Stephen Withers
Friday, 09 January 2009 08:20
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 4
The first shareholder proposal comes from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund and calls for a twice-yearly report from the company on its direct and indirect political contributions and expenditures.
The Teamsters is the largest trade union in America. It traditionally represents transportation and warehouse workers, but its 1.4 million members are now drawn from a wide range of professional and non-professional occupations.
The Teamsters General Fund holds 2659 Apple shares, currently worth almost a quarter of a million dollars.
The Apple board argues that the preparation of such reports would be "unnecessary and unproductive" and that it could be detrimental to the company's interest as it could reveal to competitors exactly what membership rates Apple has managed to negotiate with various trade associations.
THe second shareholder proposal also comes from the union sector.
The AFL-CIO Reserve Fund, owner of 500 Apple shares, wants the board "to adopt principles for health care reform based upon principles reported by the Institute of Medicine".
The board's position is that health care reform is a matter for Congress and the President, and that "this proposal will not provide better health care solutions for the Company or its employees and will not benefit the Company or its shareholders".
Please
read on for the last two proposals and the board's response to them.
