BREAKING: Ken Lewis ousted as Chair of BofA board, remains CEO
Another Charlotte-based corporation is feeling the heat today as labor and environmental activists rallied outside Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting just a week after hundreds marched against Duke Energy’s new coal plant in Cliffside NC resulting in 43 arrests.
Environmental activists showed up to draw the connections between Bank of America and the build out of new coal fired power plants (including Duke’s Cliffside plant).
Protest pics here.
Activists from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rallied as part of an ongoing “Fire Ken Lewis” campaign. Clergy, former Bank of America employees and union leaders called up the shareholders to end Lewis’ tenure as Chairman and CEO of the struggling bank.
Inside the meeting, a shareholder resolution to fire Ken Lewis is being reported by some media as “too close to call” and Bank of America has said they will release a press release with the final results in the next day or so.
Kinda weird? If the shareholders oust Lewis it will be unprecedented for a Fortune 500 company. Usually CEO’s get 99% margins of approval from their shareholders on such resolutions.
Anything less could be devastating.