Protestors outside the Dow headquarters in Midland, Michigan © AIUpdate from the Dow Chemical Annual Shareholder Meeting,
May 11, 2006
In the culmination of Amnesty International USA’s year-long effort to hold Dow Chemical accountable for human rights abuses connected to the 1984 Union Carbide chemical explosion in Bhopal, AIUSA’s Michigan CAN Coordinator, Neil Sardana, attended the company’s shareholder meeting on May 11 at the Dow Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan.
There Neil formally presented a resolution on Bhopal before the CEO Andrew Liveris and the assembled body of Dow Board members. The resolution calls on Dow to write a report for the benefit of their shareholders, explaining their initiatives to address the concerns of Bhopal survivors (given the reputational damage the ongoing campaign presents to the company, and shareholder value). It was sponsored this year by New York City Fire Department (NYCFD) Pension Fund, the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) and Amnesty International USA along with Boston Common Asset Management and Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit Charitable Trust. Shareholder proponents hold over 4.5 million shares worth over $190 million.
When Neil tabled the resolution, Dow's CEO Liveris reiterated his usual lines: "We don’t feel this is our responsibility, which properly belongs to the Indian Government;" "Dow is not liable;" "This is not an issue of concern for Dow shareholders;" "Any cleanup is the responsibility of the Indian Government;" etc. Amnesty’s 2004 report, Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal disaster 20 years on, clearly demonstrates that these answers are inadequate and misleading.
This was the second year the resolution was voted on by shareholders, and it garnered 6.3% of the vote. That may not sound like much at first, but it’s worth keeping three things in mind:
- Securities and Exchange Commission rules allow for resolutions to be reintroduced if they attain at least 3% of the vote the first year; 6% the second, and 10% the third. So we’ve passed the threshold for re-introduction next year, a very important milestone.
- Six percent is a very respectable showing for resolutions that, like ours, make mostly moral arguments concerning the responsibilities of the company. Given that the number of shares you own is the number of votes you can cast, major institutional shareholders (such as banks, mutual funds, and the like) can have a huge impact on voting results. Many institutions cast their vote based on limited or misinformation, or using the recommendation of company management, and votes that are not cast are automatically counted in favor of the company. Since Dow Management recommended a vote against this resolution, the deck was stacked against us.
- Lastly, though 6.3% seems small, it actually represents a lot of investors, when you start talking about dollars. Major institutional shareholders backed us, such as the New York public pension funds, and that makes management sit up and take notice. Our task is to ensure that the pressure grows next year by pushing the vote above the 10% threshold set by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
With your help, we can change how the deck is stacked. Amnesty’s SHARE POWER campaign is designed to help you find your connections to large shareholders, so you can educate those shareholders about important human rights issues that are facing the companies they are invested in, and pressure them to support human rights oriented resolutions each year. Learn more about SHARE POWER and sign up today.
Toward the end of the shareholder meeting, Neil stood again to ask a direct question to CEO Liveris. First he quoted Alan Hevesi, sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, a huge institutional shareholder of Dow stock who has publicly stated, "The longer Dow Chemical fails to address the lingering human issues related to the Bhopal tragedy, the greater the potential negative impact to its long-term profitability. If Dow does not put this problem to rest, it could hurt the company's current and future business relationships in India's huge and rapidly expanding market and around the world."
Neil then asked, “How is the company measuring the impact Bhopal is having on its public profile and reputation? and how can you assure shareholders that your responsibilities related to this disaster have been met?” Before taking his seat, Neil offered Liveris a bottle of contaminated Bhopal water. "This is offered to you from the citizens of Bhopal, who are forced to drink and live with this water everyday" he said. Liveris brusquely refused to accept it: "I reject your sample of water," Neil quoted him as saying.
Outside the meeting, Neil organized a protest which by
all accounts was a huge success. Despite driving rain, more
than 20 protestors from Michigan State University and the
University of Michigan made the journey to Midland, representing
chapters of Amnesty International USA, the Association
for India’s Development, Physicians
for Human Rights, and Students
for Bhopal. The protestors chanted loudly as shareholders
were filing into the meeting, and were impossible to ignore.
Neil confirmed that he was interviewed by local affiliate
of ABC News Channel 12 and the Midland Daily News and The
Saginaw News also reported on the activities.
Check
out the story. »
Bhopal "Die-in" at Copley Square, Boston, including members of Amnesty Group 133 © AI
Bhopal Reenacted on U.S. City Streets
In the lead-up to the Dow shareholder meeting, Students for Bhopal chapters in Boston, Seattle, and Cincinnati, hosted public events and re-enactments of the 1984 disaster to raise awareness about Dow Chemical’s responsibilities tied to Bhopal; parallel education events were held in Portland, OR.
Many Amnesty activists were involved in the events, where participants lay under shrouds with the names of those killed in the 1984 Disaster, and those who died as recently as 2004, perched atop their veiled bodies, much the way unidentified bodies were numbered after the gas leak. In Boston, the Dow Grim Reaper passed among the victims symbolizing Dow Chemical's role in the ongoing poisoning of thousands of Bhopal residents forced to drink contaminated water. Dry ice haze mimicked the methyl isocyanate gas that leaked from the Union Carbide plant 22 years ago after midnight, killing over 7,000 people.
To learn more about how you can help support Bhopal communities,
contact corpaction@aiusa.org
or join the Corporate
Action Network online.
