Battling Greenmail

The vote against greenmail at the Occidental Petroleum annual meeting was much greater than reported in “Hammer Says Oxy Won’t Prevent a Hostile Takeover” (May 22).

As a longtime shareholder, I presented the anti-greenmail resolution that would have prevented such greenmail abuses as those that struck Occidental last year. A good example of what occurred last year was when the board of directors voted to pay one of their number 42% above the market price for his stock, a premium resulting in a $56 million profit for him.

Unfortunately my resolution was defeated at the annual meeting, since the management used its power to solicit votes against it. However, the vote was not 92.4% against it, as the story stated. Rather, the vote was approximately 70% against it--a considerable drop-off from the normal 90%-plus votes that most managements enjoy as affirmation of their positions.

For those who were at the annual meeting, the voice vote was much more close--a virtual tie. Unfortunately, the voice vote had no official meaning when taken by Hammer. Thus, the 315,000 shareholders of Occidental still have to live in fear of another devastating round of greenmail to be inflicted on them by the board of directors.

CARL OLSON

Vienna, Va.