Posts tagged shareholders
Sisters wield power as shareholders to force corporate reforms
July 2, 2025 // The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace this year put forth a proposal to require Ford Motor Co. to stop fighting unionizing efforts at its new battery plants and to work with local residents who would be impacted by the new factories. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accepted Ford's request to remove the proposal, so it never went to a vote. Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary co-filed the request. "But we're still at the table and we're still raising the voices of the local community," Francois said. "We just want the neighbors to be in dialogue with Ford." IASJ, formerly the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investing, was started by congregations of religious in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey in 1975.
Starbucks workers strike in six cities across the US with multiple supporters arrested
March 14, 2025 // In Chicago, 11 employees were arrested after staging a sit-in at one of the city’s first union Starbucks locations. Five people were arrested in Pittsburgh as well. Chicago police told the Seattle Times that strikers were arrested for criminal trespass “on signed complaints from an affected business.”
Opinion: How Biden betrayed union workers by giving them what they wanted
January 7, 2025 // This would hurt the blue-collar American workers whom Biden prioritizes, many of whom wanted the deal to go through. But what’s good for rank-and-file members and what ego-sensitive union leaders want are not always aligned. United Steelworkers leaders were apparently peeved that Nippon had not sought the union’s blessing before making a takeover bid, as other prospective buyers had. (Those other suitors, however, had not offered nearly as generous terms and, in at least one case, blocked U.S. Steel from conducting due diligence on the offer.)
Feeding the Kitty
September 30, 2024 // Unions have pursued shareholder resolutions asking for a “free and fair election process,” meaning card check and neutrality. They have also sought to pass resolutions demanding audits of a company’s labor practices. It’s not hard to see how a future resolution could explicitly try to prohibit companies from using independent contractors.
Has Pushback to Full of ‘S’ Labor Unions Finally Arrived?
June 10, 2024 // Written by I4AW’s Sam Adolphsen and F. Vincent Vernuccio, the study warns that the initial “Environmental” focus of ESG is being supplanted by labor leaders, who are focusing on the leftist acronym’s “social” component in order to intimidate companies and force membership growth: With help from the whole of Biden’s big government, Big Labor is replicating the ESG strategies used by environmentalists and other activists. These groups aim to cajole fossil fuel-producing companies and other businesses they consider socially unacceptable into abandoning profitable business ventures. The tactics of the Big Labor plan call for hijacking the shareholder resolution process through proxy voting and shareholder activism to force pro-union policies. Unlike typical shareholder proposals, those supported by Big Labor do not seek to advance shareholder value. Instead, they seek to increase union membership and strengthen Big Labor’s power.
Unions using ESG to control workers — and drain Americans’ retirement savings
March 21, 2024 // They’re pushing board nominees and shareholder proposals that aim to force more workers into union membership, even when workers don’t want it. The Biden administration has smoothed the path for this underhanded strategy, and not only does it threaten workers, it endangers millions of Americans’ retirement savings. A new Institute for the American Worker report shines a light on labor unions’ reliance on ESG.
Railroad Workers Were Ready to Strike. Now They’re Fighting to Save Their CEO.
March 5, 2024 // abor groups representing Norfolk conductors, locomotive engineers, machinists and other workers have made public comments in support of Chief Executive Alan Shaw as he comes under pressure from activist Ancora Holdings. The groups account for over half of the railroad’s unionized workforce.
On the Matter of Card Check, the Losers Are the Workers
July 31, 2023 // Neutrality agreements and the card check process they enable deprive employees of information necessary for making informed decisions about unionization and worse, it opens the door to intimidation by taking away workers’ right to a secret ballot in union organizing elections. Neutrality agreements often require employers to accept a process called card check, which replaces NLRB-supervised secret ballot elections. Card check is an open petition process which leaves employees vulnerable to organizing campaigns that are rife with coercion and deception. Card check can fail to reflect employees' true wishes, undermining the democratic principles on which fair representation should be built. Examples of problems with card check include employees being told to sign a card simply to say they attended a union meeting or to get a free t-shirt. Worse, the study documented testimony from a February 8, 2007 U.S. House of Representatives Committee hearing which detailed that the United Auto Workers had “union employees from other facilities actually visit … employees at their homes. The union’s organizers refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. ... Some employees have had 5 or more harassing visits from these union organizers.”
Wells Fargo unionization proposal falters
May 5, 2023 // Wells Fargo shareholders voted against the creation of a policy that would have formally outlined framework supportive of worker unionization last week. The measure, which garnered 36% shareholder support, was deemed “unnecessary and not in the best interests of our employees or shareholders” ahead of the bank’s April 25 annual meeting, according to a proxy statement.