Shareholder Advocacy for the 2020 Proxy Season

Alphabet/Google (GOOGL) – This is one of two resolutions HII has co-filed this proxy season. The lead filer of this resolution is Arjuna Capital. The resolution requests that Alphabet’s Board of Directors nominate, for the next Board election, an individual with Human Rights and/or Civil Rights expertise and is widely recognized as such. Arjuna Capital engaged and negotiated on our behalf as they are the lead filer.

  • The Alphabet annual meeting of shareholders was held June 3, 2020.
  • Our resolution received approximately 9%

Amazon (AMZN) – This is our second consecutive year filing at Amazon regarding the threats of the company’s Facial Recognition Technology, “Rekognition”. Again, we are asking the Board of Directors to commission an independent study of Rekognition and report to shareholders on the extent to which it may endanger, threaten or violate privacy and/or civil rights and unfairly or disproportionately target or surveil particular people and groups. This resolution also addressed the concern surrounding the marketing and sales of Rekognition to authoritarian or repressive governments. Friends Fiduciary in partnership with one of their constituents, the American Friends Service Committee, are co-filers on this resolution. Our friend and colleague, Michael Connor of the media justice organization Open MIC, who also helped in collaboration on this resolution, represented us and read a statement at the Amazon meeting. Click here to read Michael’s statement, in full.

  • The Amazon annual meeting of shareholders was held May 27, 2020.
  • Our resolution received 9% support, but when you exclude CEO Jeff Bezos’ shares, the proposal received 40.2% of independent shareholder support.

Apple (AAPL) – The first resolution we submitted this proxy season was a co-file at Apple with lead filer, SumOfUs – a global nonprofit advocacy organization with a mission of holding corporations accountable on issues like climate change, human and animal rights, labor rights, and more. The proposal requests that Apple’s Board of Directors report annually to shareholders about the company’s policies on freedom of expression and access to information, including whether it has publicly committed to respect freedom of expression as a human right, and provide a description of the actions Apple has taken in the past year in response to government or third-party demands that were reasonably likely to limit free expression or access to information.

  • The Apple annual shareholder meeting was held on February 26, 2020.
  • The resolution received 8% support from shareholders.

Bank of America (BAC) – The release of the “new” Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation by the Business Roundtable in August of 2019, prompted several shareholder resolutions requesting how our companies intend to fulfill the commitments in the document in a legally meaningful way. BAC submitted a No-Action Request with the SEC, challenging our proposal, to which we responded (and prevailed) at the SEC. Click here to read the statement from the shareholder meeting.

We also submitted an exempt proxy solicitation which is viewable on the SEC EDGAR website at:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000121465920003439/hb416201px14a6g.htm

  • The Bank of America annual meeting of shareholders was held April 22, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 3% of shareholders’ support.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) – This is the first time we have introduced a resolution at the Bank of Montreal. Our proposal centers around climate change, requesting that the bank assess the incongruities of the Bank of Montreal’s lending history and financing criteria regarding fossil fuels and public statements regarding sustainability and climate change. Although we had a brief conversation with corporate staff at BMO, we did not come to an agreement on the issues covered by the proposal. Click here to read our statement for the shareholders’ meeting.

  • The Bank of Montreal annual meeting of shareholders was held March 31, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 17% of shareholders’ support.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) (Scotiabank) – This is our fourth consecutive year filing a resolution with BNS and marks our third year in a row having a resolution on the shareholder ballot. The first year we filed a shareholder proposal for inclusion in the 2017 proxy statement, we opted to withdraw our resolution on the conditions of continued dialogue and certain commitments from the bank.

Our focus has been on Human and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, emphasizing other inextricable concerns such as fossil fuel financing and climate change. We had several conversations with Bank of Nova Scotia this proxy season, though we were unable to reach an agreement. Brianna Harrington attended the virtual shareholder meeting. Click here to read Brianna’s full statement from HII at the BNS meeting.

  • The Scotiabank annual meeting of shareholders was held on April 7, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 8.9% of shareholders’ support.

Following four consecutive years of dialogue with BNS, the bank made no changes in their policies, including no changes in their governance documents relative to protecting human and indigenous peoples’ rights or restricting or limiting the expansion of fossil fuel financing. We determined that there was no reason to continue to dialogue with management or hold securities in the bank and totally divested our clients’ assets.

 

 

Citigroup (C) – The release of the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation by the Business Roundtable in August of 2019 prompted several shareholder resolutions requesting how our companies intend to fulfill the commitments in the document, in a legally meaningful way. John Harrington presented the proposal virtually. Click here to read the full statement John made at the Citigroup meeting.

We have also submitted an exempt proxy solicitation for this shareholder proposal, available to view at:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831001/000121465920003392/j414202px14a6g.htm

  • The Citigroup annual meeting of shareholders was held on April 21, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 7% of shareholders’ support.

Coca-Cola (KO) – 2020 marks our second year with our proposal regarding sugar and public health at the Coca-Cola company. In our shareholder resolution, we urge the Board of Directors to issue a report by independent and nationally recognized scientists and scholars, providing critical feedback on Coca-Cola’s sugar products marketed to consumers, especially young consumers and children. The resolution asks this report include an assessment of financial and reputational risks to the company associated with mounting scientific evidence of the role of sugar in disease causation.

Ray Rogers, long-time friend and colleague of HII represented us and read a statement at the shareholder meeting. Click here to read Ray’s full statement at the shareholder meeting.

Our partners at Corporate Accountability have worked closely with us and have coordinated a campaign that targets companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and PepsiCo asking them and other companies who fund the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) to stop funding junk science. Although ILSI regards itself as an “independent body”, it is funded by sponsors such as Nestle, Mars, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. You can visit the Corporate Accountability website to listen and watch the recording of the pre-meeting press conference with a stellar panel of activists and experts, sign the related petition, read their press and review the report they have issued:

https://www.corporateaccountability.org/blog/most-powerful-food-industry-group/

  • The Coca-Cola annual meeting of shareholders was held on May 22, 2020.
  • Our resolution received 7% of shareholders’ support.

Facebook (FB) – To say that 2020 was undoubtedly a big election year, with the issues of disinformation and hateful and inciteful speech center-stage during this global pandemic, would be an understatement. This HII proposal dealt with Facebook’s amended policy to omit paid political advertising and politician’s post from their own content moderation and fact-checking standards on the FB platform. HII’s own Dr. Susan Ozawa Perez presented the resolution at the FB annual meeting of shareholders, delivering an eerily prescient speech highlighting the risks that fraudulent political content on the FB platform pose to the company, democracy and society, at large. Click here to read Susan’s full statement.

  • The Facebook annual meeting of shareholders was held May 27, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 7% support, but 41.8% independent shareholder support when CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shares are excluded.

Goldman Sachs (GS) – The release of the new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation by the Business Roundtable in August of 2019 prompted several shareholder resolutions requesting how our companies intend to fulfill the commitments in the document. Harrington’s Susan Ozawa Perez, presented our resolution, outlining what accountability to stakeholders in all the investment bank’s operations and financial capacities might look like during the global pandemic and economic crisis. Click here to read Susan’s full presentation.

We have also submitted an exempt proxy solicitation for this shareholder proposal, available to view at:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000121465920003441/sg416202px14a6g.htm

  • The Goldman Sachs annual meeting of shareholders was held April 30, 2020.
  • Our proposal received approximately 6% shareholder support.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) – This would have been our fourth proposal for 2020 regarding the Business Roundtable’s new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. After we submitted our proposal to the company, the company responded and challenged our resolution at the SEC, but before our attorney had a chance to submit our rebuttal to their challenge, the SEC went ahead and made a ruling without hearing our response. We were still within the legal time period to respond, so it was very unusual and rather shocking that the SEC would disregard this and deny our opportunity to have our voice heard. The SEC sided with JPM and allowed them to omit our resolution.

  • The JPMorgan Chase annual meeting of shareholders was held May 19, 2020.

 

Kohl’s (KSS) – We returned to KSS again with our animal welfare proposal for the second year, asking that the company implement a company-wide policy pertaining to their vendor code of conduct to protect the welfare of animals throughout the supply chain. Kohl’s has no policy protecting the welfare of animals and insists it follows all applicable laws and regulations regarding animal welfare, however animal protection and welfare laws vary across the globe, many being weak or non-existent, and/or poorly enforced. At the shareholder meeting, Brianna Harrington urged them that taking the initiative to adopt related policies are long overdue. Read her full statement here.

  • The Kohl’s annual meeting of shareholders was held May 13, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 1% support from shareholders.

McDonald’s (MCD) – As another Sugar and Public Health proposal, this was our attempt at addressing these issues in a slightly different way at McDonald’s, rather than a company whose main revenue comes from sugary beverages. Our approach is addressing the partnership between the “Golden Arches” and Coca-Cola, and their continued marketing of sugary beverages (especially targeting low-income communities, minorities and youth), as studies continue to show the consumption of sugar is correlated with heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other dire health consequences. Again, we worked with our compatriots at Corporate Accountability on this and the entire suite of Sugar and Public Health resolutions, and they secured a dynamic speaker, Terrence Wise, a McDonald’s employee, “Fight for $15” activist and Union leader from Kansas City, Missouri. He began his speech at the shareholder meeting, detailing his adversities while being homeless despite being employed at McDonald’s, due to the low wages he was being paid. He was abruptly interrupted by the moderator for diverging from the subject of the resolution. Since McDonald’s clearly was embarrassed by their failure to provide living wages for employees, he was silenced by the company and unable to finish his speech. Click here to read the entire statement made by Terrence Wise.

By introducing this resolution, an array of people and issues were represented, from employees, to union leaders, to communities of color, to the low-income community, children who have been targeted by the marketing of sugar – and beyond – making this a great success for all involved.

  • The McDonald’s annual meeting of shareholders was held May 21, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 4% support from shareholders.

PayPal (PYPL) – We returned to PayPal with our resolution regarding Human Rights, and once again, our wonderful colleague Dr. Dalit Baum at American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) presented the proposal on our behalf. Dr. Baum detailed the inconsistencies in the company’s services, stating “… in the occupied Palestinian territory, PayPal services are already available, through the Israeli settler systems, and not the indigenous Palestinian ones. Israeli settlers live on land confiscated by force from its indigenous Palestinian owners, use stolen natural resources, and travel freely as their Palestinian neighbors are subjected to a brutal foreign military regime, with no civil rights, no equal access to water and roads – and no equal access to PayPal services.” Read Dr. Baum’s full statement here.

  • The PayPal annual meeting of shareholders was held May 21, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 3% support from shareholders.

PepsiCo (PEP) – Modeled after our Coca-Cola resolution, we introduced a very similar resolution at PepsiCo on Sugar and Public Health.

Again, we were fortunate to have the help of our partners at Corporate Accountability on this resolution and in coordinating press and a speaker for the shareholder meeting. Dr. Yolandra Hancock a pediatrician who works with patients who are directly affected and impacted by the marketing tactics PepsiCo undertakes to market their sugary products, especially low-income communities of color.

Click here for the statement made at the meeting by Dr. Yolandra Hancock.

  • The PepsiCo annual meeting of shareholders was held May 6, 2020.
  • Our resolution received 11% of shareholders’ support.

TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) – 2020 was year three of our fight to get the company to make progress on animal welfare, specifically requesting that the Board of Directors commission an independent analysis of any material risks of continuing operations without a company-wide animal welfare policy. Brianna Harrington presented at the shareholder meeting, addressing the company’s shortcomings on animal welfare, conveying how so many vulnerabilities exist in their supply chain where there is little to no oversight on animal welfare, especially overseas where laws are minimal or non-existent, or not enforced.  TJX’s lack of any substantial policy to address the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout their supply chain was also emphasized in the resolution and at the shareholder meeting. To read Brianna’s full statement at TJX, click here.

  • The TJX Companies annual meeting of shareholders was held June 9, 2020.
  • Our proposal received 5% support from shareholders.

Wells Fargo (WFC) – A unique request of WFC was proposed in the form of a shareholder resolution asking that Wells Fargo become a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). The company responded to our request by hiring a legal entity to conduct a brief feasibility study and producing a report on the matter. Naturally, their report concluded that it would not be appropriate for the bank to transition into a Public Benefit Corporation, therefore claiming that the content of the shareholder proposal has been substantially implemented.

  • The Wells Fargo annual meeting of shareholders was held April 28, 2020.