The Teamsters are sponsoring a shareholder proposal for FedEx to stop paying the personal taxes owed on restricted stock awards to CEO Fred Smith and other executives. Today, a leading proxy voting adviser recommended that shareholders support the Teamsters' proposal.
Ken Hall, Teamsters general secretary-treasurer, said:
Shareholdesr are fed up with FedEx paying personal taxes for the company's well-compensated executives. FedEx has cut pensions and raised the costs of medical coverage for workers while continuing to lavish executives with this outdated perk.A Teamsters press statement said,
According to the company’s 2014 proxy statement, FedEx paid out more than $1.8 million in tax gross ups for the named executive officers last year. Over the past four years FedEx has paid more than $6.4 million just in tax payments for top executives’ restricted stock awards. The FedEx shareholder meeting will be Sept. 29.Now we know why Fred Smith thinks personal income taxes should rise and corporate income taxes should be lowered. In December 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported
FedEx Corp. Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith said lawmakers should increase individual tax rates and lower levies on corporations as part of a deal to advert the fiscal cliff.
Such a deal would avoid across-the-board tax increases and would spur job creation and economic growth, he said in a speech Thursday to the Economic Club of Washington.Easy for him to say, since his company pays his taxes!
The Teamsters just this week announced they have organized workers at FedEx Freight for the first time in North America. FedEx Freight workers in Delanco, N.J., will be voting on October 10 in their Teamsters election, and numerous Teamster local unions in the United States have filed for elections at FedEx Freight.
