM also acknowledged to some employees that their new individual
medical insurance accounts would probably run out of money as they
approach old age. Revoking lifetime medical insurance is especially a
problem for lower-paid workers.
IBM management argues that the cash balance plan is better to attract
younger workers. If so, why are younger workers the only age group not
offered a choice of pension plans?
Conversion to cash balance pension plan failed to benefit the company.
IBM declared that the $200 million "saved" would fund stock options
for executives and other targeted employees. However, the "savings"
are only an accounting rule treatment. Money cannot be transferred to
IBM from this fund. Moreover IBM paid nothing for pensions for the
last seven years because the $60 billion pension trust fund had a
surplus and earned more in interest than it paid out to retirees.
For the past five years IBM has reported increasing profit from this
pension fund accounting, helping executives reach profit targets for
executive incentive compensation--even though no pension fund money is
transferred to IBM.
In short, the cash balance plan conversion brought no money into the
company, saved no money, had no apparent advantages for stockholders,
opened the company to investigation and possible suits for age
discrimination, generated negative publicity, and hurt many employees.
Only executives got more--at company expense. Therefore, IBM should
end age discrimination in retirement policies.
YOU CAN CUT AND PASTE THE FORM INTO AN EMAIL, FILL IT IN, AND EMAIL
TO IBM. IT MUST BE RECEIVED BY IBM BEFORE NOVEMBER 11 AT 5PM, SO
EMAIL IS PREFERABLE. YOU CAN ALSO PRESS THE FORWARD KEY, FILL IN THE
FORM, AND SEND. THE EMAIL ADDRESS IS corpsecy@us.ibm.com
PLEASE CC ME AT jolly39@juno.com
ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN PRINT, FILL IN WITH A PEN, AND MAIL.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Office of the Secretary
International Business Machines Corporation
New Orchard Road
Armonk, NY 10504
corpsecy@us.ibm.com
Sir:
Please add my name as a cosponsor of the 2003 IBM Stockholder
Proposal on Pension and Retirement Medical
submitted by James M. Leas.
Full Name___________________________________________________
Home Street Address_______________________________________
Home State and Zip _______________________________________
Home email address_______________________________________
I own at least one share of IBM stock Yes or No? ___________
If yes how many shares _______________
Please provide the following to help IBM identify you as an owner of
shares. (If you do not know this information leave it blank)
If you know the FCTC/Equiserve Account # _____________________
and/or name of broker (including TDSP) ___________________________
I am an IBM employee Yes or No? ___________
I am an IBM retiree Yes or No? ___________
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _