Amazon investors nuke proposed ethics overhaul and say yes to $212m CEO pay
- Reference: 1653585463
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/26/amazon_investors_kill_15_proposals/
- Source link:
While actual voting results haven't been released yet, Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky [1]told Reuters that stock owners voted down [2]fifteen shareholder resolutions addressing topics including workplace safety, labor organizing, sustainability, and pay fairness. Amazon's board recommended voting no on all of the proposals.
Jassy and the board scored additional victories in the form of shareholder approval for board appointments, executive compensation and a 20-for-1 stock split. Jassy's executive compensation package, which is tied to Amazon stock price and mostly delivered as stock awards over a multi-year period, was $212 million in 2021.
[3]
Amazon said in its Proxy Statement ahead of the meeting that its executive compensation has been incredibly effective, despite some shareholders recently saying they believed the pay scale was unfair and disproportionate to the average Amazon salary. Warehouse workers typically make around $15 per hour, for example.
Activist shareholders defeated
Amazon has faced a lot of flack in recent years for how it treats its employees, as well as for its poor environmental record. Stories from Amazon workers are part of the cultural zeitgeist: Drivers relieving themselves in bottles and warehouse workers trapped during a tornado have all made headlines.
Momentum was tending toward Amazon's hourly workers, activist shareholders and organizers recently, with their [4]victory in forming a warehouse union in New York City after officials forced a second vote due to Amazon's interference.
[5]
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It didn't take long for that momentum to fizzle, though, and only a few weeks later a second NYC Amazon warehouse voted [7]not to form a union. The defeat of all activist shareholder proposals is unlikely to help.
The proposals all varied in objective, but most took the same form: Reports. The shareholders presenting them wanted investigations into areas where they think Amazon has been less than honest or forthcoming.
[8]
The shareholder proposals requested reports on:
Whether Amazon's retirement plans invested in sustainable businesses
Whether AWS does due diligence to know if cloud customers are using its services in a way that contributes to human rights violations
Specific uses of Amazon technologies by government agencies that violate privacy and civil rights
How to change the director nomination process to require the inclusion of hourly workers
The sustainability of Amazon's packaging
Worker health and safety disparities between corporate and hourly employees
General warehouse working conditions
Whether Amazon's use of concealment clauses "in the context of harassment, discrimination and unlawful acts" has created risk for shareholders
Whether Amazon's charitable giving lines up with shareholder interests
Alternative forms of tax reporting
Whether freedom of association has been violated
Where Amazon's lobbying dollars go
A diversity and equity audit
Gender/racial pay disparities
Additionally, shareholders proposed adding more candidates than there are board seats to ballots, which was also defeated.
Amazon responded to most of the proposals with a refrain of "we already disclose that," or "we already do that." Of proposals aimed at shedding light on treatment of employees in its facilities, Amazon said that it has significantly reduced accident rates and that it's committed to health and safety in its facilities.
I've got way too much cash, thinks Jeff Bezos. Hmmm, pay more tax? Pay staff more? Nah, let's just go into space [9]ARCHIVE
That claim stands in contrast to data reported by OSHA in 2021, which found that Amazon warehouse workers were injured [10]nearly twice as frequently as those working in similar facilities. To support its claim that worker safety is improving, Amazon shared its lost time incident rate, which is comparably low. Amazon didn't state whether that statistic included office workers, whose injury numbers would significantly drive the average down.
In response to environmental reporting proposals, Amazon claimed it's a leader there, too. [11]In 2021 Amazon reported its carbon emissions had gone up 19 percent, but that its carbon expenditure per dollar of profit was lower, thereby making the company greener despite the fact its total emissions rose. ®
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[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/amazoncom-faces-record-challenges-shareholder-meeting-2022-05-25/
[2] https://www.ezodproxy.com/amazon/2022/proxy/HTML1/default.htm
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yo-4g8ABgLui2TKX@TJXOgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/01/amazon_warehouse_union/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yo-4g8ABgLui2TKX@TJXOgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yo-4g8ABgLui2TKX@TJXOgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/03/amazon_workers_warehouse_union_vote/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yo-4g8ABgLui2TKX@TJXOgAAAI4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/03/bezos_billions_space/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/02/amazon_warehouse_workers/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/amazon_carbon_footprint/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: And next week
Exactly. As an American, i see a lot of lip service paid to "doing the right thing" but that only goes as far as the quarterly reports - from gun violence to middle class wages, America has completely sold its soul to the capitalist corporatist agenda. Only money matters, and that's now spread to EVERY first-world capitalist country (so don't go saying that your X country is "better" simply because you live there / you think it is. The entire world is now morally corrupt about money and your politicians will happily prove that to you in their next vote).
It's good
to be the King...
I never knew what the C
in "C" level executive stood for. I can't believe I was so dumb. It is obviously cunt.
Don't rock the boat
A refrain commonly posted is "Go Woke, Go Broke". That's not a universal truth but plenty of companies have garnered significant bad press for adopting a Woke stance on something. There isn't any point to making big changes to something that's working. Lots of trained seals pound the buttons to order products through Amazon that they might be able to get for less if they shopped locally, but how much fun is that? They then wind up with the self-fulfilling principle of not being able to get those items locally as local businesses close their doors. There are many stores that are happy to special order items for you that you can pick up for free in a couple of days. Hardware, tools and building supplies are a good example. I have a standing order at the local corner shop for things at rock bottom prices and when the owner spots them at the wholesaler on offer, he gets them and sets them aside for me. Many times the snacks will be a day or two past their best by date, but perfectly fine and they won't last long in my possession anyway. Fortunately, the deals aren't so frequent that I wind up approaching a size parity with Babar.
Guiding a big company is like sailing. It's proper to make minor course corrections to take advantage of favorable winds and to avoid storms, but if you make wild navigation choices you can easily wind up going back the way you came. There is also a physics analogy where big companies have so much inertia that changing direction quickly is nearly impossible or very costly.
Re: Don't rock the boat
Buy local. Not really. My local people are a bunch of assclowns that make Amazon look good.
I needed a Helicoil kit to repair some stripped bolt threads. I went down to Ace Hardware, and it was locked to the shelving hangar. I had to get someone to unlock it, and he insisted on a) not letting me touch it - I had to argue with him to look at it enough to make sure it was the size I wanted, then b) I was walked to the counter like he had caught me shoplifting it.
I wasn't treated with that much security when I bought a gun. For a $35 repair kit, it's insulting.
I didn't buy it. I took a picture of the part number at the counter and walked out and ordered it online.
There are many stores that are happy to special order items for you that you can pick up for free in a couple of days
Not in MY neck of the woods. You ask if you can order something, and it's like you're speaking Martian. Then you get laughed at.
I don't order from Amazon, but I do order from B&H Photo, McMaster-Carr, Revzilla, Twisted Throttle, Motion Pro, Tower Hobbies, Makerhaus, Prusa, and a bunch of other places.
Inevitability
Companies are managed by and on behalf of beancounters.
Just as lawyers make money for lawyers, so do beancounters make money for beancounters.
And they do it in a self-righteous way because they are trained to think only of the bottom line.
Q)What's the difference between an accountant and a computer?
A) A computer has feelings.
Too easy to vote the default
I've held a small amount of shares in companies, and I've had savings in building societies. Every time they ask you to vote, there's a box like "click here to vote the way we recommend, we'll get out of your way and you can get on with your life".
That probably helps to stack things against the 'activist' investors. They don't get to present a "click here to use your vote more morally" box. Rejecting the default vote usually means you need to handle dozens more form controls over multiple pages. Few people think their vote counts badly enough to do that.
I just turned off Prime auto-renew. You should, too!
And next week
Should the pope be a catholic? the church votes...
You dont want pesky things like unions, health and safety, paying people properly and treating them like humans instead of disposable numbers to get in the way of profits, plus we have to pay top dollar to get the best talent at the C-level.
Lets face it.... a company that wants to put cameras in their delivery vans so they can moniter the drivers as closely as they do the rest of the disposable staff is'nt likely to do anything that may impact the money it makes