Union power that can tame fat cats

YOU probably have to go back a couple of decades to find a week's worth of headlines so dominated by a range of industrial disputes - local government strikes, the London Underground at a standstill and an unknown Left-winger booting Tony Blair's mate out of office at engineering union Amicus.

But today comes news of a piece of trades union activism that has its eye firmly on the future - a future that could strike at the heart of Britain's major boardrooms.

The TUC is trying to galvanise those of its members who act as trustees for some 630 company pension schemes to vote on the remuneration scheme proposed by mobile phones giant Vodafone for its chief executive, Sir Chris Gent. The TUC has no power to recommend which way trustees should vote. However, word has come down from on high that Gent's potentially enormous pay and share options package does not have sufficiently demanding incentives. Trustees are unlikely to ignore the hint when it comes to Vodafone's annual meeting on 31 July.

This is the first time the TUC has tried to awaken the power of its trustee network, whose members have a say in the running of pension schemes with a massive £240bn of funds invested - well over a quarter of the estimated £800bn of total corporate pension assets.

It is quite clear, however, that this is only the beginning of a campaign of activism by the unions against executive pay. The involvement of the TUC - which takes its line from the foward-thinking Pensions & Investment Research Consultants - adds a totally new dimension to the debate over boardroom remuneration.

Companies have become accustomed (more or less) to paying heed to the advice given by other powerful organisations such as the Association of British Insurers and the National Association of Pension Funds, whose members together own more than half the shares in UK circulation.

Remuneration committees will be put on their mettle by the arrival of such a power bloc, with its mission to fulfill the Government's wish for all big corporate pay packages to be put to a vote of shareholders and a determination to protect employees' long-term wealth.

Little wonder that Vodafone is on tenterhooks. Having faced a backlash from normally compliant shareholders at its last two AGMs, it was determined to get things right this time. Its remuneration committee, headed by Penny Hughes, former UK boss of Coca-Cola, consulted to the nth degree. But with Vodafone's shares in tailspin - down from a high of 399p to 94 1/2p - there are fears that big share option awards will hand over too large a proportion of the company to executives.

Gent is accused of squandering shareholder funds on acquisitions such as Mannesmann. All around, bosses of other media groups - Vivendi, Deutsche Telekom and AOL Time Warner - are being booted out.

It is almost inconceivable that Gent will fail to win the backing of a majority of shareholders. But a union-inspired grassroots rebellion could make it a lot more difficult. For him...and for the others already in the TUC's sights.

Big Brother to the rescue

AS the irrepressibly downmarket Big Brother wades through its third series on Channel 4, it is comforting to discover that viewing addicts are at least digging deep into their pockets in return for making the rest of us pay for having such prurient tripe fill our TV screens.

Figures from mobile phones group mmO2, which sponsors the programme, showed that 6.6 million premium-rate text messages, costing 25p a time, were sent to vote the most unappealing house guests off the show.

Apart from representing a plebiscite of which this Government will probably be proud come the next election, the figures demonstrate one of the few unexpected revenue bonanzas for the mobile phone industry.

This will come as something of a relief to a sector that has shown itself stunningly disconnected from the real world and which has, of course, invested £22bn to buy expensive third-generation licences in the hope of persuading the masses to use their phones in ways no right-minded person would consider. They are spending a further £20bn on networking and handsets for the 3G age.

Only last month the most detailed survey of mobile phone users, carried out for the Financial Times, showed that half of them are unlikely to use their handsets for anything other than talking to each other.

Fancy adverts showing rail commuters splashing out to watch feature films on minuscule handset screens look like so much costly nonsense. Thank goodness for Big Brother.