The latest GreenBiz.com column by NI’s Michael Kramer zeros in on a troubling push by the US Chamber of Commerce and other business interests that is encouraging the SEC to limit shareholder resolutions. Among other things, they want to raise the vote threshold necessary to allow resubmission of failed shareholder resolutions; as regular readers will know, the vast majority of resolutions fail to win a majority, but repeated calls from shareholders often lead management to address the issue in question on its own, or in consultation with advocates of the issue.
Read the whole article at GreenBiz; here’s a taste:
Shareholder advocacy is simply not a burden on companies with the intent to foster a sense of social and environmental responsibility. Shareholders who propose changes along these lines have the best financial interests of the companies they own at heart. Corporations are chartered as a public trust. Violate this trust, and the company itself becomes the burden on society, and the harm must be stopped.