(Dow Jones Newswires circulated the following story by Phyllis Plitch on April 16.)
NEW YORK — In a new campaign, the AFL-CIO is targeting directors who sit on compensation committees, holding them responsible for approving pay packages it considers egregious.
Opening up a new front in its annual executive pay campaign, the labor federation is going beyond naming names on its www.paywatch.org Web site – the union group also is launching a “vote no” campaign against the pay panel members.
The AFL-CIO’s effort comes as activist investors are increasingly turning to withholding votes from directors to drive home concerns over corporate governance. On Thursday, the $165 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System posted on its Web site plans to withhold votes from directors at Lockheed Martin Corp. and Apple Computer Inc., citing a variety of corporate governance issues.
The companies on the union group’s watch list include: Citigroup Inc., Safeway Inc., Comcast Corp., AMR Corp. (parent of American Airlines), Cendant Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Apple Computer Inc., ClearChannel Communications Inc., Dominion Resources Inc. and United Rentals Inc.
Directors targeted by the AFL-CIO include top executives, including Time Warner Inc. chief executive Richard D. Parsons, who is chairman of Citigroup’s compensation committee, and Carol Bartz, Autodesk Inc.’s CEO, who serves as chairwoman of the compensation panel at Cisco.
Among other directors, the AFL-CIO is holding Myra J. Biblowit responsible for Cendant Chairman and Chief Executive Henry R. Silverman’s 2003 pay package valued at $22 million; Parsons for Citigroup Chairman and former Chief Executive Sanford Weill’s $44 million package; and William Campbell for the roughly $75 million pay package awarded to Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs.