Labour campaign at Reuters gets good result

GREAT BRITAIN/USA: Although the vote in favour of enhanced executive pay won a majority at the April 17th annual general meeting of the British-based news agency Reuters, the unions report the 22 per cent negative vote they achieved was "definitely a good result, especially for a first attempt." A spokesperson for the British TUC said that the vote came at a time in the UK when institutional investors are under a great deal of pressure to prove they will stand up to investee companies where necessary over governance issues like executive pay. Also, direct approaches to shareholders seem to be paying off. In one letter sent to Reuters shareholders before the annual meeting took place, the president of the IMF-affiliated Communications Workers of America, Morton Bahr, called for opposition to approval of the enhanced executive pay plan. "Executive pay," said Bahr, "is not simply a cost issue, but also an issue of corporate performance."