The Association of BellTel Retirees has a long and impressive history of advancing shareholder advocacy issues at Verizon.
Why? Because over the decades our members believed so strongly in their employer that they invested regularly in buying company stock with each paycheck and holding onto that as a long-term investment.
So, we certainly got their attention when the Association engaged the Board and management from the position of long-time investors.
In 2024, the Association has submitted two proxy proposals for a vote at the annual shareholder meeting.
Lead Cables Proxy:
The first proposal is a brand-new measure regarding lead cables abandoned by Verizon and reported on extensively in a 2023 Wall Street Journal investigative series.
This proposal requests that Verizon conduct a comprehensive independent study, to be released publicly by December of 2024, that assesses all potential sources of liability related to abandoned lead-sheathed cables.
This would include a comprehensive mapping of the locations impacted and conclusions on the potential cost of remediation, along with the most responsible and cost-effective way to prioritize a solution to remedying sites that pose a risk to public health.
After finding potentially dangerous levels of lead in samples at 100 locations, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with the U.S. Justice Department, has recently called upon the heads of all telecom companies, including Verizon and AT&T, to meet with them and discuss the issue of these abandoned lead sheathed cables that pose a danger to communities.
Currently, Verizon has told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to omit our proposal from the ballot in 2024 and asked the SEC to advise that it may do so. Companies may exclude proxy proposals for many reasons, but our BellTel proxy legal team is on the case and is fighting to keep this important measure on the ballot for shareholder consideration.
Executive Clawback Proxy:
For its second measure in 2024, the Association is resubmitting our Executive Clawback Proxy proposal. This proxy requests that if a senior executive engages in conduct that harm the company, those executives need to return any monetary and stock awards received.
The Association believes Verizon’s current policy is outdated and would not allow for an effective clawback procedure.
An example of executive clawback is when McDonald’s clawed back $105 million from its ex-CEO after he failed to disclose intimate relationships with several employees. After more facts were revealed, McDonald’s sought and clawed back more money for what he would have normally been paid had he been fired “for cause.”
In 2023, this proposal received 37.9% of the vote. With the help of our fellow shareholders we can win a majority this time.
No other shareholder activist organization has achieved the continuing success of the Association of BellTel Retirees.
Over our many years of shareholder activism, your Association has won an astounding 12 proxy proposals either by a majority vote or by reaching a consensus with the company and negotiating policy changes similar to what we proposed.
If you are a Verizon savings plan participant, you are able to vote online at www.envisionreports.com/vz, by telephone or by mailing a proxy card. If you hold your shares through a bank, broker or other institution, you will receive a voting instruction form that explains the various ways you can vote.
When the Verizon proxy statements arrive by mail in either late March or early April, or if you receive it digitally, the Association of Bell Retirees urges you to vote in favor of both the Lead Cables and Executive Clawback proposals.
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