Unions seek more corporate influence
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.
See "Unions seek more corporate influence", DIANE E. LEWIS, The Boston Globe, February 11, 2003