By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Teamsters Union on Monday urged shareholders of oil refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp to vote against an approval on executive compensation, arguing that the company provides outsized and unnecessary exit packages for top leaders.
The union said in a letter released on Monday that shareholders should at an April 28 meeting instead vote in favor of a proposal that attempts to rein in the vesting of unearned equity following a change in control.
The vote is advisory and is nonbinding.
The letter added that recent pay decisions at Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon reflect a “lack of self-awareness, given the $411 million benefit the company took under the CARES Act,” referring to the stimulus bill passed by Congress in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“With locked-out Marathon refinery workers raising the alarm over the impact cost-cutting is having on operational safety, these compensation arrangements suggest a very unbalanced approach to human capital management,” the letter said. At present, 200 union members are being locked out of work at a Minnesota-based Marathon refinery.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
