(Washington, DC)— The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has won an important executive compensation reform enhancing shareholder rights at the Coca-Cola Company [NYSE: KO].

After years of rewarding failed executives with lavish severance packages, the Coca-Cola Company has adopted a new policy empowering shareholders to approve all future executive severance agreements that amount to 2.99 times the annual salary plus bonus. 

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund proposed this reform at Coca-Cola’s 2005 annual meeting and received more than 40 percent of the shares cast in favor of the proposal. 

“In the last decade, Coca-Cola shareholders have seen a revolving door of top executives cash in big rewards while financial performance lagged,” said C. Thomas Keegel, General Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “It’s time Coke invest in the long-term growth of the Company rather than country club dues for outgoing bosses.”

Here’s what Coca-Cola’s board paid departing executives while sales and earnings suffered:

• Douglas Ivester, former Chairman of the Board and CEO, left after only three years as CEO, yet still received a severance package worth $119 million, including a six-year consulting agreement, office space, furniture, supplies, a company car, home security service and country club dues.
   

• Steven Heyer, former Coke President, who was passed over for the CEO job, still walked away with a severance package worth $24 million after only three years on the job.
   

• Douglas Daft, former Chairman of the Board and CEO, was paid more than $36 million when he left the company’s board in 2004.

“The era of rewarding poor performance at Coca-Cola is over,” said Carin Zelenko, Director of the Teamsters’ Capital Strategies Department. 

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.