New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today said he and the New York City Pension Funds will continue to urge ExxonMobil to take steps to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

ExxonMobil shareholders voted at today’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas on a proposal by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund to bar such discrimination at the company. The Unitarian Church - one of the resolution’s co-sponsors - presented the measure at the meeting.
Preliminary reports held that 37.7 percent of votes cast were in support of the measure, greater than the percent of votes last year but not enough for the resolution to pass.

“While it is heartening that a number of shareholders agree that ExxonMobil must take steps to provide equal protections for all employees, it is extremely troubling and downright unacceptable that ExxonMobil has strongly resisted the call,” Thompson said. “We must remain steadfast in our efforts to bring about change and urge ExxonMobil to establish equal rights in the workplace.”

Thompson filed the resolution on behalf of the two funds in November, marking the seventh time that the resolution was submitted. Shareholder support for the proposal has increased in each of the seven years: last year, it was supported by 34.6 percent of shares voted; in 2005, it was supported by 29.4 percent.

The measure calls for ExxonMobil to amend its Equal Employment Opportunity policy to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The New York City Pension Funds have more than 18.1 million shares valued at more than $1.4 billion in ExxonMobil. NYCERS alone has more than 6.8 million shares valued at more than $548 million.

ExxonMobil does not explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Equal Employment Opportunity policy, while industry peers – such as Amerada Hess, BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell Oil, and Sunoco – do so, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Thompson serves on the NYCERS Board of Trustees with: New York City Finance Commissioner Martha Stark (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Borough Presidents Scott Stringer (Manhattan), Helen Marshall (Queens), Marty Markowitz (Brooklyn), Adolfo Carrion (Bronx), and James Molinaro (Staten Island); Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Roger Toussaint, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Besides Thompson, trustees on the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund are:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg; New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark; Stephen Cassidy, President, James Slevin, Vice President, Robert Straub, Treasurer, and John Kelly, Brooklyn Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Peter Gorman, President and Captains’ Rep., Nicholas J. Visconti, Chiefs’ Rep., and Stephen J. Carbone, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and, Joseph Gagliardi, Marine Engineers Association.

###