Pension-fund coalition asks Massey shareholders to oppose re-election of 3 board members

A coalition of pension funds in eight states is opposing the reelection of three Massey Energy board members in wake of the April explosion that killed 29 miners at the company's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. A letter signed by the groups, which together own 1.57 percent of Massey's shares, "urged shareholders to oppose the May 18 re-election of Massey President Baxter F. Phillips and outside directors Richard M. Gabrys and Dan R. Moore," report Joann S. Lubin and Kris Maher of The Wall Street Journal.

Retired Adm. Bobby Inman, the board's lead independent director, is campaigning for the three members' re-election, telling the Journal that if Gabrys and Moore get fewer than half the votes cast, "It will make it extremely difficult to find competent people" for the board. The coalition pointed to conflicts of interest among the three members as reasons they shouldn't be reelected, specifically the disaster and their service on the board's safety committee. Gabrys was recently appointed to head the board's investigation into the explosion. (Read more)

The coalition includes the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Connecticut state treasurer, the Illinois State Board of Investment, the Maryland State Pension and Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, and the Connecticut, North Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania state treasurers, reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette on his Coal Tattoo blog. "Massey Energy has an extensive history of persistent and serious safety violations. We believe the three board members who serve on the Safety, Environmental, and Public Policy Committee have failed to address these concerns," North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell said. "Ultimately, that has consequences for long-term shareholder value." (Read more)

The same coalition last month called on the board to direct Massey CEO Don L. Blankenship to step down as chairman. In recalling her time as editorial page editor of the Gazette, Susanna Rodell, writing in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says the isolation of the region helped Blankenship. "For years it seemed no one outside the state cared that he had succeeded in buying his own justice," she writes. "It also helped the man to believe in his own mythology. For a few years, he seemed invincible." Now that the tide has seemingly turned against Blankenship, she concludes "the least we can do, as participants in this drama, is to remember who’s risking their lives to keep our lights on, and encourage our lawmakers to keep up the pressure on Big Coal and its enablers to clean up their act." (Read more)