BAE boss grilled by Friends
Chairman, Dick Olver, quizzed during BAE Systems AGM
A major British arms company was challenged to shift its business from weapons to renewable energy, putting their workers’ engineering skills to better use. That was the argument put to the board of BAE Systems last week by Rhiannon Rees of Croydon Meeting.
She was one of several Quakers and other activists who bought single shares in BAE to enable them to challenge the board at the AGM. BAE is one of the world’s largest arms companies. Rhiannon’s comments were cheered by BAE’s own workers from the Brough plant in East Yorkshire, who are facing redundancy. BAE chairman Dick Olver ruled out her suggestion, saying he would not ‘flip-flop’ between industries.
The question session was dominated by anti-arms activists and the workers from Brough, who on several occasions applauded each other’s comments.
Dick Olver insisted that BAE has a ‘culture of responsible behaviour’. He said he was ‘proud’ of BAE’s sales to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and refused to comment on the brutality of their regimes. He was asked if there were any conditions under which BAE would stop arming the Saudi regime. He replied they would do so if the UK government stopped issuing arms sales licences for the country.
