Unocal Shareholders Reject Bid for Dissidents’ Access to Board
Shareholders in Unocal Corp. rejected a proposal Monday intended to force the U.S. energy company to confront discontent over its stake in a Myanmar natural gas pipeline by giving dissident shareholders direct access to board members.
A coalition of institutional investors led by labor-affiliated Amalgamated Bank had put forth the proposal to establish an office of communications to help shareholders directly contact board members.
The proposal, which was opposed by the board, won support from nearly 21% of voting shareholders at Monday’s annual meeting in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, protesters rallied outside the Unocal meeting as they have in recent years to denounce the company’s partnership with the military government of Myanmar, branded by human-rights activists as one of the world’s most repressive.
The failed resolution follows a September meeting between officials representing some pension funds and Unocal.
The funds had asked the company to consider withdrawing from the $1.2-billion Yadana natural gas pipeline, which runs from the Andaman Sea to Thailand, or to produce an analysis justifying its continued investment.
The coalition of dissident public pension funds, which includes five New York City pension funds, and state pensions from New York and Connecticut, holds 2.6 million Unocal shares.
President Bush last week labeled the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. interests, and renewed an import ban.
But Unocal Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Williamson defended the company’s continuing presence in Myanmar to shareholders, saying it was “good for stockholders ... and the country.”
El Segundo-based Unocal faces lawsuits in state and federal courts by villagers who said they or family members were raped, murdered or forced to work on the pipeline by the Myanmar military, which guarded the project from 1993 until its completion in 1998.
Unocal officials have consistently defended the project and its partnership with Myanmar’s state-owned oil company, Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production and France’s Total.
In other action, shareholders rejected proposals to award executives restricted stock in lieu of options.
