GE Also Feels Heat from CWA as Activists
Press Resolutions at Shareholder Meeting

May, 2000
CWA Release

Last month, as Alliance@IBM activists engineered a large amount of IBM stockholder support for a shareholder proposal to restore pension choice for IBM employees, other activists with CWA were exerting similar pressure on General Electric.

At the General Electric stockholders' meeting, CWA activists and a coalition of unions and pro-worker groups generated support for a shareholder resolution regarding the excessive level of retirement benefits of top GE execs vs. the meager pensions of thousands of GE retirees.

The proposal failed, but it gained support from more than 33 percent of shareholders which heartened those who are pushing for pension fairness at the corporation. "We're getting there. It shows that we're getting support from institutional investors," said Carrie Biggs-Adams, who is an editor at NBC, a GE subsidiary.

What GE pensioners and union activists are after is increased levels of pension benefits for retirees, a number of whom who are at poverty level benefits in spite of years of working for the company. One such pension is Helen Quirini, who worked 39 years at GE but today exists on a pension benefit of $626 a month. Pension increases approved for normal retirees is well below the cost of living. The company provides no COLAs or cost-of-living adjustments to most retirees.

GE's pension fund has assets in excess of $50 billion and a surplus of $24 billion. GE CEO Jack Welsh will get a pension valued at more than $8.4 million a year. Members of GE's board of directors receive a pension benefit of $6,250 a month.

However, most retiree pensions at GE are between $700 and $1,000 a month. Many retirees drove hours to be heard at the meeting. "We drove nine and a half hours to be here," said 64-year old GE retiree John Lockett.

Much of the support that CWA and Alliance@IBM/CWA activists generated behind pro-worker shareholder proposals at both GE and IBM resulted from the union nurturing relationships with large institutional investors.

Institutional Shareholder Services, which recommended support for the Alliance and CWA-backed resolutions at both IBM and GE, often influences as much as 30 percent of the company's stock in shareholder votes.

The Alliance@IBM/CWA-backed resolution was also supported by the New York State Pension Fund which accounts for 5.4 million shares and by the California Public Employees Retirement System, which accounts for 9.1 million shares of IBM.