Labor union opposed to Steve Jobs' reelection to Disney board

Steve Jobs' position as a director of Disney is being questioned as the company's annual shareholder's meeting takes place in Salt Lake City today.

The AFL-CIO federation of labor unions has already voted against his reelection, citing his absences for health reasons and full-time responsibilities as Chief Executive of Apple. They own 3.8 million shares in Disney, compared to the 138 million Steve Jobs received when Disney took over Pixar. He's the company's largest shareholder, in fact.

Advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services says he's attended "less than 75%" of meetings in three of the past four years and that this "raises questions about his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a director of the company."

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009, and he has been on medical leave from Apple since January this year. Disney admitted in a regulatory filing that month that his health problems had hampered his ability to attend board meetings.

That said, Jobs' influence on Disney does seem to have been valuable to the company. His experience with the highly successful Apple retail stores has been welcomed by Disney, and many cite his influence as being one of the reasons behind Disney's early forays into the world of digital distribution.

And, frankly, it's hard to imagine many companies that wouldn't welcome Steve Jobs as one of their directors. Don't expect to see other shareholders voting against him.

[Via AppleInsider]

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Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0…

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Steve Jobs' position as a director of Disney is being questioned as the company's annual shareholder's meeting takes place in Salt Lake...

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Stickyicky

Imagine that the AFL-CIO with yet another bad idea. These guys are volatile and destructive to America and free enterprise. They need to be dissolved. Unions are irrelevant in this day and time. I'm not bashing the union workers themselves, but the leaders are nothing but a bunch of radical socialists that use the common working man/woman as a means to spread their socialistic agenda. Go away AFL-CIO!

March 23 2011 at 10:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Stickyicky

March 23 2011 at 10:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

adobephile

Collective bargaining is one of the largest shams perpetrated on the weak-minded masses. After a century or so of destructive influence it's about time it died a whimpering death.

March 23 2011 at 9:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to adobephile's comment

macserv

It has its place, when and where it's needed. Those times and situations are usually painfully clear.

An agency operating without competition for a state government is not one of those situations.

March 24 2011 at 3:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mabhatter

I'm thinking with 40 times the shares as the union what anybody thinks doesn't really matter.

Fact is that pixar has made Disney buckets of cash and it was mostly owned by Steve. Having such a powerful CEO of another company on your board is good because he's still whip smart, and good for PR.

March 23 2011 at 8:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mkvirt

way to give someone a vested interest in eliminating collective bargaining rights...

March 23 2011 at 8:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

I think somebody's just angry that Steve didn't reply to their email.

March 23 2011 at 6:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply