{"id":2286,"date":"2007-09-26T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-26T15:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/shareholders-of-the-world-unite\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:33","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:33","slug":"shareholders-of-the-world-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/shareholders-of-the-world-unite\/","title":{"rendered":"Shareholders of the world, unite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Got shares? Most of us do. If you don\u2019t have a 401(k), you might have an IRA. You might be lucky enough to work for a company that chips in for your nest egg. So if half of us or more own huge, publicly-traded companies, how do we keep getting ripped off by Enron, Worldcom, Exxon-Mobil and Home Depot? Shareholders \u2013 that\u2019s probably you if you\u2019re reading this \u2013 are the big losers when execs walk away with $400-million golden parachutes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t the owners of a company get some kind of say in who runs the company, who is on the board of directors and on major decisions that dramatically affect shareholder value? Of course they do, and it happens all the time in smaller companies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But our publicly traded companies are so huge that it\u2019s hard for any shareholder \u2013 or even group of shareholders \u2013 to watchdog management and directors. Even if you own $1 million worth of Home Depot shares, you really aren\u2019t a very big fish. And how the heck would you ever get others to support your ideas for better returns anyhow?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fortunately, there\u2019s a well-established and growing movement led by big-fish shareholders to regain control of the companies we own. There are high net-worth individuals who support it. Large groups of investors support it. Heck, even some smart companies are beginning to embrace it. Most of all, this policy, called corporate governance<\/a>, is starting to yield better shareholder returns.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the big surprise: Unions support it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why? Because when shareholders get the chance to vote on whether Home Depot should give a CEO a $210-million golden parachute, they\u2019re likely to ask, \u201cWhy should I spend my money like this?\u201d In the case of Home Depot, CEO Bob Nardelli, in six years, presided over a loss of 6 percent of shareholder value while rival Lowe\u2019s shares exploded by 40 percent. Why would shareholders fork over a $210 million reward to a guy who got clobbered by the competition?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

America<\/st1:country-region>\u2019s workers, America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s owners<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The most significant shareholder in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is not Warren Buffett or his investing machine Berkshire Hathaway. It\u2019s not Bill Gates. It\u2019s not even that uber-rich Mexican telecom guy named Slim. (Seriously \u2013 a guy named Slim is, depending on the day, richer than Gates.) Hedge funds? Fidelity? Nope. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Public employees are the biggest group of shareholders in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Most state, county, city and school employees in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> don\u2019t make big money, but most of them get a decent retirement. I\u2019ll cover the differences between private and public sector retirement in a different column, but suffice it to say, it\u2019s actually a cost-effective way for taxpayers to recruit and retain talented employees.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fight for your right\u2026 to profit<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Nothing happens on its own, though. Investments don\u2019t magically increase in value. Someone has to choose the investments, and then, for them to really grow, the owners have to watchdog those investments.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As a union representing nearly 1.5 million public employees, it\u2019s probably fair to say that there\u2019s no higher priority for AFSCME<\/a> than to ensure the viability of public employees\u2019 pensions. That means getting good returns and fending off rip-offs like Bob Nardelli\u2019s retirement package.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So when the corporate governance movement came into its own this decade, it\u2019s hardly surprising that AFSCME set aside its normal political leanings to form alliances with wealthy investors and institutions, many of whom are normally ideologically opposed to unions.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

AFSCME has one goal, and one goal only when it comes to investing: Increase shareholder returns while minimizing risk. When corporations rip off shareholders, public employees and taxpayers are the biggest losers. AFSCME fights against that corporate fraud. To those familiar with investing, that means supporting corporate governance.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Yellow journalism<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Albuquerque Journal\u2019s<\/a> editorial board seems quite literally to have never heard of corporate governance. For such a far-right, corporate-oriented paper, one would think they\u2019d at least be familiar with the concept. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Instead, columnist David Roybal<\/a> was confused about the basics of corporate governance; news writer Andrew Webb<\/a> got it right but gave it little ink; and, capping off a two-week assault on AFSCME, the Journal editorial page<\/a> embarrassed itself by effectively calling corporate governance social liberalism.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They listened to one person, former Sen. Fabian Chavez, who also called corporate governance \u201csocial liberalism.\u201d When staunch Roswell Republican Sen. Rod Adair supports the idea, as he did in this year\u2019s session in committee, only someone with limited understanding of corporate governance would call it a \u201cliberal\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Had the Journal or Chavez done any research, they\u2019d know that of the thousands of corporate governance proposals supported by AFSCME in shareholder meetings and in entities like PERA over the last decade, not a single one had some strange \u201csocial liberal\u201d policy attached to it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

By the way, T.H. Lang, the PERA elections ended on Sept. 21, not Sept. 28 as your editorial said. So the third of your ill-informed pieces \u2013 which ran Sept. 23 \u2013 didn\u2019t have any impact. Nice research.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Newsflash, T.H.: sometimes even people you don\u2019t like have good ideas. We all get that you don\u2019t like unions. Fine. But AFSCME and wealthy Republicans (and Dems and Greens for that matter) look beyond labels and party on this issue to unite with other shareholders, generating better returns for employees and taxpayers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At least the Trib<\/a> does research. Anybody else going to miss them? I know shareholders will.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Got shares? Most of us do. If you don\u2019t have a 401(k), you might have an IRA. You might be lucky enough to work for a company that chips in for your nest egg. So if half of us or more own huge, publicly-traded companies, how do we keep getting ripped off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}