GE Holders Re-Elect Board Amid Protests at Annual Meeting

General Electric Co. (GE) shareholders re-elected the company’s board and approved pay packages for Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt and other top leaders as protesters disrupted its annual meeting in Detroit.

Shareholders also ratified changes to GE’s long-term incentive plan and performance goals for senior executives. They rejected investor proposals to exit the nuclear energy industry, appoint an independent chairman and allow cumulative voting on directors and shareholder action by written consent.

An address to investors by Immelt, who is CEO and chairman, was interrupted by demonstrators who said GE’s tax bill is too low, chanting, “Pay your fair share,” the Detroit Free Press reported. Hundreds of people, including shareholders, shut down city streets outside the meeting, the newspaper said.

GE’s tax rate was 28.5 percent last year and 7.3 percent in 2010, according to company filings. Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE is “compliant with every law everywhere around the world around how we do our taxes,” Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said at the meeting.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Catts in New York at tcatts1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at edufner@bloomberg.net