In brief: AFL-CIO targets Verizon’s board

The AFL-CIO, a major shareholder in public companies, is targeting Verizon Communications Inc. this year for a shakeup of its board of directors as it accuses the company’s chief executive of collecting exorbitant pay while turning in a poor performance.

The labor federation scored successes last year with agitation at Home Depot Inc. and Pfizer Inc., whose chief executives departed in a storm of investor anger over executive pay. AFL-CIO officials said Thursday they have chosen Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg as their “poster boy” for 2007.

“I defy anybody to say this guy has earned the money,” said Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer.

Seidenberg received $109 million in compensation over the past five years – at the same time, Trumka said, that Verizon shareholders got a negative 5 percent return on their investment.

At Verizon’s annual meeting on May 3, the federation will ask shareholders to vote off the board those directors who approved Seidenberg’s compensation and will push for investors to have a formal say in executive pay and “golden parachute” severance packages at the company, Trumka said.

No-call list grew by 25 million

Almost 25 million phone numbers were added to the federal government’s Do Not Call list in fiscal 2006, demonstrating that more and more Americans don’t want their dinners disturbed by telemarketers.

The national Do Not Call registry had 132 million phone numbers as of September 2006, a 23 percent increase from the previous year, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report released Thursday.

Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, has cited the humorist Dave Barry’s observation that Do Not Call is “the most popular government program since the Elvis stamp.”

Consumers can add their numbers to the list, created after Congress passed legislation in 2003, through a government Web site or by calling a toll-free number. But early adopters will have to go through the process again in about a year since numbers added to the list expire after five years.

The agency said the program’s primary goal of reducing unwanted telemarketing calls is succeeding, largely because of a “high degree of compliance by telemarketers.” The report notes that while roughly 1.15 million complaints were received in fiscal 2006 from 374,937 registered phone numbers, that was the equivalent of only about one-quarter of 1 percent of the numbers in the database.

The FTC has taken enforcement actions in 28 cases since the program’s inception, resulting in $7.6 million in penalties and $8.2 million in redress payments and forfeitures.

NEW YORK

Stock market closed for holiday

The stock market is closed today for Good Friday.

There will be no stock-market roundup story or Market Recap box in Saturday’s Business section.

Weekly stock-market listings contained in the Saturday Investments section will reflect trading through the end of Thursday’s session.

From staff and wire reports