John Chevedden, 2215 Nelson Avenue, No. 205, Redondo Beach, CA 90278, has advised us that he intends to submit the proposal set forth below for consideration at the Annual Meeting.
This proposal is not intended to unnecessarily limit our Board’s judgment in crafting the requested change in accordance with applicable laws and existing contracts. This proposal is important because certain shares have super-sized voting power with 10-votes per share compared to only one-vote per share for other shareholders. Corporate governance advocates have suggested a 7-year transition to equal voting rights for each share. In spite of lopsided shares having 10-times more voting power, support for this proposal topic has steadily grown from 21% in 2013 to 32% in 2022. With stock having 10-times more voting power UPS takes our shareholder money but does not give us in return an equal voice in our company’s management.
Without a voice, shareholders cannot hold management accountable. It is important to continue to vote for this proposal to block UPS management from finding creative ways to further reduce their money at risk at UPS while maintaining the same control. Plus, with the UPS shareholder-unfriendly brand of corporate governance, we had no right to call a special meeting or act by written consent. And we were restricted by provisions mandating an undemocratic 80%-vote in order to make a certain improvements to our corporate governance. This undemocratic 80% vote requirement translates into a well over a 100% vote requirement from the shares that typical vote at the annual meeting.