March 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Time Warner Inc. in the last month not to ignore demands by labor unions to disclose more information on campaign donations.

Almost two dozen companies asked the SEC for permission to omit from proxy ballots union-drafted resolutions seeking to know how much top executives gave to political candidates. Organized labor, led by the AFL-CIO, which must comply with similar disclosure rules imposed by the administration of President George W. Bush last year, is targeting executives who have contributed to his 2004 re-election campaign.

Companies that received the union resolutions include New York-based AIG, the world's largest insurer, SBC Communications Inc. and Safeway Inc., whose chief executive officers have all been named Bush ``Rangers'' for collecting at least $200,000 for his campaign. Comcast Corp., whose cable unit president, Stephen Burke, 45, was named a ``Ranger'' last month, also faces a resolution.

``It's a campaign of harassment,'' said Larry Sabato, who heads the center for politics at the University of Virginia. ``Their goal is to cause publicity-shy executives to avoid this kind of thing by saying, `We're not going to give.'''

The unions are seeking to slow Bush fund-raising that is now on pace to raise a record $170 million, Sabato said. Five of the 10 biggest political donors since 1989 have been unions, and they gave 87 percent of their funds to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.

Unions have clashed with the Bush administration on free- trade agreements, including one signed with five Central American nations, and complained that Bush has failed to stem the flow of imports from China. They also say rules implemented by the Labor Department will strip hourly workers of overtime pay.

Merrill Backs Bush

Bush derives much of his campaign donations from executives at publicly traded companies, with employees at Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS AG and MBNA Corp. among those making up 13 of his top 20 donors last year, contributing $2.9 million.

Six of the top 20 donors to Senator John Kerry, who has clinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, were employees of listed companies, and they gave $275,000 since he began campaigning in January 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The shareholder resolutions were filed in December and January by the Service Employees International Union and other affiliates of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 64 unions representing 13 million people. They seek annual reports about corporate donations and ``an accounting of the company's resources, including property and personnel, contributed or donated to'' political parties or candidates.

Ordinary Business

Records of company contributions via political action committees and individual contributions are already public and kept by the Federal Election Commission. Unions say they want more detailed disclosure because individual employee contributions and the time that workers may spend assisting campaigns are difficult to discern.

Steve Abrecht, the SEIU's executive director of pension funds, said company reports should include ``any use of corporate assets that can be construed as a political contribution, whether it's in-kind in the form of people's time, or actual financial contributions.''

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, persuaded the SEC to keep the motion off its proxy by arguing that the SEIU didn't provide proper documentation of its stock ownership.

``Our internal policies follow FEC guidelines'' on campaign contributions, said Laurie Smalling, manager of corporate affairs in Wal-Mart's government relations office.

Bush Rules

Smalling said she's unaware of any Wal-Mart executives actively campaigning for any presidential candidate. ``If you do choose to do something like that, it is voluntary and on your own time,'' she said.

The calls for greater disclosure follow Bush administration rules, which take effect July 1, that force unions to file itemized forms with the Labor Department detailing expenditures for political campaigns.

The forms, called LM-2s, previously allowed unions to lump campaign activities under categories such as ``education'' or ``miscellaneous.'' The new versions contain a separate category for political activity and lobbying.

``If there's nothing to hide and if it's so vital to each union member, then why not for the corporate entities who spend more than 10 times as much on political action?'' said Vic Kamber, president of the Kamber Group, a consulting firm to unions.

General Electric

Shareholder proposals included in proxy ballots seldom garner a majority of votes, though a high percentage of favorable returns can send a message to the board, said Sabato at the University of Virginia.

Many of the companies targeted by the proposal asked the SEC to let them exclude the information from their proxies on the grounds that political involvement is part of ordinary business. Warren, New Jersey-based Chubb Corp., which was denied its request to omit the proposal, said in letters to the SEC that the measure would constitute micro-management by shareholders.

``Providing detailed information regarding which members of management influence which decisions about political contributions extends deeply into the company's daily decision- making procedures,'' Chubb wrote.

The SEC denied a request by Wells Fargo & Co. to omit the resolutions from its proxy. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, will post its policy on political contributions on its Web site in accordance with the unions' request, said spokeswoman Julia Tunis.

General Electric Co., whose chairman and chief executive officer, Jeffrey Immelt, 48, donated $2,000 to the Bush campaign, included the resolution in its proxy -- along with a recommendation to shareholders to vote against it.

``Because GE is committed to complying with applicable campaign finance laws, including all reporting requirements, we do not believe the report requested in this proposal is necessary,'' the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said in its proxy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Strahan Butler in Washington at astrahan@Bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 8, 2004 00:30 EST