REUTERS: Early Wins for Conservative Shareholders (Including NLPC)

Writing for Reuters’s weekly Sustainable Finance newsletter, reporter Ross Kerber noted some early wins for conservative shareholders who are pursuing accountability from Apple about its operations in China. From the article:

The…resolution was brought by the National Legal and Policy Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit…. Paul Chesser, who directs the Center’s “Corporate Integrity Project,” said he doesn’t expect any the 28 or so resolutions it will file this year to win majority support.

 

But they will help push companies to avoid divisive issues, he said. He noted how big fund firms like BlackRock and Vanguard have already reduced their support for some ESG matters and cited cases like the blowback facing brewer Anheuser-Busch Inbev over a promotion with a transgender influencer.

 

“Companies respond to the squeaky wheel, so now we’re providing a way for companies to go back to doing what they should be doing,” Chesser said.

As we explained last week, Apple attempted to prevent NLPC’s proposal from a shareholder vote at its annual meeting, which is expected to be scheduled in early-to-mid March. The Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that the company’s intentions ran afoul of the rules for shareholder proposals.

Read the full Reuters article here.