Tuesday, May 11, 2004
What I did on my Spring Break...
Boeing's "2004 Annual Meeting of Shareholders" was held in Chicago on May 3 and a dozen or two SPEEA folks (mostly from Wichita) attended. We got there early and started "walking the line" outside the hotel where the meeting was taking place, being described by at least one reporter as the best dressed picketers he'd ever seen.
After about an hour of picketing, most of us paired off -- my "buddy" was NW VP Dave Landress -- and filed into the hotel to attend the meeting. Along the way guys in suits with little, tiny Boeing Security badges in their lapels entertained us with their impersonations of Senor Wences, watching us walk by, then talking to their wrists.
We checked in, got my notebook searched -- Security searched all "packages" at the entrance to the auditorium -- entered, sat down and waited for the meeting to start.
The Board eventually files in, Chairman Lew, CEO Harry and Corporate Secretary James Johnson taking the stage while the rest of the Board sits in the front row, their backs to the audience.
The meeting starts off with introductions of the Board and the other Execs present, each rising and facing the crowd, in spotlight. Mr. Platt then calls retiring Board member and MIT Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Gray to rise, giving a short speech praising him for his service. Then we're right to the business of the day.
The first proposal has to do with electing four directors and SPEEA Staff Genius Stan Sorscher rises and chastises the Board for obstructing the inclusion of a director that the unions tried to get on the ballot; Stan's point was pretty much that the definition of "Consensual Candidate" was the implication that there was consensus beforehand. Lew dismissed the question, repeating some legal loophole the company used earlier.
The process thereafter was that the author of a proposal was given three minutes to sell the proposal and then other shareholders present were allowed one minute each to speak for or against the motion.
I really didn't pay enough attention to the first four motions to have specific recollection of speeches given by other SPEEA stockholders. I know that it seemed every other shareholder speaking mentioned the Wichita sale or the WTPU negotiations. Unfortunately, I was too busy running my speech over and over in my head, awaiting my turn at the mike, to do justice to anyone save my buddy Dave, who thankfully gave me a copy of his comments supporting the "Ethics" provisions of Shareholder Proposal #4, so I could repeat them with some authority. Suffice it to say, it was one of the highlights of the meeting, as he proceeded to challenge " that Mr. Stonecipher personally verify that his comments at the quarterly earnings teleconference are indeed accurate and that the current WTPU offer is not less than what Boeing would have provided if the group had decertified."
Then it was time to discuss Shareholder Proposal #5 on Human Rights, and I snapped to attention, waiting to leap to an open microphone but not before the proposal's author stepped forward. After a couple of heartbeats, the Jesuit priest Stan pointed out to me earlier rises and steps to the microphone. "Oh please, oh please, oh please... don't get anywhere near what I plan on saying," I pray. And he doesn't; he goes all around my topic, building my case for me, after which I get my turn at the microphone.
It got a bit of applause, but the highlight for me was that the "Moses left Egypt" line got a laugh, from the audience and both Lew and Harry...
-- Bill, who really liked the part at the end, too, when Harry told the priest to shut up and sit down...
After about an hour of picketing, most of us paired off -- my "buddy" was NW VP Dave Landress -- and filed into the hotel to attend the meeting. Along the way guys in suits with little, tiny Boeing Security badges in their lapels entertained us with their impersonations of Senor Wences, watching us walk by, then talking to their wrists.
We checked in, got my notebook searched -- Security searched all "packages" at the entrance to the auditorium -- entered, sat down and waited for the meeting to start.
The Board eventually files in, Chairman Lew, CEO Harry and Corporate Secretary James Johnson taking the stage while the rest of the Board sits in the front row, their backs to the audience.
The meeting starts off with introductions of the Board and the other Execs present, each rising and facing the crowd, in spotlight. Mr. Platt then calls retiring Board member and MIT Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Gray to rise, giving a short speech praising him for his service. Then we're right to the business of the day.
The first proposal has to do with electing four directors and SPEEA Staff Genius Stan Sorscher rises and chastises the Board for obstructing the inclusion of a director that the unions tried to get on the ballot; Stan's point was pretty much that the definition of "Consensual Candidate" was the implication that there was consensus beforehand. Lew dismissed the question, repeating some legal loophole the company used earlier.
The process thereafter was that the author of a proposal was given three minutes to sell the proposal and then other shareholders present were allowed one minute each to speak for or against the motion.
I really didn't pay enough attention to the first four motions to have specific recollection of speeches given by other SPEEA stockholders. I know that it seemed every other shareholder speaking mentioned the Wichita sale or the WTPU negotiations. Unfortunately, I was too busy running my speech over and over in my head, awaiting my turn at the mike, to do justice to anyone save my buddy Dave, who thankfully gave me a copy of his comments supporting the "Ethics" provisions of Shareholder Proposal #4, so I could repeat them with some authority. Suffice it to say, it was one of the highlights of the meeting, as he proceeded to challenge " that Mr. Stonecipher personally verify that his comments at the quarterly earnings teleconference are indeed accurate and that the current WTPU offer is not less than what Boeing would have provided if the group had decertified."
Then it was time to discuss Shareholder Proposal #5 on Human Rights, and I snapped to attention, waiting to leap to an open microphone but not before the proposal's author stepped forward. After a couple of heartbeats, the Jesuit priest Stan pointed out to me earlier rises and steps to the microphone. "Oh please, oh please, oh please... don't get anywhere near what I plan on saying," I pray. And he doesn't; he goes all around my topic, building my case for me, after which I get my turn at the microphone.
I'm Bill Hartig, I'm an employee shareholder and I've been one for twenty three years. I rise to speak for the proposal on Human Rights.
In the Directors' recommendation to reject the proposal the Board states you "are committed to... showing respect for employees and their rights of association and assembly wherever we operate in the world.
While I have little doubt that's true of the Board, I can state with authority that the Management of our company doesn't share that commitment. This is evidenced in Wichita, where employees are being punished for no other reason than for exercising their rights and voting for union representation just a few weeks back.
I believe this to be continuing failed Human Resource strategies that, in 2000, resulted in the largest strike by Engineering employees since Moses left Egypt.
To remain a vital, profitable enterprise, we need to partner with our employees and their unions if we hope to achieve the increases in worker productivity and efficiencies we need to stay in business; continuing these confrontational approaches to union relations is doomed to fail, be it in Wichita, Washington state, or the world at large.
To that end, I recommend a YES vote on Shareholder Proposal 5. Thank you.
It got a bit of applause, but the highlight for me was that the "Moses left Egypt" line got a laugh, from the audience and both Lew and Harry...
-- Bill, who really liked the part at the end, too, when Harry told the priest to shut up and sit down...
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