Shareholder Democracy
Why It MattersHow It Works

shareholder proposal (14a-8) · 2021

American Baptist Home Mission Society at Tyson Foods

Asked Tyson's board to prepare a report on human rights due diligence, covering whether the company was doing enough on paid sick leave, COVID-19 testing and case counts, workload, and meaningful engagement with workers after over 12,500 workers were infected and dozens died during the pandemic.

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What happened

Result: Not approved at the February 11, 2021 annual meeting. The certified count was 168,155,962 votes for and 746,977,377 against, with 1,333,787 abstentions and 26,870,881 broker non-votes, which is 18.4 percent of the votes cast for and against. The Tyson family's supervoting Class B stock carries most of the voting power, and Investor Advocates for Social Justice put support among independent investors, excluding the Tyson Limited Partnership, at 78.7 percent. This was the third year the proposal had been filed at Tyson: in 2020 it drew 14.58 percent overall and 59.68 percent of independent shares. BlackRock and Vanguard voted for it, and Norges Bank and CalSTRS pre-declared support.

Tyson did not address the concerns the proposal raised, withheld preliminary vote results at the meeting and released them on its website on February 17, and gave shareholders no opportunity to ask questions; the meeting lasted under thirty minutes. No policy change at Tyson attributable to this vote was found in the sources opened.

Tyson Dismisses Shareholders' Human Rights Concerns at Annual Meeting, Investor Advocates for Social Justice

Who is involved

  • American Baptist Home Mission Society filer
  • Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes co-filer
  • Congregation of St. Joseph, OH co-filer
  • Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace co-filer
  • Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise co-filer
  • Northwest Women Religious Investment Trust co-filer
  • PeaceHealth co-filer
  • Portico Benefit Services (ELCA) co-filer
  • Sisters of Bon Secours co-filer
  • Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ co-filer
  • Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province co-filer
  • Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, IA co-filer
  • Sisters of the Good Shepherd co-filer
  • Dominican Sisters of Springfield, IL co-filer
  • Sisters of the Humility of Mary co-filer
  • BMO Asset Management co-filer
  • Tyson Foods company

What this campaign is about