NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Shareholders across the United States are uniting, creating a movement that could be dubbed Occupy Boardroom. Long-term shareholders, including pension funds and mutual funds, are attempting to push out board members and fight back against executive pay packages.
And unlike Occupy Wall Street, the police can't shut it down.
"Shareholder rights are reaching a tipping point, and the balance of power is really shifting from companies to shareholders," said Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at investment firm CLSA.
Three years after the financial crisis and the ensuing government bailouts, banks have been the primary targets of shareholders' wrath and negative votes.
Last week, 55% of Citigroup's (C, Fortune 500) shareholders voted against CEO Vikram Pandit's $15 million pay package for 2011, a year when the bank's stock fell 44%. While the vote is non binding, it sends a clear signal to management that shareholders want change.
Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) recently received a letter from Sequoia Fund, asking Goldman's board to oppose the reelection of director James Johnson, who had been Fannie Mae's CEO from 1991 to 1998. Sequoia said Johnson has been at the center of "egregious corporate governance debacles" including the events that led up to the housing crisis.
Sequoia has also asked its investors to vote against Johnson...
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