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Exxon/Mobil Boycott
Exxon/Mobil Corp. is the world's largest integrated oil company and has broken several U.S. records for annual corporate earnings. It has consistently ranked in the top three of Fortune magazine's annual list of the largest U.S. businesses since 2000. It supplies refined products to tens of thousands of service stations in more than 100 countries that operate under the Exxon, Esso, and Mobil brands.
Exxon/Mobil is the only U.S. employer that has ever rescinded both a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation and domestic partner benefits, and is the only Fortune 10 company that does not have a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation.
Mobil Corp. had written nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation that were revoked upon its merger with Exxon Corp. in 1999. Mobil also provided domestic partner health benefits to its employees. Domestic partner benefits ended after the merger with Exxon in 1999.
Today, industry peers BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Not only do they have a nondiscrimination policy in effect, but they also offer domestic partner benefits to their employees. BP, Chevron and Shell prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Twenty-four members of Congress and thousands of stockholders and consumers wrote to Exxon/Mobil's then-Chairman Lee R. Raymond in December 1999 to protest the policy ratifications. At the annual meeting in May of 2000, Raymond brushed aside discussion on changing his company's written Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy, stating that interested parties should "go pass a federal law instead." Thousands of customers have stopped shopping at Exxon/Mobil and Esso stations. Others have mailed back their cut up gas cards with letters explaining why they won't support the company.
2010 is the eleventh year of the resolution changes at Exxon/Mobil. It has been over a decade since Exxon Corp. purchased Mobil Corp., closing Mobil's domestic partner benefits program and removing explicit protections based on "sexual orientation" from Mobil's nondiscrimination policies.
Shareholders typically follow management's recommendations to vote FOR or AGAINST a proposal. However, if the management of a company were in favor of a proposed resolution, they would generally settle the resolution with the resolution's filer(s) prior to taking it to the shareholders, to avoid unnecessary attention to company practices. The resolution's approval from Exxon/Mobil shareholders and momentum is extremely positive.
At the time of the first resolution filed with ExxonMobil in 2000, there was little experience with how to use shareholder resolutions as an advocacy tool, and it was thought that "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" would be considered separate issues and thus could be challenged with and thrown out by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees such matters.
Employee benefits are generally considered outside the scope of what shareholder resolutions can address, according to previous decisions by the SEC.
Exxon/Mobil is the only U.S. employer that has ever rescinded both a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation and domestic partner benefits, and is the only Fortune 10 company that does not have a nondiscrimination policy covering sexual orientation.
Mobil Corp. had written nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation that were revoked upon its merger with Exxon Corp. in 1999. Mobil also provided domestic partner health benefits to its employees. Domestic partner benefits ended after the merger with Exxon in 1999.
Today, industry peers BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Not only do they have a nondiscrimination policy in effect, but they also offer domestic partner benefits to their employees. BP, Chevron and Shell prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Twenty-four members of Congress and thousands of stockholders and consumers wrote to Exxon/Mobil's then-Chairman Lee R. Raymond in December 1999 to protest the policy ratifications. At the annual meeting in May of 2000, Raymond brushed aside discussion on changing his company's written Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy, stating that interested parties should "go pass a federal law instead." Thousands of customers have stopped shopping at Exxon/Mobil and Esso stations. Others have mailed back their cut up gas cards with letters explaining why they won't support the company.
2010 is the eleventh year of the resolution changes at Exxon/Mobil. It has been over a decade since Exxon Corp. purchased Mobil Corp., closing Mobil's domestic partner benefits program and removing explicit protections based on "sexual orientation" from Mobil's nondiscrimination policies.
Shareholders typically follow management's recommendations to vote FOR or AGAINST a proposal. However, if the management of a company were in favor of a proposed resolution, they would generally settle the resolution with the resolution's filer(s) prior to taking it to the shareholders, to avoid unnecessary attention to company practices. The resolution's approval from Exxon/Mobil shareholders and momentum is extremely positive.
At the time of the first resolution filed with ExxonMobil in 2000, there was little experience with how to use shareholder resolutions as an advocacy tool, and it was thought that "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" would be considered separate issues and thus could be challenged with and thrown out by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees such matters.
Employee benefits are generally considered outside the scope of what shareholder resolutions can address, according to previous decisions by the SEC.
Stand Up Florida's Protest at Exxon/Mobil in Tampa, FL
On May 21st Stand Up Florida rallied outside the Exxon/Mobil filling station on the corner of Dale Mabry and Cypress in Tampa, FL. Several activists attended the rally to show support to bring a ban for discrimination in the workplace. While potential customers were approaching the intersection with their turn signals on, they approached many protesters demonstrating outside the Exxon/Mobil filling station and were able to read the signs of humanity. Some questioned and rolled down their windows to ask how this issue affected them? After explaining the reasons behind the rally, drivers supported the protest and drove to the competing Shell filling station across the street which supports equality by offering domestic partner benefits and also has an anti-discrimination policy in effect. This shows how the GLBTA community can unite and have their voices heard as one.
Exxon/Mobil votes down gay protections
Each year since Exxon and Mobil merged, a proposal has come before the shareholders to add sexual orientation to the company’s nondiscrimination policy. And the percentage of shareholders voting in favor of the proposal has increased each year — until this one.
Only 22 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor of adding the protections during today’s annual meeting at the Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. Last year 40 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the proposal.
About two dozen LGBT protesters gathered outside the meeting with signs and bullhorns.
Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center was inside the meeting voting shares for a friend from Berkeley, Calif. He spoke in favor of the proposal and said a number of other shareholders, including a member of the Rockefeller family, spoke on behalf of environmental justice and sustainability issues. ExxonMobil is a direct descendant of the John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co.
For more, stay tuned to Instant Tea. For a full recap, see Friday’s Voice.
— David Taffet
Only 22 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor of adding the protections during today’s annual meeting at the Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. Last year 40 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the proposal.
About two dozen LGBT protesters gathered outside the meeting with signs and bullhorns.
Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center was inside the meeting voting shares for a friend from Berkeley, Calif. He spoke in favor of the proposal and said a number of other shareholders, including a member of the Rockefeller family, spoke on behalf of environmental justice and sustainability issues. ExxonMobil is a direct descendant of the John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co.
For more, stay tuned to Instant Tea. For a full recap, see Friday’s Voice.
— David Taffet
Short Videos of our Protests in Tampa and Dallas so far
Exxon/Mobil Shareholders' Previous Votes
For the first time since shareholders were asked to vote on employee non-discrimination, fewer shares were cast in favor of equality than in the previous year.
In 1999, only 8 percent of shares were voted in favor of including sexual orientation in the company’s non-discrimination policy. That number grew at each year’s shareholders meeting until this year, when only 22 percent favored the policy change.
Last year, about 39 percent of the vote favored the policy.
Inside the meeting, a number of shareholders spoke in favor of environmental and social justice issues in the company. That included a member of the Rockefeller family. ExxonMobil is a direct descendent of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.
Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center attended the meeting as a proxy for a friend from California. “I stepped up, got to the mike and had my say,” Miller said. Miller also delivered a petition to the board of directors from GetEQUAL.
Mark Reed from GetEQUAL said his group posted a petition over the weekend asking the company to include the LGBT community in its nondiscrimination policies. He said within four days they had 3,300 signatures. Across the street from the Meyerson Symphony Center where the shareholders meeting took place on Wednesday, May, 26, about two dozen protesters gathered.
GetEQUAL and QueerLiberaction Denton were joined by members of Stand Up Florida who had driven from Tampa for the meeting. That group demonstrated at a Mobil station in Tampa the previous Friday before making the trip. Drey Zalaquett was one of the people who drove from Florida. She explained why she made the two-day drive.
“It’s something that really matters to us,” she said. “I was once fired for being gay.” CALLING FOR EQUALITY | Mark Reed of GetEQUAL, right, said his group collected about 3,300 signatures over the weekend on a petition calling on Exxon to change its nondiscrimination policies to include LGBT people. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Zalaquett said she didn’t talk about being gay at work, but she did wear a small rainbow bracelet. The son of the owner asked her one day what the bracelet meant and she told him.
“The next day I was fired,” she said. Lee Nicora is a retired Southern Methodist University professor who carried a sign that read, “Exxon employment discrimination.” “My daughter brought me out. It’s the principle of the thing,” Nicora said. Reed was surprised about the outcome of the vote but offered a suggestion about why it happened. “It’s shocking to see such a dramatic drop in support from last year,” Reed said. “Shareholders who are pro-equality are getting rid of the ExxonMobil stock.”
GetEQUAL has been pushing members of Congress to move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the floor for a vote, where they believe there are enough votes to pass. Reed noted a form letter that David Rosenthal, ExxonMobil’s vice president for investor relations, is sending to anyone writing the company about its discrimination policy. “Where we operate in countries in which the national laws require specific language regarding nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity be included in policies, we have amended our policies as appropriate,” Rosenthal wrote.
“The vote makes the passage of ENDA even more important,” Reed said. “We need the government to step in and force them to do the right thing.”
This year Exxon hired no counterprotesters. No environmental groups like Greenpeace who usually attends were at the meeting this year either.
A few shareholders passing the LGBT protesters indicated they would vote for the item. Some made a few friendly jokes that most of the demonstrators must be in Houston in front of BP headquarters.
They were referring to the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is the first oil-related environmental disaster larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 28, 2010.
In 1999, only 8 percent of shares were voted in favor of including sexual orientation in the company’s non-discrimination policy. That number grew at each year’s shareholders meeting until this year, when only 22 percent favored the policy change.
Last year, about 39 percent of the vote favored the policy.
Inside the meeting, a number of shareholders spoke in favor of environmental and social justice issues in the company. That included a member of the Rockefeller family. ExxonMobil is a direct descendent of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.
Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center attended the meeting as a proxy for a friend from California. “I stepped up, got to the mike and had my say,” Miller said. Miller also delivered a petition to the board of directors from GetEQUAL.
Mark Reed from GetEQUAL said his group posted a petition over the weekend asking the company to include the LGBT community in its nondiscrimination policies. He said within four days they had 3,300 signatures. Across the street from the Meyerson Symphony Center where the shareholders meeting took place on Wednesday, May, 26, about two dozen protesters gathered.
GetEQUAL and QueerLiberaction Denton were joined by members of Stand Up Florida who had driven from Tampa for the meeting. That group demonstrated at a Mobil station in Tampa the previous Friday before making the trip. Drey Zalaquett was one of the people who drove from Florida. She explained why she made the two-day drive.
“It’s something that really matters to us,” she said. “I was once fired for being gay.” CALLING FOR EQUALITY | Mark Reed of GetEQUAL, right, said his group collected about 3,300 signatures over the weekend on a petition calling on Exxon to change its nondiscrimination policies to include LGBT people. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
Zalaquett said she didn’t talk about being gay at work, but she did wear a small rainbow bracelet. The son of the owner asked her one day what the bracelet meant and she told him.
“The next day I was fired,” she said. Lee Nicora is a retired Southern Methodist University professor who carried a sign that read, “Exxon employment discrimination.” “My daughter brought me out. It’s the principle of the thing,” Nicora said. Reed was surprised about the outcome of the vote but offered a suggestion about why it happened. “It’s shocking to see such a dramatic drop in support from last year,” Reed said. “Shareholders who are pro-equality are getting rid of the ExxonMobil stock.”
GetEQUAL has been pushing members of Congress to move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the floor for a vote, where they believe there are enough votes to pass. Reed noted a form letter that David Rosenthal, ExxonMobil’s vice president for investor relations, is sending to anyone writing the company about its discrimination policy. “Where we operate in countries in which the national laws require specific language regarding nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity be included in policies, we have amended our policies as appropriate,” Rosenthal wrote.
“The vote makes the passage of ENDA even more important,” Reed said. “We need the government to step in and force them to do the right thing.”
This year Exxon hired no counterprotesters. No environmental groups like Greenpeace who usually attends were at the meeting this year either.
A few shareholders passing the LGBT protesters indicated they would vote for the item. Some made a few friendly jokes that most of the demonstrators must be in Houston in front of BP headquarters.
They were referring to the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is the first oil-related environmental disaster larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 28, 2010.