Catherwood LibraryILR School

Responding to the recent wave of corporate scandals and the resulting increase in pro-union and anti-CEO sentiment, the American labor movement is launching a major attack on corporate mismanagement . . . using shareholder resolutions. Used only infrequently by unions in the past, shareholder resolutions are proposals made by individuals or organizations holding stock in a corporation---in this case unions holding stock through their pension plans---and voted on by all shareholders. Twenty percent of shareholder resolutions introduced by the labor movement last year achieved change before they were even voted on, and with over $400 billion in the pension funds of AFL-CIO members alone, the labor movement has introduced fifty-five percent more resolutions in the first two months of 2003 than the total number introduced last year.