Here is an email received from Jimmy Leas which may interest you. The referenced article was in The Wall Street Journal of 21st February. It is available on their site by subscription, but because of copyright restrictions it cannot be published here.
Subject: Today's Wall Street Journal article: victory at GE. Is IBM next?
Folks,
Today's Wall Street Journal article below by Kathryn Kranhold and Ellen Schultz describes an important victory for employees, retirees, and stockholders at GE.
GE executives will no longer get compensation based on the pension fund accounting rule boost to company profit. Executives at GE agreed to accept a stockholder resolution submitted by the CWA.
A similar resolution is up for a vote at IBM.
This development at GE further legitimizes the position of those at IBM who have campaigned on this issue since 1999. As the Wall Street Journal article below points out, "Some shareholders have worried that linking executive pay and pension income creates an incentive for companies to cut pension benefits and withhold cost-of-living increases." By cutting the link between vapor income from the pension plan and executive pay GE eliminated this horrendous incentive to impoverish workers when they are old and most in need.
IBM retiree Don Parry submitted a proposal that will be voted on at the IBM shareholder meeting in Kansas City in April that makes the same request at IBM. The proposal is also supported by the CWA. Employees, retirees, and stockholders are hoping IBM will now make the same decision as GE. However, they are preparing to attend stockholder meeting where they will vigorously debate the issue.
IBM employees and retirees need to consider ways to immediately encourage IBM to make the same decision GE made. Let's quickly share ideas on what to do next in view of this important development.
Also up for a vote at the IBM stockholder meeting is a second resolution designed to end ill effects of the incentive to slash pensions. IBM implemented a case balance plan conversion in 1999 that sparked a revolt among IBM employees. Although IBM revised the plan to allow 35,000 employees over 40 the right to chose the old plan, tens of thousands of younger workers continued to lose at least half of their pensions so executives could receive higher pay. All employees who were younger than 50 also had their retirement medical revoked.
Jimmy
--------- referenced article ----------
Leading the News: GE to Disregard Pension Income for Top Salaries --- Holder Proposal by CWA Prompts Decision Faced By Other Large Companies
By Kathryn Kranhold and Ellen Schultz
687 words
21 February 2003
The Wall Street Journal (Copyright (c) 2003, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)