Subject: Breakthrough in Cracker Barrel Case
From: [email-masked] (Rod Williams)
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 16:45:47 GMT
Newsgroups: soc.motss

An Associated Press report in the Business section of
yesterday's (10/19/93) San Francisco Examiner, reproduced
without permission...

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STOCKHOLDERS GET SAY IN POLICIES ON GAYS
Judge's ruling OKs an advisory vote

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Stockholders must be permitted to have a say in
company practices that discriminate against employees, a
federal judge has ruled.

The ruling, issued late Friday by U.S. District Court judge
Kimba Wood, clears the way for shareholders of Cracker Barrel
Old Country Store Inc. to vote on the company's policy of
refusing to hire homosexuals.

The New York City Employees Retirement System sponsored a
shareholder proposal prohibiting discrimintation at Cracker
Barrel after the Lebanon, Tenn.-based restaurant chain
announced in 1991 that it would hire only heterosexuals.  At
least 11 workers were then fired.

Cracker Barrel claimed that the New York City retirement
system's proposal could be omitted from its shareholder proxy
on the ground that the company's anti-gay policy was
"ordinary business."

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission agreed.

In March, the New York City retirement system, and two other
groups with stock in Cracker Barrel -- the United States
Trust Co. of Boston and the United Methodist Church's Women's
Division -- sued the SEC to challenge the ruling.

Wood, in her decision, said the SEC may not allow any other
companies to keep their shareholders from voting on
employment issues.

Wood said the SEC could not bar resolutions on employment
discrimination from shareholder proxies without going through
formal rule-making procedures, a lengthy process that
involves issuing an opinion and collecting public comment.

Cracker Barrel did not return a phone call seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for the SEC, Jennifer Kimball, said her agency
had no comment.

The decision allows Cracker Barrel shareholders to include
the anti-discrimination resolution in the company's 1993
proxy statement, which will be voted on in November.

The vote will be the first ever taken on a resolution on
employment discrimination and sexual orientation.

Such resolutions are merely advisory, and companies are not
required to take action on them.  But shareholders see them
as a powerful way to pressure companies to change their
positions on issues such as the environment, workplace safety
and investment in South Africa.

"This decision allows socially concerned investors to raise
issues through the proxy process with companies on important
matters related to discrimination," said Tim Smith, a
spokesman for the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility.

City Comptroller Liz Holtzman, an investment advisor to the
New York City retirement system, called Wood's ruling "a
victory against all kinds of discrimination."

The system controls $22 billion in pension funds.

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rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san ramon, ca -=- [email-masked]
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