| By Bob Weaver
A union linked to Dominion Resources Inc. is seeking more shareholder
oversight over the pay of the company's
top executives.
The Utility Workers Union of America has proposed changing Dominion's
corporate
bylaws to require shareholder approval of executives who receive pay
exceeding $1 million.
The union is also asking for
detailed disclosure of incentive-pay plans for executives.
The initiative followed the disclosure that Dominion executive pay rose last year
while profit declined.
Dominion Chairman
and CEO Thomas E. Capps was paid $7.22 million: $1.1 million in salary,
$1.4 million
in bonus and the remainder in other compensation.
The corporate executives gave each other raises.
Dominion has recently raised natural gas prices in West Virginia, and in recent
years has downsized the company, sometimes reducing employee benefits.
The proposal will be voted on by Dominion shareholders by proxy or at their
annual
meeting in Cleveland on April 23.
Union members are exercising their rights as stockholders.
The union and many of its members, as Dominion shareholders, have a
critical interest in
trying to reform the executive compensation practices.
Mark Brooks, a Nashville, Tenn., lawyer said
many unions have
pension funds heavily
invested in U.S.
corporations, and have become
more active in executive
compensation and other
corporate governance
matters.
Recent collapse of pension and health care benefits have become a problem with
several of America's largest corporations.
The International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and the
AFL-CIO, for example, are
pushing shareholder
proposals that would limit
severance and pension
benefits for senior American
Electric Power executives.
Dominion's management unsuccessfully tried to get the
Securities and Exchange Commission to kill the union's shareholder
proposal.
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