Welcome to GE's 2017 Annual Meeting. Each year, we hold our Annual Meeting in a city that's important to GE and its shareholders. This year, it's Asheville, North Carolina. We're very happy that we have almost 5,000 employees here. Our employees are very generous in the community.
You're sitting in one of our amazing factories with a great team. We've invested $125,000,000 to expand this factory. And it's the home of our LEAP engine that you can see over there. What an amazing product. I'm advised that this meeting is properly convened.
We have a quorum and that the proposed resolutions presented in the proxy statement are filed as part of these proceedings. We've received proxies representing a substantial majority of the outstanding votes and the management and proxy committee has voted those in accordance with Shareholder wishes. It's now my privilege to introduce the members of your Board of Directors who are with us today. I'm going to ask the Directors to stand briefly as I introduce them so you can see who they are. Andrea Juk, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen Shelly Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus of Ogilvy and Mather, Director since 2000 Shelly is Chair of our Governance Committee Bob Lane, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Deere Susan Hockfield, President Emerita of MIT, Susan is Chair of our Industrial Risk Committee Jim Mulva, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ConocoPhillips Jeff Beatty, Chief Executive Officer, Generation Capital Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of Vanguard.
Jack is our Lead Director and Chair of the NDCC Committee Frank D'Souza, CEO of Cognizant Technology, a Director of SIEM13 Mary Shapiro, former Chairman of the SEC, Mary is Chair of our Audit Committee Jim Moore, Executive Chair and former CEO of PNC Financial Sebastian Bizen, Chairman and CEO of Incor, a Director since 'sixteen Lowell McAdam, Chairman and CEO of Verizon, a Director since 2016 Peter Henry, Dean of the NYU Stern School, a Director since 2016 and Steve Mollenkopf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm, Director since November 2016. I'd also like John Rice, Beth Comstock and Dave Joyce to stand briefly their Vice Chairman and do great work for you every day. How about a nice round of applause for our Board? Great. So I'm going to give you just a brief update on the company and then we're going to have some fantastic presentations.
So the essence of the company, we always think about portfolio, how we leverage the internal scale of the company. We're investing to really lead the digital transition. Our real focus is through our technologies to deliver productivity for our customers. And we really are trying to drive a lean and efficient company. And this is really the way we run the company and this is in your annual report.
In 2016, as you can read in your proxy, we had organic growth of 1%. Our Industrial and Vertical EPS was up 14%. We returned a lot of cash to our investors, almost $30,000,000 $30,500,000,000 a good dividend yield. In 2016, our total shareholder return was up 5%. We trailed the market last year.
In 2012 to 2016, the previous 5 years, our total shareholder returns was 108% versus S and P 598%. In 2017, these are our goals to grow EPS by more than 10%, to generate between $60,000,000,000 $20,000,000,000 of cash and return cash back to you in terms of dividend and buyback. In the Q1, we had organic growth of 7%, a good margin expansion, trailed in cash and returned $4,400,000,000 of cash back to investors. So we're off to a good start for the year, and we expect to have a very solid 2017. One of the things we've talked about in previous years is just the transition we've taken the company through.
One of the amazing things is that we've really built a very strong $135,000,000,000 industrial company, big investments in Alstom to grow our Power business, a recent investment in Baker Hughes to really fill out our Oil and Gas business. At the same time, we continue to invest in new technology, new R and D like the engine over here, digital technology, advanced manufacturing that you saw on the tour today. And while we've been really growing and expanding our industrial capability, we at the same time really went through a dramatic disposition of Financial Services. So we've exited more than $200,000,000,000 of Financial Services to really kind of clean up that operation and really drive more strength. So all we do in Financial Services is really finance GE products today.
And at the same time, we've returned more than $60,000,000,000 to investors over the last 2 years. So really a lot going on, a historic transition for the company. And while we've been executing on all those key strategic activities, we've grown our earnings per share by more than 10% each year. So that's really the essence of what we try to do and where we've executed in the company. 2 big bets we're making.
1 is called the Industrial Internet. And this is to capture the digital context for Industrial assets. We think this is a key piece of the future. We've launched our own operating platform called Predix and really focused on the applications that matter that help improve our customers' productivity. Similarly, we want to lead in manufacturing and we've made huge investments in what's called additive manufacturing to really drive cycle time, cost and speed, generate internal productivity.
And really what we want to do is drive productivity for ourselves, productivity for our customers and productivity for the world. I thought it'd be great for investors this year to kind of hear a little bit about the Asheville area and talk a little bit about some of the great things our teams are doing. And we have 2 brief presentations today, 1 by our Aviation Manufacturing team, led by Colleen Athens, Mike and Eric. And they're really going to talk about how we've used manufacturing to really make the company more productive, how we're leading in exports. And then Doctor.
Ron Palos, who's CEO of the major system called Mission Health, will just kind of give you an update of how GE and Mission work together and how healthcare looks in the future. So with that, I'd like to invite Colleen and her team to come up and give a presentation to the investors.
Good morning. I'm Colleen Athens. I'm the Vice President of GE Aviation Supply Chain. And I am thrilled to host you here in Asheville, where you can see the transformation that's happening in our business firsthand. GE Aviation has been undergoing a decade of renewal that is touching every aspect of our product portfolio from our commercial, military, Business and General Aviation Engines as well as our Avionics and Systems businesses.
We've launched 9 new engine programs in the last decade, drawing on a suite of advanced technologies that have redefined the state of the art, resulting in dramatically lower fuel burn, noise and emissions for our customers. This translates to better performance, reliability and profitability for them. Because of this renewal, we have more than 15,000 engines in our backlog that we will deliver over the next 5 years and a services backlog that has grown to $150,000,000,000 And to meet this demand, we are transforming our supply chain. We've invested more than $5,000,000,000 to build out 8 new plants in the last 8 years. These are some of the highest technology production facilities in the world, and you see one of them right here in Asheville.
We're also pushing the state of the art in Additive Manufacturing. Our Additive plant in Auburn, Alabama will produce more than 40,000 fuel nozzles for the CFM LEAP engine that you see right here before the end of the next decade. This nozzle is a 1 piece marvel. It replaces 25 individual components in the engine that historically had to be assembled by hand and then welded and brazed together. Additive made possible a nozzle that's lighter, it's more durable, and it's a key enabler for delivering the industry leading fuel efficiency and emissions reduction for our airline customers.
The plant we're in this morning is the centerpiece of our growing ceramic matrix composites production capability. Asheville is part of a fully integrated supply chain that spans from raw material all the way through the finished part. CMCs are lighter, stronger and more durable than the metal parts that they replace. This game changing technology is the result of more than 20 years of research and development at GE's Global Research Center and provides a unique competitive advantage exclusive to GE. We're transforming our plants as well with new digital capability.
We're sensor enabling our machines, generating and storing big data, and then we're creating software solutions to turn the data into insights that we translate into productivity. Together with lean manufacturing and a highly skilled workforce empowered by teaming to make real time decisions, our factories are becoming what we call brilliant. This is the GE store in action. The heart and the soul of our supply chain is our 27,000 people worldwide. We have nearly 80 facilities in 19 countries that operate under a teaming philosophy that drives decision making as close to the product as possible.
This gives frontline workers much greater say in the day to day decisions, and growth of our business. We are also investing in our business and our business. We are also investing
in our business and our business. We are also investing in our business and our business. We are also investing in our business
and technologies and manufacturing techniques that will keep us at the forefront of the aviation industry. GE has a brilliant learning initiative and this is an example of that. It's a proprietary curriculum to advance skills of employees in production jobs so that they are better prepared for the advanced technology jobs of today and the future. And digital. And to help create the workers of tomorrow, we actively partner with technical schools and universities to develop curricula and apprenticeship programs that ensure we're developing the workforce of the future.
Now I'd like to introduce Michael Maguire. Michael is our plant leader here in Asheville. He's going to talk a little bit more about our facilities becoming an integral part of the community. Thank you.
Thanks, Colleen. Again, my name is Mike McGuire. I'm the Site Leader here at GE Aviation in Asheville. I want to tell you a little bit about what the 400 plus employees at our site do. We actually produce some of the most complex components in the engine, both from rotating parts, metal components to what Colleen spoke of, a new ceramic matrix composite material system that you see right back here in the back being produced right now.
As we continue to grow and expand this material, we'll be producing that those components right here in the seats that you're sitting and fill this building. We're very proud of that and we're very proud of that team. We're also one of only 6 manufacturing sites across the state of North Carolina providing 5,000 jobs and delivering almost $7,000,000,000 of economic impact to our state, impacting really 18 1,000 direct and indirect jobs across the state of North Carolina. So again we're very proud of that and for GE Aviation to be a part of that. So Colleen also talked a little bit about teaming and our culture here in Asheville across our supply chain.
And I'll expand on that a little bit. We really do try to empower the where the work is actually being performed. The frontline technicians that are actually performing the work, giving them the support system, giving them the tools, giving them the data to make decisions every single day. That's what teaming really is to us. It's empowering those people to make decisions for themselves.
Because who best knows those decisions than those workers? And we give the tools to our coaches, not the traditional hierarchical supervisors. We give coaches to support the teams and not just direct the work. And so again, we're very proud of that. We feel like that makes our teams very nimble, fast and make decisions quicker.
And that we're our brand here in Asheville that we're very proud of again is to be an early adopter of new technology, whether it be processes, whether it be data and analytics, brilliant factory tools and other things that make us more efficient. We're quick to adopt new technologies and anything that continues to make us more and more competitive as a team. One of those digital technology tools One of those digital technology tools that I'll expand on slightly is the new SWAT tool, stands for Standard Work Optimizational Tool. We piloted this with some of our technicians along with some of our key digital factory I'm sorry, brilliant factory team in Cincinnati. And they were very quickly able to give us a prototype that we can put into production and test.
We iterated multiple times using a fast work approach and delivered a product that we're continuing to evolve and will eventually be put into the GE store and provided to all other GE sites. So again, just a great solution that we've been able to partner with both our technicians all the way to our corporate leadership team. One of the other things I'll talk about our culture is our community. I hope you've got an opportunity to come and see a little taste of Asheville. It's a beautiful place and we have great partnerships across our community.
We went over to see Pisca High School and provided them with a grant recently. And that partnership in which we employ several, say, apprentices across our shop, upwards of almost 20% to 30% of employees come through that program. And they're training the next generation of workforce across our in our site and across Western North Carolina. So that's one of the local partnerships. The other thing I would say is a customized training program that we developed with AB Tech, which is our local community college.
They've been a fantastic solution to prepare our workers to hit the door and be productive from day 1. So it's a great partnership locally. We also are very engaged in the community from a charitable giving standpoint. We've had almost 500 hours locally over 13 projects to give back to this community, which gives us in so many ways. And across the state, GE Aviation has volunteered over $8,000 hours $3,500,000 back to charitable organizations.
So again, we're very proud of that being part of our brand. And lastly, I would just say, we love Asheville. GE Aviation loves Asheville. We love being here. And we're very proud to for you guys to come into our home today and be a part of this.
I've made the comment to someone earlier. I've worked for GE in 6 different cities across the four corners of this country. And I believe we have the best people and absolutely one of the best sites in our entire business. So I'm very proud of that. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Eric Madison.
Eric leads our Lafayette, Indiana site that assembles this beautiful engine, which I'm sure you've been admiring during the tours today.
So thank you, Mike. And yes, I'm blessed to have the privilege to not only lead the team to start up the project that in Lafayette, Indiana that builds that beautiful engine that you see off beside here. So that's the LEAP 1B engine. We opened the facility in early in Lafayette in early 2016. We built and shipped the first engine by May.
And believe it or not, we've shipped over 100 engines by the end of that year. We're going to do about 100 500 engines this year, approaching 1100 engines next year, going to over 2,000 engines by the end of the decade. That's just phenomenal. The ramp up, it's unprecedented in the history of the company. To put that into perspective, it took us 20 years 20 years to do what we're going to do in 4 years with the predecessor of this product.
So just absolutely amazing challenge. And incidentally, CFM56, the predecessor to this engine
is the most successful
engines best selling engine
in its history with more than 30,000 best selling engine in its history with more than 30,000 engines delivered. So just very, very impressive. So the first engine, A321neo, It's performing fantastic. We've got 50 aircraft in service now as of this Monday. Just an excellent achievement.
And this is what's truly amazing. It is making as much as 11 flights per day. So think about that. 11 flights per day, you're flipping the aircraft on the ground in 22 to 25 minutes. And it is that time, believe it or not, that's so important because you're allowing that aircraft to be in the air a whole lot more, making more money for that customer.
And so that's GE's part of returning back to that customer an opportunity to maximize their investment. So we are achieving that with the LEAP-1A on the A320. Next up is the Boeing 737 MAX. Here shortly later this month, we expect that the 737 MAX will go into service. We're really looking forward to that.
We've already started production on these engines in Durham, North Carolina and in our shop in Lafayette, Indiana. And it's just really come together great. Finally, the 3rd application is the COMAC 9 19. And so if you're watching the news, we'll see them make their first flight here in probably the next 4 6 weeks. And with both the Boeing 737 and the COMAC 9 19, we are the exclusive engine provider for those engines.
So when you look at this beautiful engine off to the side of us, there's a fantastic technology stack in that engine. Starting from upfront, you look at the fan blades 3 d woven, they're beautiful. The predecessor to that is in the Museum of Art. Going back through the engine, you're going to see the additive fuel nozzles in there. So for those who had a chance to tour around and look at the machine and how those nozzles are made, it's just game changing and allow us to make a more durable part, literally 20 parts now down to 1, lighter part more durable.
Going back to the CMCs made right here in this building, only 1 inch of the total length of that engine is CMCs, but drives 1% of the fuel savings that engine will deliver. In total, that engine is going to deliver 15% better fuel burn, 50% lower emissions, 50% approximately lower noise, same reliability, same maintenance costs that will guarantee that customer can maximize their profits with their aircraft. Literally, it's a profit machine for the airlines. So as you can tell, I'm pretty pumped up about it, so is our team. Back in Lafayette, they're really pumped up about the engine and what we're doing in the company.
And the point is this, that only one company like GE has that kind of depth to bring something like that to life and the speed that we did it. And so really, really proud for my team back in Lafayette, the team in Durham that we work with to bring these engines to life. Okay. So with that, turn it back to Jeff.
Thank you
very much. Colleen, Mike, Eric, thanks guys. It's now my honor to introduce Doctor. Ron Palos, who's the CEO of the Mission Health System, one of the top 15 health systems in the country, headquartered right here in Asheville, North Carolina. So, Ron, take it away.
Thank you. And welcome to Asheville. For those who haven't been here, I hope you're enjoying our great small city. Moving away from sort of materials and supply chains and into healthcare, which is something that touches every one of us at some point in our time. I think you all know, without having to be experts in this space, that we got a lot of issues in healthcare.
And it's not just the insanity in D. C. Right now, right? Healthcare is 20% of our economy, and yet we have quality that's not high enough. We kill 100,000 people in our healthcare system every year, and our costs are too high, rising at double the rate of inflation in almost every year.
So here we are as a safety net health system in Western North Carolina, where we're the provider of last resorts. We're about $2,000,000,000 and we have ever rising charity and bad debt as part of our system. And we're saying, how do we manage through this major transformation that's occurring in healthcare unlike anything we've ever seen in our recent times? And so what we did was to say, look, we can't do this on our own. We want to maintain our independence and not be consumed by even much larger health system.
So we need really powerful instrumental partners. And we looked and GE was an obvious choice. They're a global technology software and process engineering leader. They bring value that we can't create on our own and they do that in direct collaboration with our teams and our people. They were willing to have skin in the game, so they guaranteed $40,000,000 of savings over the duration of our agreement.
We already believe the GE
technology was best of breed, so
we made a commitment to purchase MRIs and we and to do that not in a way where one person waits for the other, but where we co invest and co develop and co resource solutions that are not only valuable to Mission Health, but as a typical health system the way most of America is organized that we hope and believe will be scalable nationally and potentially internationally. So why GE? First, shared values, shared commitments, incredible people in addition to that technology, software and process engineering that I mentioned earlier. And we've both agreed to set expectations and awareness so that we're in this for the long run, where we can make investments and GE has staff on-site and we've dedicated staff to this effort, where we can make investments and look out 5 years and not just have to get a return in the very next quarter. In closing, just a little bit of a preview of some of the stuff that we have going on, and I think it's super exciting, just the tip of the iceberg.
We're developing together, and it's making great progress, a care coordination app that looks at big data, historical information and uses predictive analytics to sort of forecast when a patient comes into the hospital, how long are they likely to stay and where are they likely to be discharged to, to home or to a nursing home or to a skilled nursing facility or what have you. That enables us to reallocate resources in our team to minimize their length of stay. The shorter you can be in the hospital, the better off you are. And to prepare for that transition so that the patient, family and other caregivers are ready to pick up the ball and move downstream. Another example that's in the more earlier development stage, we have all of this equipment across 18 counties here in Western North Carolina, MRI, CTs, whatever.
And the problem is that sometimes that equipment is heavily utilized and sometimes it's very low utilized. So we're also developing a load leveling or resource incentive app that will allow a consumer in real time to go on their phone or on their tablet and say, we have excess capacity here and if you want to save $500 on your CT scan, you could drive to this location and get the CT scan. But if you go to this location, it's going to be the regular price. Why? Because that makes it cheaper and more efficient for us and we want to translate those values to the consumer, and ultimately, in collaboration with one another, to really drive costs down and quality up.
Mission has been named, as Jeff said, a top 15 health system for 5 out of the last 6 years. But there's no way we're going to be able to achieve what we have to give back to our community without partners like GE.
Thank you. Thanks. Thanks to the team. Thanks, guys. I'd now like to ask Jeff Bornstein and Alex Dimitria to join me and go through the rest of the items in your proxy statement.
The independent inspectors of election for this year's meeting are representatives of IBS Associates. If you've already voted by proxy, there's no need to vote by ballot today unless you would like to change your vote. We'll take up the election of Directors and the management and shareholder proposals. After election of Directors and Management proposals are introduced, there'll be an opportunity for discussion. And then after the shareholder proposals are introduced, there'll be a chance to discuss those.
There'll also be time later on in the meeting for discussion of other business matters. But first, we'll address the items in the proxy. The first matter is the election of directors. I've placed before the meeting to service directors for the company, the 18 individuals whose names and biographies appear in the proxy statement.
Each one
of these nominees has received the overwhelming majority of shares voted by proxy. The next items on the proposal are the proposal to approve our named executives' compensation and the proposal to approve the frequency of future say on pay votes. Your Board of Directors recommends a vote for the approval our named executive's compensation and recommends continuing to hold future stamped pay votes every year. The next item is the approval of an amendment to GE's 2,007 long term incentive plan. Your Board of Directors recommends a vote for the amended item.
Next is the approval of the material terms of Senior Officer Performance Goals. Your Board of Directors recommends a vote for this proposal. Last up, for the management proposals and ratification of KPMG as independent auditor for 2017, We have with us today John Vemeyer and Larry Bradley, who represent KPMG. Your Board of Directors recommends to vote for the ratification of KPMG as independent auditors for 2017. Those are the management proposals.
So if you'd like to speak about any of those, just go to one of the 2 IO microphones, I'll call on you there. Please give your name when you're recognized. Anybody want to go? Let's go microphone number 1. Hey, Bill, good to see you again.
Good to
see you, Jeff.
You've been here many years, and it's always great see you.
Thank you. Good morning, fellow share owners. My name is Bill Frieda. I'm here this morning to once again vote against Jeff Immelt for the same reason I gave last year. I do not trust what he tells us as share owners.
My mistrust stems from the remarks made by the Chairman regarding the termination of GE's post-sixty five retiree medical benefits. At our 2015 Shareowners Meeting, Chairman Immelt made the following statement and I quote, we've constantly evolved our strategies around healthcare and provided more alternatives this year in the post-sixty 5 healthcare to take advantage with some of the things that are going on in the government around health care exchanges. The Chairman made a similar statement at last year's meeting. What Mr. Immelt seems to be implying is that the health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, applies to Medicare Supplement Plans and fellow share owners and members of our Board of Directors.
That is what we have come to know as an alternative fact. What in fact GE did do was hire a subsidiary of a publicly owned company, Willis Tower Watson, traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol of WLTW. The name of the subsidiary is OneExchange. This company is not a government exchange. In fact, it is not an exchange at all.
It is a self described insurance brokerage company that earns a commission from every Medicare Supplement Plan, Medicare Advantage Plan or prescription drug plan in which they enroll a GE retiree. So fellow share owners and members of our Board of Directors, does that remotely sound like a strategy that takes advantage of the things that are going on in the government around health care exchanges? Now I would like to direct my remarks to the members of the GE Board of Directors, more specifically to those of you who voted to accept this change in policy. It occurs to me that when this issue was presented to you, at best, you were not given all the facts. At worst, you were deliberately given bad information.
I'm sorry to say, but it appears that our board members may not have done their due diligence when considering this sensitive and important matter. Having read our board's biographies provided in the annual report, I realized that we, GE, are fortunate to have some of the smartest and most accomplished individuals, service directors of our company. So I've asked myself, why would this group of intelligent savvy people agree to make a decision that would devastate the lives of tens of thousands of loyal long term GE employees and retirees? I haven't I have entertained a number of scenarios, but the most logical one to me is that board of directors was given a presentation designed to accomplish the eventual outcome. In other words, our board may have been misled.
That is where we get back to the issue of due diligence. How much resistance did board members show? Did you ask enough questions? Did you ask any questions at all? How much time was actually devoted to discussing this topic?
In other words, did you do your due diligence? Let me provide you with some real facts that you may not be aware of. Did you know of the 4 plans that comprise GE's post-sixty five retirement benefits program? 2 were entirely paid for by the participants in the plan. In other words, the retirees themselves.
Did you know that 80% of GE's cost was their Medicare Part D prescription drug plan? Adjustments could have been made to this plan to reduce GE's costs without terminating the entire post-sixty five retiree healthcare program. Mr. Immelt has in the past made reference to GE's financial assistance to retirees. What that amounts to is $1,000 per year per participant.
GE has been very careful not to make any commitment beyond 2017. In addition, what Chairman Immelt has conveniently not mentioned is that other large corporations like AT and T reimburses their post 65 retirees $4,200 per year for a retiree and eligible spouse, more than double what GE offers its retirees. In court, GE attorneys have alluded to the fact that GE retirees will not be harmed by this change in policy. Let me share just one story with you that disputes that Callus claim. I know a retiree that cannot take statin drugs like Lipitor to control his cholesterol because they make him seriously ill.
Therefore, he needs to take a combination of 2 other medications. Under the GE Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, he paid $130 for a 3 month supply for both medications. In 2016, he paid $1,128.6 $1 Now you may be thinking that this story is an exaggeration. Well, the retiree is me and I have the invoices to prove it. Chairman Immelt is fond of using the term win or winning when describing GE's performance.
He used them 6 times in this year's letter to share owners. Mr. Chairman, who in the world is winning? Not GE retirees or GE share owners and certainly not long term share owners? Many GE employees and retirees purchased GE stock and continue to retain it because they had faith in GE's future.
That clearly was a mistake. And you, Mr. Immel, compound that mistake by making them scapegoats for your inability to raise the price of GE stock by terminating their post-sixty 5 retirement benefits. Ladies and gentlemen of the GE Board of Directors, I cannot make you care about the health and welfare of GE retirees. Either you do or you don't.
What I hope you will do is make sure you are given all the facts and examine them carefully before you make decisions that have such a profound effect on so many people's lives.
Thank you, Bill. Today, I am asking that
a group representing GE retirees meet with the GE Board of Directors in executive session. In other words, without Chairman Immelt or his surrogates, for the sake of all GE retirees on whose shoulders Chairman Immelt now stands, please take this request very seriously and grant us that meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, Bill. Dennis, microphone number 2. Great to see you. Kevin, good to see you.
Dennis. Sorry. I I will take his pension instead of behind. But oh, he just hit me again.
Good to see a fellow a fellow Bostonian. Yes, sir.
My neighbor, my new neighbor, Jeff Amelt. And I can see the companies from my balcony out in my condo, by the way, just so you know. My name is Kevin Ma. I think this is I don't know. You know, if you get older, you lose your your memory.
I'm not sure if it's my first, maybe my 22nd GEE Annual Meeting as a as a peers. But I wanted to welcome you to Boston. I'm sure that, the rumor was that you came to Boston because you wanted to be closer to me. So that was, it was a real good event to me. Bill spoke a lot of things that needed to be said.
And I have 3 main issues here that I'd want to briefly go into. And the first is that I would like to have a study done on what this taking away of the over 65 health insurance has really meant. I know on Page 5 of last year's annual report, it said that you said that 8 out of 10 people were satisfied when you were talking about this. That's that's not true. And and as you've had the, board of directors stand up and be applauded, I'd like to have every GE retiree in the place stand up.
Because you are the people you are the people that have made this company. Every GE retiree. And as and as Jeff pointed out on his prod podcast yesterday, His own father is a 38 year old, 30 year 38 years in the GE retiree.
He he'd like to be 38,
but I think I know. But he's 38 years with the company. Okay? And I thought about that a little bit. And I said, well, geez, you know, we've been doing this stuff and coming here for 22 years.
And, I and I thought, you know, geez, he he got, he got the last pension increase that that we got. Okay? With a with a cap. So he got, for his 38 years, he got $360 increase. And we need the three things that I'm talking about.
A true study like Bill is talking about to see what the actual effects is. Secondly, settle the lawsuits. I ask you from the bottom of my heart, we need to settle these lawsuits and get this behind us. 3rd, a major increase in in the pension plan. You know, your father said when you first got to be chairman and and it's in the interviews.
Oh, good. Now you can do something about the GE pension plan. Well, you eliminated that 100 year old pension plan, about 3 years ago or so. And so now, knowing that, the the retirees and the elderly retirees, people like Paul Colella with 42 years service, He gets a pension of $1,000 a month on many of the people that in the in the work in the lighting or the other divisions. Very little pension.
The average pension is is $900 a year. And now with this health care cost on top of them, it is devastating. I mean, in my 55 years of being employed at GE initially from February 19, 1961. This is the most devastating, event that I can ever remember us having. And we need to have help with it.
Thanks, Kevin. Just one last thing. Just so you know, I wish the board of directors could see what this is doing with the eyes that I'm I see every day by helping people. I had a woman come down, Lola Foster, April 20th. And just to give you an idea of what this ex one exchange does.
For 2 and a half hours, we're on the phone. This little slip of a woman with age 78 for 2 and a half hours is is put through an ordeal of trying to figure out how to get her health care straight. Okay? Finally, we got it done. But you know what?
The Boston Marathon was won in 209 and the woman won ran in 221. You know, to put this woman through that, I Thanks, Kevin. Our deal is disgraceful.
Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. We're going to do one more question for microphone 1 and then we'll go to the shareholder proposals.
Good morning, Michael. Yes, ma'am. Melody Jackson.
How are you?
Just fine. I retired from GE after 37 years. I was 3rd generation GE employee. And I did not qualify for the $1,000 reimbursement. I'm the secretary, communications director and the benefits advocate for our group of a potential of 265,000 retirees in the United States at this point in time.
Every day I get calls from our retirees either on the phone, through PMs, through e mail, because 75% of our retirees are not computer literate. They have no idea how to get into the system, how to interface with OneExchange, even with our benefits plan. I get HIPAA forms to GE. I have a contact direct at Global that I have been assigned to talk with. I also have a direct contact at OneExchange.
That has been a total disaster. One example specifically was an employee that retired. His wife passed away. He called in to check on the benefits. He finds out, they said, oh, you retired, you lost all those benefits.
He said, well, that's funny. They've been taking benefits out for $700 from my dependent life insurance. They immediately returned those funds to his bank account. When I learned this, it was escalated to more than one person. And they found out indeed he did have dependent life insurance to the tune of $10,000 Now the harm that this person went through when he found this information, going through the death of his wife to begin with, and then be told he didn't have this coverage, in the end to find out when they actually checked into it, he did.
I also had a personal experience. They told me I was deceased through one exchange. On November 28, 2 years previous, I was denied the ability to talk to a person, a supervisor or a manager. I then in turn went back to GE Benefits. I had 2 different separate GE Benefits people that were on with me.
Again, I was denied. Now most of our older seniors would have been intimidated and stopped. That's not me. It's not going to happen. All of the conversations were reviewed.
And they admitted that I had been told wrong information. And they never did tell me exactly why. Now if the person screwed up, be man enough to say, I told you the wrong information, we'll start over. That never happened. That's done to me.
Can you imagine the harm that that's doing to our seniors that are intimidated? One phone call and they'll stop. But that's not going to happen with me. On pre-sixty five employees, they're truly at a loss as to how to sign on to Medicare, how to check on their benefits, the SSO that they are required to give. They go and try to sign on and the security has just changed.
They're overwhelmed. They have no idea how to do it. We put out a newsletter at least once a month I put out reiterating the same information, getting on the phone with them, getting HIPAA forms, dealing with them with GE benefits as well as one exchange, because they have no idea how to do it. I get calls from family members that said, my parents aren't getting their RRA. They have no idea how to get the $1,000 So when you capture that 30% aren't eligible, such as myself, We're not capturing the people that don't get it because they don't know how.
We post all the forms that are necessary on our site. I'm available 20 fourseven. And this is just a stack of what I've accumulated of conversations and people that are constantly calling just to find out how they take care of their benefits.
No. Thank you, Ms. Jackson.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. So now we're going to move on to share our proposals. And to be sure that all proponents have an opportunity to present their proposals today, we ask that the presenters can find their comments during the portion of the meeting to the subject matter of the proposal being presented. And we ask that other speakers wait until all shareholder proposals are presented before providing comments. We'll have an opportunity for discussion of other matters after we finish the battling report of inspectors.
So on proposal number 1, on lobbying activities, I believe we have Mr. Glenn Johnson here with us today. Mr. Johnson, if you would.
Fellow Shareowners and members of the Board, my name is Glenn Johnson. On behalf of the City of Philadelphia Public Employees Retirement System, I hereby move Shareholder Proposal 1 asking our company to provide a report on its state and federal lobbying expenditures, including indirect funding of lobbying through trade associations. Transparency and accountability and corporate spending to influence public policy are in the best interest of GE shareowners. GE spent $28,800,000 in 2015 2016 on federal lobbying activities and there is incomplete disclosure about spending at the state level where our company also lobbies extensively. For example, GE lobbied in at least 21 states in 20142015.
GE is required to report its lobbying and it already has this information so it could easily provide this information to shareowners and report rather than leaving it buried. GE claims it provides comprehensive lobbying and disclosure. Proxy advisor ISS does not agree and recommend support for this proposal stating that GE does not provide comprehensive information regarding slobbing expenditures and does not disclose a comprehensive list of trade association memberships or the portion of dues or any other payments used for lobbying purposes. GE argues that it has a high ranking in the CPA Zicklin Index, a report that measures political contributions disclosure of S and P 500 Companies. This argument is misleading since CPA Zicklin ranking looks at political contributions and has nothing to do with lobbying disclosure.
Corporations contribute billions to trade associations that lobby indirectly on their behalf without specific disclosure or accountability. GE show owners face a trade association blind spot as our company fails to disclose its trade association memberships and does not disclose its trade association payments nor the amounts used for lobbying. GE is a member of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent over $1,300,000,000 on lobbying since 1998.
Shareholders currently have no way to know GE's trade association memberships or payments being used to lobby on its behalf. Without a clear system ensuring accountability, corporate assets can be used to promote public policy objectives which may pose risk to GE and its shareholders. For example, GE supports policies that promote lower carbon emissions. And Mr. Emil recently stated that climate change is real and the science is well accepted.
Yet the Chamber of Commerce has aggressively attacked the EPA Clean Power Plan to address climate change. How does an incongruity like this match our company's principles? Our request for disclosure is a call for transparency and accountability, the spending of shareholders' resources, lobbying a shareholders' money that is being spent. Shouldn't our company tell Shareowners where they're spending it? We urge Shareowners to vote for this proposal.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. So thank you. Proposal number 2 is about Independent Lead Director. And I believe Ms. Penelope Jackson is here today.
Good morning.
Good morning. So proposal number 2, Independent Board Chair. This is sponsored by Kenneth Steiner of Great Neck New York. Shareholders request our Board of Directors to adopt this policy and amend our governing documents as necessary to require the Chair of the Board of Directors whenever possible to be an independent Board member. The Board would have the direction to phase in this policy for the next CEO transition, implemented so that it does not violate any existing agreement.
If the Board determines that a Chair who was independent when selected is no longer independent, the Board shall select a new Chair who satisfies the requirements of the policy within a responsible amount of time. Compliance with this policy is waived if no Independent Director is available and willing to serve as a Chair. This proposal requests that all the necessary steps be taken to accomplish the above. Caterpillar opposed a shareholder proposal for an independent Board Chair in its June 2016 Annual Meeting and then reversed itself by naming an independent Board Chair in October
of 2016. Wells Fargo also reduced itself and named
independent Board Chair in October of 2016. 16. Wells Fargo also reduced itself and named Independent Board Chairman in October of 2016. According to the Institutional Shareholder Services, 53% of the Standard and Poor's 1500 firms separate these two positions. 2015 Board of Practices, this was published in April 12, 2015.
This proposal topic won 50% plus support at 5 major U. S. Companies in 2013, including 73% support at Netflix. A Board of Directors is less likely to provide rigorous independent oversight of management if the Chairman is also the CEO, as is the case with GE. Having a Board Chairman who is independent of management is a practice that will promote greater management accountability to shareholders and lead to more objective evaluation of management.
A number of institutional investors said that a strong objective Board leader can best provide the necessary oversight of management. Thus, the California Public Employees Retirement Systems Global Principles of Accountable Corporate Governance recommends that companies Board should be chaired by an independent Director, as does the Council of Institutional
Proposal number 3 on cumulative voting is going to be presented by Mr. Huerangoso. Martin, good to see you again.
Thank you, Mr. Emerald. Good morning. Again, my name is Martin Huerangoso. I'm grateful to be a shareholder.
I love this company, people and products. I have joined own GE stock for most of my life. I am not a day trader or stock renter. Cumulative voting is recommended by Warren Buffett's mentor, the late Benjamin Graham. Nazi concentration camp survivor Evelyn Davis placed his proposal on our proxy many times in previous years.
I'm honored to stand on the shoulders of great minds and great people in presenting this cumulative voting proposal. Cumulative voting gives shareholder a larger voice in electing directors. I find far reaching consensus that something is wrong with our company and has been wrong too long. Some have recommended a new bus driver, so to speak. I would like to ask the question, is there a business road map with long success record that can be used regardless of who drives a bus?
Fortunately, there is and we do not have far to look. When we nearly went bankrupt, Berkshire Hathaway bailed us out. Why did they have money when we were financially drowning? Warren Buffett explains this very clearly in an article he wrote in The Intelligent Investor called The Super Investors of Graham and Doddsville. Buffett shows that following Graham's guidelines, 9 individuals working independently handsomely outperformed the market some more than 50 years.
Buffett says follow Graham and you will not get bad results. We've had bad results for 15 years. Had we purchased our shares at a PE of below 15 and maintained Graham's financial strength criteria, I believe we would be twice the valuation we are today. Mr. Emerald, if you do not publish a plan for this company founded on many examples of long term market outperformance, you are not fair to shareholders as I have this plan in my hand.
A Graham critic underperforms the market. You frequent a show by Jim Cramer. Cramer as a hedge fund manager lost most of his shareholders money during the dotcom bubble. If this meeting were an episode of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, I would recommend we copy Graham and not Cramer. There is more.
Graham goes on to suggest shareholders who act like she effectively let the Fox watch the hen house. Ladies and gentlemen, financially speaking, our Fox is fat. My research indicates that by exercising stock options, and I repeat stock options, Emil Crowe's moneyed £25 while shareholders' money fell to 1 half. This is a 50x difference and presents an alignment opportunity. The increased voice shareholders have using cumulative voting is a step in the right direction in aligning CEO pay to shareholder performance.
I urge all shareholders to vote for cumulative voting shareholder proposal number 3. Now this morning I enjoyed speaking to, Doctor. Ron Paulus and hearing GE's health initiative. I too shared health ideas. When your obese GE boss hates health, head initiatives and lies under oath regarding GE's benefits, it can be a bad career move.
Okay. Proposal number 4 by Justin Vanhoff. Good morning, Justin. How are you?
I'm doing great. Good morning, Justin.
Good to
see you again.
Good to see you. I'm Justin Danhof. I'm from the National Center For Public Policy Research and I move proposal number 4. Our proposal request that the Board issue a report analyzing the company's charitable activities. The report should list the rationale and benefits to society at large that were produced by the company's charitable contributions.
This report would not change any of the company's policies, goals or values or place them in the hands of shareholders. It would simply tell us shareholders if management believes that its charitable donations lived up to GE's values. The company donates to numerous organizations. Some of these organizations may end up using the funds provided by the company in unintended and unwanted ways. Donations to controversial groups, particularly political groups, may also eventually result in harm to GE's reputation.
Just by way of example, the company has provided funds to Planned Parenthood. Already the recipient of 500 $1,000,000 annually from taxpayers, the nation's largest abortion provider has come under investigation for the sale of fetal tissue. In response, many states and lots of corporations have decided they should distance themselves from this group. The company has also donated to the Center For American Progress known as CAP. CAP is an extreme political group that has been accused many times of antisemitism.
In 2010, under the direction of John Podesta, who would later become Chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Capp wrote the blueprint for the Obama administration's expansion of executive power that the New York Times wrote was unprecedented. Now with President Donald Trump in office, GE has lodged complaints about the very same use of executive power effectively designed and by implication endorsed through the company's funding of CAP. This doesn't seem congruence. The company also donated to the Clinton Foundation, an organization that has found itself under FBI investigation. Media reports strongly imply that parts of the Clinton Foundation operated as a pay for play scheme, whereby individuals and corporations may have sought preferential treatment from government actors in exchange for donations to the Foundation.
Such speculation is further fueled by the closing of much of the Clinton Foundation's operations following Mrs. Clinton's unsuccessful White House bid. GE's support of the Clinton Foundation has been subject to such scrutiny and speculation. While Liberals in the room made sheer donations to Planned Parenthood, CAP and the Clinton Foundation just as conservatives may bemoan them, there's simply no question that donations to highly politicized organizations are controversial. The report requested by our proposal would increase transparency and accountability and may help the company avoid unnecessary controversies.
Please join me in supporting Proposal 4. Great, Joseph.
Thank you. Thank you. So let's move on to agenda item 4, balloting. You'll find a ballot on your seat. If you have a ballot ready to turn in, please hold it up and I'll ask the ushers to collect it.
I believe the inspectors of election are ready to announce the outcome of the voting, so let's go to the inspectors' report. Michael Barbera of IBS Associates will be presenting the report of inspectors. Mr. Barbera, do you have a report for us?
Mr. Chairman, the inspectors of election have completed an initial count of the votes cast at this meeting in person or by proxy. Proxies representing approximately 6,000,000,000 684,000,000 shares or 76.8 percent of the total shares eligible to vote were received. Other shares have been voted at this meeting by ballot or by proxy. On the basis of our election announced the following results.
On the election of directors, each director received at least 4,700,000,000 favorable votes and all nominees have been elected. Management proposals, the advisory approval of our named executives' compensation for 89.1 percent of shares voted against 10.9%. On the future advisory votes on executive compensation, 1 year 66.2% of shares voted 2 years 0.6 percent 3 years 8.1 percent. The long term incentive plan as amended in favor 94.2 percent of shares voted against 5.8 percent. The senior officer performance goals in favor 92.9% of shares voted against 7.1 percent.
The ratification of KPMG as independent auditor in favor 96.7% of shares voted against 3.3%. On the share owner proposals, the lobbying report in favor 28.3% of shares voted against 71.7%. The independent share proposal in favor 23.9% of shares voted against 76.1 percent proposal for cumulative voting in favor of 10.7% against 89.3 percent the charitable giving report shares votes in favor of 4.7% against 95.3%. Mr. Chairman, this initial tally is subject to verification and the final tabulation may reflect small changes in the vote.
The final tabulation will be set forth in the formal report of the Inspectors of Election to the Secretary of the company, which will be made after the count has been verified. This concludes our report.
Thank you. That concludes the formal business of the meeting. And now we move to agenda item number 6. We've heard comments on the proposals and we want to give other shareowners a chance to speak. So if you wish to speak, please go to one of the microphones.
Dennis, on number 2. Dennis, good morning. How are you?
I'm fine. Thank you very much. Great to be with you again. I stand with Melody, Bill and Kevin, albeit probably a bit to the right. This is the 5th consecutive year my remarks have focused attention on what I consider a major policy mistake by GE, determination of a promise GE provided retiree Medicare supplementary coverage and a switch to private exchanges.
In 2014, after exhausting all internal remedies, I filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging GE's action. We are still awaiting the court's decision whether we can proceed to trial. In the meantime, thousands of affected retirees have died. I do not contend their deaths were caused or even hastened by GE's callous action, but I firmly believe that many died having received less than their due and with their faith in GE shattered. In the course of this litigation, I have been especially disappointed by the sophistry of GE's hired advocates, paid 1,000,000 of dollars who claimed tens of 1000 of retirees can save money under the new construct.
But they fail to acknowledge that it would likely result in restrictions in choice and a very possible reduction in quality of care. Gordon Bethune observed that you can make pizza so cheap, no one will eat it. Similarly, you can fashion inexpensive insurance so limited and so inappropriate that no one should buy it. Jeff, last year in Jacksonville, you asserted that the surveys we're doing show 8 of 10 kind of understand and are accepting and are satisfied with the process. What you kind of demonstrated with that statement was that if you ask the wrong question and then sufficiently qualify the response, you can kind of get the result you want.
That survey protocol is shameful as it is sloppy. It is somewhat similar to asserting that the vast majority of about to be executed prisoners favor the death penalty based on their positive evaluation of their last meal. Similar perversions of an honest analysis of reality abide in other elements of this transition. Your outside lawyers and experts persist in advancing the canard that I personally have suffered no harm. They ignore the over $900 annually that I and others now pay for Medicare D coverage that we did not pay before.
Whether it is properly denominated a tax and not a premium is irrelevant to me and to 1,000 of other salaried retirees. It is money out of our pockets, money that we cannot spend on food or attorneys. In addition, my drug plan premium and other cost I did not have previously went up nearly 30% last year. With no boost in an already inadequate RRA, try to convince me retirees have suffered no harm. Both cost and risk were shifted from GE to retirees.
I hold no illusion that we retirees will convince General Electric to return to the status quo ante. I won't even propose it. I do, however, retain some hope that integrity, both the letter and the spirit, really means something to the leadership of DE. That morality and fundamental fairness are basic values still embraced by our present directors that common sense still flows from the hearts and minds of the holders of GE common stock. I hope that you, Jeff and the Board were as deeply impressed in Jacksonville last year as I was when Craig Williams so compellingly referenced his parents, both of whom were former lifelong GE salaried employees.
He stated that with a single exception, the one exchange staff was incompetent. His concluding question to you regarding GE's willingness to reconsider its precipitous action was blithely evaded and left unanswered. So I will ask again. If I remain the good guy you labeled me in Jacksonville and if, as you stated there, you truly look forward to having an open door for people who may visit you in Boston to recount their problems with this retiree healthcare transition, I will call Susan Peters tomorrow and book an hour on your calendar. But let's cut to the chase.
I disagree with what GE as an institution did here. But you as a person remain in my eyes the good guy I met 30 years ago on Hurricane Island. You are a very good guy who was misled by staff and insufficiently challenged by them. Recently, Tryon, which has about 67,000,000 shares, commanded your attention and prompted GE to markedly alter publicized objectives and policies. Why shouldn't the 65,000 retirees and spouses represented in our litigation deserve a similar hearing.
If each owned only 1 tenth of my modest stake, we'd own considerably more shares than Triumph. Equally noteworthy, the recent involuntary rebooking of a passenger by United Airlines created a still continuing controversy. A parallel to GE's treatment of retirees is obvious. United was, in its opinion, acting legally in exercising its right to refuse boarding to any passenger for any reason. However, the general public had a very negative view of both that asserted right and the manner in which it was exercised.
I submit that GE's 65,000 retired salaried employees and spouses have a better reputation and a record than the doctor re accommodated by United. Moreover, the harm done to retirees is far more consequential. Thus, the potential adverse impact on GE could be enormous with the right element of outrage and attendant publicity. Perhaps an old testament type eye for an eye assault on GE's reputation, starting with the PR firestorm of protest in front of 41 Farnsworth Street should be our next step. Be that as it may, I repeat that I believe that you and or the Board should direct appropriate GE representatives to meet with a select group of salaried retirees to hear their views and to consider seriously their suggestions to ameliorate this matter and to mitigate the harm done to tens of thousands of retirees.
Respectful confrontation is what Nelson Peltz calls it. Abjure the Peck, Sniffy and GE posture heretofore exhibited on this issue. Fulfill your leadership responsibilities and respond positively to your retirees' legitimate needs and expectations. Thank you, Dennis. If you can co invent with Doctor.
Paulus and with Mission, why can't you co invent with us?
Great. Thank
you very much, Dennis. Nesli. Microphone number 1. Yes, sir.
Good morning. Good morning, Jeff. And, morning, the members of the board. My name is Carl Osmus. I come from a small town in upstate New York.
Perhaps you've heard of it. It's called Schenectady. Yes, sir. As the secretary treasurer of the local 301 Pensioners Committee, I represent many thousands of people that poured their blood, sweat, dedication and loyalty to a company that started there. I'd like to reference you to an article that appeared in this Connected Gazette dated April 16, 2017.
It tells a story with pictures of how we took the original two buildings bought by Thomas Edison in 18/86 where he started a business called the Edison Machine Works. To now in 1981, we've taken another look at that same lot called General Electric's property now. And in 'eighty one, there was almost 300 buildings on that site. I'm proud to represent the people that through their labors and dedication brought the small Edison Machine Works to the global powerhouse we now know as GE. When this meeting started, Jeff, you introduced us to members of the Board of Directors of the company that we all care so much about.
It seems I met people that are some of the best and brightest minds in the business world. It appears to me with the caliber of talent on our board that they could have put their heads together and come up with a plan to make or save the nearly $4,000,000,000 GE brags to Wall Street about having shed office obligatory expenses. In a way, it wouldn't require our dedicated pensioners to choose between buying dinner or going to their doctor or maybe paying prescriptions that they need to stay healthy and alive. Anyway, you look at the plan we have now, it seems more like a death sentence to many of our older retirees. So I'd like to close with my final words and echoing someone that you may also have heard of before.
Her name was Helen Carini. And her words to you would be right now, shame on you. Shame on all of you.
Thank you, sir. We'll take 2 more questions. 1 on microphone 2 and 1 more and then we'll call it a day. Yes, ma'am.
Good morning. I'm Mary Ellen Stuart Flowers, and I'm here representing my father, Paul Stuart. He's 93 years young from Erie, Pennsylvania, and he worked at that GE plant over 38 years, retiring in 1985. He wants to thank you for the $30 a month raise he received. And the only problem is he spent that and much more on drugs.
With our help, we helped him through the process of getting his insurance with one exchange. And understood the vast majority of retirees, the only thing they know is to take that little white card and hand it to the doctors. And so after 5 mini strokes, he takes over 14 pills and vitamins a day. And just one of those pills cost $269 a month. And so that $30 didn't go very far helping him out.
You don't even want to hear what he thinks about the donut hole. His definition was a little different than yours, I'm sure. But he reached his in May. And by November, he was at the pass traffic amount. So because of his finances and health, he's moved in with my brother, and he's trying to make sense and understand all these things.
So on behalf of him and all the retirees who have worked so hard to make this company what it is, please remember them in any of your decisions in the future so they can enjoy the quality of life without stress and worry.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ron on microphone 1.
Thank you, Jeff. First of all, I think this is the least questions you've ever taken. And I think if somebody gets up and would like to say something, I think they should be. Okay. We're getting to the point where, the disaster, you know, that you've caused for the retirees is we know what it is now.
We talked to the company and they gave us a call just we'll just do one figure. I asked them, what did how many retirees hit the donut hole before this all started? They said 4%. Well, we've already gone through 1 year of it. 25% of the retirees paid $3,310 for that donut hole.
Many, many people. I mean, I could stand here for hours. I've been on the phone with Al for hours with these people, and it's devastating. Joe from Erie, he retired. His pension, dollars 12.74.
One exchange told him his drugs was going to be $6,000 a year. He has a son with cerebral palsy. Now he has to figure out who gets the drug money, his son with cerebral palsy or himself. It's it's just not right. Ed from Pittsburgh, dollars 1103 His drug prices for a year before was $810 a year.
Now he pays over $1,000 every 3 months for 1 pill. And he's got Parkinson's and takes many pills. It's just not right. There are so many things happening and we now can see what's going to happen. Now I'd like to show let's do a show of hands.
How many people here right now think that they are going to have better health 10 to 15 years from now? Raise your hand. There you go, Jeff. All the retirees and the people are going to retire. These drug costs are going to kill them.
Maybe not literally, but it's going to get worse year after year after year. The one guy here, I said, now don't say that. He says, he's going to pay $1,200 for 1 drug. He says, if I have to pay this amount of money, he says, I might as well just put my hands, put my health in God's hands and make sure my kids have a little bit left. That's what we're down to.
General Electric, in their infinite wisdom, have thrown their retirees, the people that have built their company, spent their lives building this company that we're sitting here with right now. And you've thrown them on to the healthcare titanic and thrown the one exchange iceberg right in front of them. I don't think it's right.
Thank you, Ron. Thank you. Microphone number 2. Yes, sir.
Can you hear me all right? Yes, I can. Yes, sir. Jeff, I just want to tell you one thing. I come from Florida.
And why don't you put some heat on in the building? I'm freezing my rear end off back here. Jesus Christ. It's terrible. You sound like another Bostonian.
I originally worked at General Electric Company in right outside of Boston in Lynn. Yeah. 13 miles away. And I grew up there. And then I got smart and I moved to Florida so I could stay warm.
Jesus.
You you you, Yeah.
Not pay taxes on my pension, Kevin said.
You got smart so you can stay warm. Yeah. And I parked my car
in Harvard Square. You know what else? You know what else? Listen, I wanna just take 2 minutes of your time. And after my 2 minutes, I'll award Kevin 3 more minutes.
He he wants to get up for 3 more minutes. Listen, thank God I have a master's degree because to get a supplement from one exchange on medical insurance, you need a PhD. And I'll tell you why. Every time you go to the doctor for one incident, you need to make out at least 10 pieces of paper for reimbursement on each incident. And that's no bull.
Okay? Sometimes it gets sent back to you for various reasons. So you're always going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. A lot of retirees do not have computers, and they have a very tough job getting reimbursed. Please consider living up to your promise to meet all of our retirees and continue our health care as you promised when I came to work at GE.
Now, by the way, I just got educated, about 3 months ago. I came back from overseas over in Germany and the Baltic. And I found out that all the employees and especially the young people, they get free health care perfect from the government. So what does that have to do with you guys? So then when I looked at why does GE farm out all these jobs overseas?
Guess what? You guys are saving 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 of dollars because you don't have to pay health care over there. And you're screwing the people here, and you're taking the health care away. So you guys can't lose. So I have never seen anything like it.
And the kids over there brag to me, Jack, we get free health care and free college education. And I said, we get screwed from our health care over here. And I says, I'm on the board at the University of Miami. And I says, the kids pay $62 a year to go to college. So you're really taking away from us.
And one other thing I would like to say, working with a guy like Dennis who represented you guys for 30 how many years, Dennis?
Long
time. 32 years and has credibility like him. I hope the Board of Directors pays attention and recognizes that there's a man that speaks to his heart.
Great.
Thank you very much, Jeff. I'll see you in Boston.
Yeah. Good. Mike Frondimore. Yes, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Yamal. I'd like to thank you and the Board of Directors for inviting us here to the shareholders meeting. I want to tell you that, there's nothing really special about me except that I put 37 of my years into working for GE. And I was very proud of that.
The technology that we that we used, the time that we employed to get things right was very important. And I was very proud to work with GE. I worked through GE even through the lean times in the 70s when GE was having a lot of problems. And the people who worked for you bent over backwards to make sure that GE would remain a viable strong business and as it has become. Now in those 37 years, I put my heart and my soul into what was doing.
I felt I was doing an important job. I literally put my sweat and my blood into that work. When I retired, the General Electric Company told me that I could, depend upon the GE to assist me with my health care and that I could depend on that and base my retirement on that. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. And I like you, I would like the board of directors to take a good look at me because I am being harmed.
I am being seriously hurt by your arbitrary decision to remove the so called legacy costs. And just because everybody else is doing it is a lousy reason to turn around and something that I was guaranteed told that I that would help me. It really hurts me that you folks would do that to myself and the thousands of GE retirees who, like myself, put their time and their effort into making this company what it is.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Look, I'd like to thank the people of Asheville for hosting the meeting today. It's really been great. I think before we leave here today, we've had lots of good discussions with our retirees.
I respect them, and everything they've done. I want to say thanks. I'd like everybody though just today to look over there. I'd like everybody to see that's what GE is about, exporter, a company that's returning cash back to investors and a company that's winning in the marketplace every day. This week, this company turns 125 years old.
This week. That's a fantastic achievement for all of us in this room. And before you leave here today, I want everybody to just know this is an amazing company, an amazing team. We honor our retirees, but we look forward to the next 100 years. Thank you for coming.
It's great to be with you.