Issue No 45 | 10 March 2000 | |
NewsShareholders Push Global Action
The Rio Tinto Shareholder Coalition, backed by worker-owners and trade unions in Australia, Europe and the United States, this week launched an unprecedented global shareholder proxy contest.
This is the first ever joint shareholder initiative sponsored by unions in several countries, and, in recognition of the growing globalisation of the capital markets, represents the broadest international proxy contest to date by any shareholder proponent. The shareholder coalition have submitted two resolutions for consideration by the shareholders at both London-based Rio Tinto Plc and Melbourne-based Rio Tinto Ltd. for consideration at the company's two Annual General Meetings in the United Kingdom and Australia in May. The resolutions demand that the Rio Tinto board of directors becomes more accountable to its shareholders through the appointment of an independent, non-executive Deputy Chairman after May 2000, and that the company implements a workplace code of labor practice at its operations worldwide. The coalition is asking institutional investors to support these two resolutions in order to make Rio Tinto more accountable to its shareholders and increase shareholder value. The coalition have also launched a special web site dedicated to the proxy contest, with the complete text of the resolutions and supporting statements, which can be found at http://www.rio-tinto-shareholders.com The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) - the principal union representing Rio Tinto's unionised workforce in Australia- has joined with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Great Britain, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in a world wide public launch of the shareholder initiative today in Sydney, Brussels, London and Washington, D.C. Combined, these organisations represent 41 million workers. The proponents represent workers who are both direct Rio Tinto shareholders and who are beneficiaries of pension funds that are company shareholders. The coalition estimates that pension funds with worker beneficiaries account for approximately 19 per cent of Rio Tinto's shares-worth approximately US$3.2 billion-mainly held through nominee accounts. Speaking at the Australian launch in Sydney, ACTU secretary Greg Combet said that the shareholder action was the first of its kind for trade unions in Australia, and the first ever joint shareholder action by worker-owners from a number of countries at a multinational company. "Worker-owners and other shareholders need to join together in common cause to ensure that corporate management is accountable and that the long-term interests of shareholders and workers are protected," Combet said.
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Interview: Working Women Nareen Young talks about how services are being delivered to our most vulnerable workers - and what unions need to do to make them their own. Unions: Into the New Frontier IT professionals are part of the new workforce that unions need to win over - and while they are often contractors, they're workers too. History: Handling The Ladies 1943 - women were filling the gap in the workforce left by the diggers abroad and Australian managers needed some advice on how to deal with these strange creatures. Technology: Building The Hypermacho Man In a stinging critque of the �Wired� culture, Melanie Stewart Miller argues digital cultural is creating a new super-Man. International: The Long March Home Trade union women round the world used International Women�s Day to launch the World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence. Satire: Kerosene Dilution Racket The nursing home industry has been rocked by a new scandal with the revelation that some unscrupulous proprietors have been diluting their patients� kerosene baths with illicit liquids. Review: Power and the Back Bar In an upcoming book, Julia Gillard argues the ALP retains a male culture that is fast losing step with contemporary society.
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