Labour and capital at National Express

As some people will be aware, there was a shareholder resolution filed at the National Express AGM last week. This was the culmination of long-running complaints about anti-union activity in the company's US schoolbus business Durham. The resolution made pretty modest requests -  give responsibility for oversight of human capital strategy to a board committee, adopt a workplace rights policy based on recognised global standards, and report to shareholders on implementation.

The resolution received a vote of almost 13% in favour plus abstentions taking the total to 15%. But remember too that the Cosmen family have a fair chunk of National Express shares. Once you take this into account the votes in favour plus abstentions are getting close to 20%. That's pretty impressive, especially when most shareholder resolutions on environmental and social issues fail to get a vote in favour that makes it into double figures.

A good result all round.