The Association has a twelve-year history of actively attacking senior management compensation excesses and poor corporate governance.  A healthy Verizon is extremely important to our Association, employees, retirees, customers and investors.  We feel that correction of such practices will benefit all stakeholders.  We have a record of success in the proxy proposal arena that is unmatched by anyone in the world. The Association has won ten proposals, two by a majority vote and eight that the company agreed to without a majority mandate.  This demonstrates that Verizon understands that shareholders care about such matters.  Further, this record shows that by combining the voting power of our membership with other shareholders who we influence through our out-reach process can make improvements that will better serve the corporation and all of its stakeholders.

In 2007, the Association of BellTel Retirees’ proposal to require the company to provide shareholders the ability to vote on executive pay, commonly called “Say on Pay,” won a majority vote.  In January of 2008, the Verizon board agreed to implement that vote effective for the 2009 annual meeting.  This was a remarkable win, the first for a major American company in history, and this year Verizon shareholders will have the ability to let Verizon know what they think of the executive compensation plan.

Results of the 2010 Proxy Campaign: 
In its latest proxy proposal to Verizon shareowners at the May 6, 2010, annual meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Association urged stockholders to vote to limit the awarding of Senior Executive Performance Stock Units and to vote against the company's “Say on Pay” proposal.

Many times in the past, the Association has forced changes in company compensation and management policies through the proxy. This year it sought an affirmative vote for a proxy proposal on Performance Stock Unit Performance Thresholds (PSU) and received a strong 30 percent of the shareowner votes.

The Association was also advocating shareowners use their “say on pay” power to vote against approving the board’s recommended executive compensation package and clarify that key elements of Verizon’s executive compensation are not aligned with shareholder interests.  Just 16 percent of the shareowners voted against the compensation package.

The annual shareowner meeting gives the Association leaders a great chance to communicate one-on-one with top management, the Verizon board and shareowners.  Thank you to all who voted your proxy with the Association's recommendations.

Association of BellTel Retirees Proxy Proposal History

The Association and its board members have a long and successful history of promoting changes in Verizon, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX corporate governance.  The record that the Association has achieved is unmatched by anyone that we know of in the history of corporate activism.  It started in the fall of 1997 when the Association and a director filed two proposals, “Board Composition” and “Executive Severance Agreements.”  Click HERE to read the history of our proxy efforts.