From: HEREVP@aol.com Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 5:01 PM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Cc: atkinsp@sec.gov Subject: (no subject) (s7-10-03) I am the Executive Vice President of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. I am also past Secretary of the Council of Institutional Investors. I therefore represent millions of beneficiaries who depend on performance of corporate America both for their jobs and for the security of their pension assets. I write to commend the Commission for its re-examination of the proxy rules. These rules govern how--and whether--shareholders oversee the companies they own. It is in part because these rules currently prevent effective shareholder oversight that we have experienced so many corporate disasters and frauds in recent years. I urge you to redraft these rules so that they protect shareholders and workers rather than special interests, whatever pressures you encounter from CEOs and Wall Street in so-doing. Our jobs, our pensions and the future stability of our country depend on it. Ron Richardson