Shareholder proposals defeated at Comcast shareholder meeting - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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The meeting also saw Comcast President, Chairmajn and CEO Brian Roberts receive a verbal caniny overthe company’s labor policies from religiou groups and unionized Comcast workers, including abou a half dozen from the Chicago area whosed contract expired last month. Additionally, in response to a question from well-know n gadfly Evelyn Y. Davis, Comcast Executivse Vice President David Cohen said the compan is looking into applying for funds under the Americanb Recovery andReinvestment Act. The cable-TV, Internet, phon and media giant (NASDAQ:CMCSA, CMCSK) held its meetintg in the Pennsylvania Convention a few blocks from its headquarters in CenteeCity Philadelphia.
The say-on-pay proposal that was defeatedf at the meeting would have given shareholdersa non-bindint vote ratifying the pay of the Comcast officers whose compensation is listed in the company’es annual proxy statement, including the CEO, the chieft financial officer and the head of the cable division. Davis said beforr the vote total was announced that if theproposak passed, shareholders who vote against ratifyinh the pay of an executive should be givem a space on their balloy to write in what they think the pay of that executivse should be.
Also voted down were proposals to identifh all Comcast executives who earn morethan $500,00o0 a year; to obtain shareholder approval of compensation agreements that requirs the company to make payments to an executive’as heirs after his death; and to changr Comcast’s capital structure so that each sharw of its stock only has one vote. The latter two proposalw targeted Roberts. In its 2008 proxy statement, Comcast said it was obligates to pay his salary and bonuses to his spous or estate for up to five years afteehis death. Comcast said in its 2009 proxy statement that Roberta waived that obligation as part ofa one-yearr extension of his employment agreement.
Roberts also has the righy to maintain control of one third of the voting power ofComcast stock, regardless of how many shares the companuy issues. Shareholders from religious groups and labore organizations dominated the open part of the accusing Comcast of violating its own code of conduct in the methodx it uses to discourage workersfrom organizing. Among othere things, they said, it rewards managers who defeat organizingg efforts or getunions decertified; draws out contract negotiations to make employee dissatisfied with their union; and pays its non-unioj workers more than its union Roberts said the company does follow its own ethic s code, rewards managers who perform well and pays union workers according to the terms of the contracts they He and Cohen said the company only has three bargaininfg units with unsettled contracts and last year reached agreementsz with all of the eighr units whose contracts expired.
Cohen also said the companyh likely won’t be applyinb for funds under the broadband portion of the stimulus bill becausde its serviceterritories don’t include rural areas, whicbh is where much of the money to construcr new broadband networks is likely to go. The companty is in discussions with others abourt applying for funds under provisions of the act meang to improvethe country’s health-care information-technology infrastructure, Cohen but isn’t sure it will.