Corporate Responsibility
Holding corporations accountable to communities
The Corporate Responsibility Program was created in 1990 to address the corporations in which the Benedictine Sisters and the Benedictine Resource Center (at that time) held stock. This program now works with the Benedictine Sisters and the trustees of the Trust Funds. The program uses the power of stock ownership to raise often- unpopular issues with management, workers, boards of directors and the public. Many stockholders own shares simply to make money. The Sisters own shares to support the order, the ministries and retirement needs.
The program filed 12 stock-holder resolutions
last year, mostly in the fall, with Fortune 500 companies.
The Sisters are the primary contact with Alcoa (on
maquiladoras concerns and the company's global code of
conduct), Cooper Industries (on their global code of conduct),
IBM (on the criteria used with those who supply the company different services),
DuPont (on genetically-modified foods/seeds), Johnson and Johnson (on their maquiladoras and global code of conduct),
Niagara Mohawk and Texas Utilities (on their commitment to the CERES environmental principles and their commitment to wind, solar, cell technology) and Wal-Mart (on diversity on the boardof directors, sweatshops impact on local communities).
The program also plays a supporting role with other
companies: Delphi (on maquiladoras) and Ford (on global
warming, the Firestone tire recall, and maquiladoras).
The Sisters co-file other resolutions, as needed. When there are multiple issues with a company, the criteria is always to vote for the resolution most needed. That is determined in consultation with the Sisters' mission, the discernment of national groups working with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and the local/regional group Socially Responsible Investment Coalition (SRIC). Some dialogues with companies have been on-going for the past ten years General Motors/Delphi, Ford and Johnson and Johnson.
In June 2001, three groups Coalition for Justice in
the Maquiladoras, Center for Reflection, Education and Actionand the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility released a study called. "Making the Invisible Visible: A Study of Maquila Workers in Mexico -2000." The study shows that it takes at least four to five Mexican minimum wages for workers to earn a sustainable wage. Most corporations pay one or two minimum wages ($4 to $8} a day. This study is significant because in fifteen cities in Mexico it documents what it takes for workers to purchase items including electricity, potable water, clothes, foodand rent. For the past ten years, stockholders have askedcompanies to do this type of study -to no avail. When you are faced with the results, you know why the companies refuse to document the paltry salaries, which are paid. The Benedictine Sisters were instrumental in making this study happen.
For more information contact:
Sr. Susan Mika, OSB
snmika@texas.net
830-816-8504 or 830-249-2645
Link to Socially Responsible
Investment Coalition website
http://www.sric-south.org/
