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June 07, 2000
ExxonMobil Shareholders Vote on Gay Rights
A shareholder resolution on sexual orientation non-discrimination suggests that the oil giant is in
denial on more than global warming.
SocialFunds.com --
ExxonMobil stands out even among oil companies for its environmental record, including the Alaskan
oil spill of the Exxon Valdez, and its stalwart challenge of the validity of global warming. But a
shareholder resolution at the company's recent annual meeting draws attention to lagging standards
in another area, employment policies for gays and lesbians.
 A sexual orientation non-descrimination proposal was one
of seven social or environmental shareholder resolutions voted on at the ExxonMobil annual meeting
in Dallas last week. The resolution, which called for adding sexual orientation to the company's
written non-discrimination policy, garnered 8.2 percent support from shareholders, the highest of
all of the resolutions and enough to bring the issue before stockholders again next year.
"This vote shows shareholders with millions of dollars of ExxonMobil stock are concerned about
ExxonMobil's substandard equal employment opportunity policies," said Diane Bratcher, chair of the
Equality Project, a coalition of lesbian and gay shareholders. "ExxonMobil is falling behind the
Fortune 500 and its oil industry peers by not barring sexual orientation discrimination."
The principal sponsor of the measure was the New York City Employees Retirement System
(NYCERS), aided by the Equality Project, Trillium Asset Management, and the Unitarian Universalist
Association. A similar resolution sponsored by the Equality Project last year received 5.9 percent
support from shareholders.
ExxonMobil shocked Mobil employees and civil rights groups in
December when, following Exxon's merger with Mobil Corp., it rescinded the former Mobil
non-discrimination policy that specifically included sexual orientation. ExxonMobil is the first
company ever to remove protection against sexual orientation discrimination from its equal
employment opportunity policy.
Many other major corporations, including General Electric,
McDonald's, American Home Products, and Johnson & Johnson have introduced sexual orientation
clauses in their policies the last few years. ExxonMobil's competitors, Chevron, BP Amoco, Sunoco,
Shell, and Texaco all ban discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, and BP Amoco,
Shell, and Chevron even offer same-sex domestic partnership benefits.
"ExxonMobil has
gone on record as opposing innovation in this area and letting the government set the pace and
agenda of change," said investment analyst Shelley Alpern of Trillium Asset Management Corp., a
co-sponsor of the proposal. "That's a fine strategy for letting your competitors get out ahead of
you."
Kim Mills, Education Director of the Human Rights Campaign, a shareholder that
supported the resolution, put it even more bluntly: "Not only does ExxonMobil deal in fossil fuels,
it is becoming a fossil with respect to its employment policies."
Other resolutions
considered by ExxonMobil shareholders last week included issues of executive compensation, term
limits for outside directors, and board diversity. But shareholders also addressed perennial
environmental problems, including the promotion of renewable energy sources, a review of the
notorious Chad-Cameroon pipeline, and drilling plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The latter three resolutions were supported by Campaign ExxonMobil, a coalition of shareholders
and consumers concerned about ExxonMobil's irresponsible corporate behavior. The group includes
religious shareholders, environmental groups, and socially responsible investors such as Trillium
Asset Management of Boston.
The arctic drilling resolution, which was filed by Trillium
and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), drew attention particularly given ExxonMobil's
checkered history in Alaska. Calling on their company to start making amends for the legacy of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill, 5.3 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in support of a resolution to
cancel drilling plans in the Arctic Refuge.
"Eleven years after the Exxon Valdez oil
spill, the worst environmental disaster in US history, ExxonMobil shareholders called on their
company today to start acting like a responsible corporate citizen in Alaska," said Athan Manuel,
director of the U.S. PIRG Arctic Wilderness Campaign.
With the combined exploratory and
production resources of two world-class oil companies, ExxonMobil stands to make annual revenues of
over $165 billion, according to Campaign ExxonMobil, and be the number one corporate emitter of
greenhouse gases. Only time will tell if this foot-dragging oil giant will bend to the will of
shareholders calling for corporate responsibility.
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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