[논평] Posco’s general shareholders’ meeting full of problems opposes the reappointment of Chairman Jeong-woo Choi-Economic and Financial Center

Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi, who is responsible for environmental pollution, industrial accidents, and poor management, cannot be reappointed.

Blocking the position of minority shareholders, disregarding the right to vote against it, and unanimously announced

National Pension Service should create a pool of public interest directors and appoint a public interest director who is an ESG expert

Today (3/12) POSCO’s 53rd regular shareholders’ meeting passed the agenda of POSCO Chairman Jeong-woo Choi’s reappointment. As the labor and civil society organizations consistently argued, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi is responsible for management errors such as local environmental pollution, occupational diseases, industrial disasters, the worsening of the climate crisis, coal power generation problems, and resource diplomacy. It is a person. Accordingly, the Minbyun People’s Economic Committee, the Solidarity of Participation, tried to exercise their rights as shareholders by entering the POSCO General Shareholders’ Meeting, but the position was blocked because of corona prevention before the start of the general shareholders’ meeting. According to the media (http://bit.ly/38yoWbX), today’s shareholders’ meeting seats only 30 seats, and even this was filled with personnel from POSCO’s management. It is a question of whether POSCO, which has a 74% stake in minority shareholders, really respects the rights of shareholders. In addition, the Solidarity of Participation and the Minbyun People’s Economic Committee voted against the reappointment of Chairman Choi Jung-woo today, but according to the media, 75.1% of the total sovereignty attending the general shareholders’ meeting unanimously agreed to the succession of Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi (http://bit. ly/2OP2iVC). This not only deceives minority shareholders, but also undermines the meaning of the existence of the general shareholders’ meeting, the voting body of a stock company. The labor civil society group opposes the reappointment of Chairman Choi Jung-woo, who has many problems.

POSCO’s financial position, which had a debt-to-equity ratio of only 44% until 2007, was 88% in 2014 (65.4% at the end of 2019), and the number of subsidiary and consolidated companies was from 85 at the end of 2007 to 338 at the end of 2014. As a result, S&P’s credit rating was also relegated from A in 2007 to BBB+ in 2012, changing from a superior company to a poor company. This is due to POSCO’s reckless investment in overseas resource development, mergers and acquisitions, and new establishments from 2008 to 2014. Since 2012, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi has been responsible for insolvent and negligent management by serving in major positions such as POSCO Executive Vice President, POSCO Daewoo Vice President, POSCO Vice President, and POSCO CEO and President, etc., but has neglected efforts to resolve these issues. In addition, the executive directors, including Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi, who were decided to reappoint this time, also did not make any efforts to resolve and prevent recurrence of POSCO’s environmental pollution, occupational diseases and industrial accidents, and climate crisis while serving as executives for over 10 years. I have been giving up responsibility. From 2018 to the present, a total of 21 people died from industrial accidents, of which only 16 people died during the presidency of Chairman Choi Jung-woo. In this regard, the board-level measures and recurrence prevention meetings have never been held. Nevertheless, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi succeeded in reappointing without any concern about this. This is something that cannot but be criticized.

Today, POSCO’s general shareholders’ meeting proved that Chairman Jeong-woo Choi had no consciousness about respect for labor or environmental protection. Chairman Jeong-woo Choi said, “We will further strengthen our low-cost, high-efficiency production system using artificial intelligence (AI) technology in response to the challenging business environment. In addition, there has not been any reflection on industrial accidents, environmental pollution, or poor management. The same is true of the stance related to today’s shareholders’ meeting. POSCO, which has no respect for minority shareholders, does not have any respect for workers and local communities. The labor and civil society organizations will not continue to delay monitoring of POSCO.

This is also the case for the National Pension System, which exercised neutral voting rights on the agenda for the reappointment of Choi Jung-woo. As POSCO is a company with publicity, the responsibility of the national pension is even more significant. Nevertheless, after the introduction of the stewardship code, the National Pension Service virtually abandoned the trustee’s responsibility and irresponsibly exercised neutral voting rights against POSCO, giving up the responsibility as a butler of the national retirement fund. As a key industry, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi has not only inflicted damage on various stakeholders such as workers, local communities, and minority shareholders, but also has a responsibility for poor management, so there is no reasonable reason to be reappointed. Therefore, the National Pension Plan should hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders even afterwards to propose a dismissal agenda for the dismissal of Chairman Jeong-woo Choi. In addition, by creating a pool of public interest directors, which was decided to be created by 2019, POSCO must appoint public interest directors who are experts in E (environment), S (social), and G (government structure). In the future, labor and civil society organizations will continue to monitor and monitor the National Pension Service so that it can properly engage in trustee activities.