wfn.org | Investment Monitors Join Shareholder Resolutions;

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

4-February-1997 
97058 
 
Investment Monitors Join Shareholder Resolutions;  
           Agree to Revisit Military-related Guidelines 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
SAN DIEGO, Calif.--With the corporate annual meeting season ready to begin, 
the Presbyterian Church's Mission Responsibility Through Investment 
Committee (MRTI) has signed on to more than 100 shareholder resolutions 
seeking changes in corporate behavior throughout the international business 
community. 
 
     The 12-member committee adopted its shareholder stances here Feb. 1. 
 
     The shareholder actions, most of which were originated by other 
religious groups with which MRTI cooperates, address a variety of corporate 
behavior issues that have been the subject of General Assembly statements. 
Among those issues are: 
 
     *    broadcast standards for violence, language and sexual content of 
          television programs 
     *    working conditions and environmental and health hazards 
          associated with foreign-owned factories in Mexico 
          ("maquiladoras") 
     *    water pollution and toxic chemical wastes associated with paper 
          production 
     *    exploitation of child and slave labor in Third World countries, 
          particularly in clothing manufacture 
     *    discriminatory lending patterns in low-income and minority 
          neighborhoods by banks and mortgage companies 
     *    pay equity and equal employment opportunity 
 
     While MRTI's actions are only advisory, the Presbyterian Church's 
major investing agencies -- the Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) Foundation -- work closely with MRTI to ensure that the 
stocks they hold are in compliance with General Assembly policy on 
corporate behavior. The combined portfolios of the two agencies amount to 
nearly $5 billion.  Both the Pension Board and the Foundation have voting 
representatives on MRTI. 
 
     The General Assembly forbids its agencies from holding stock in the 
top 10 tobacco-selling firms and weapons manufacturing companies.  In 
addition, neither the Foundation nor the Pension Board holds stock in 
alcoholic beverage or gambling corporations. 
 
  Foundation seeks reexamination of military-related investment guidelines 
 
     Philip Smith of Pittsburgh and William Lauderbach of Midland, Mich. -- 
the Foundation's two representatives to MRTI -- told the committee that the 
board of directors of the Presbyterian Foundation "will probably" ask at 
its April meeting that the General Assembly instruct MRTI to revisit the 
four criteria by which it forbids PCUSA agencies to hold stock in companies 
engaged in the production of military-related goods. 
 
     Lauderbach said the foundation board "approved the 1996 divestment 
list but with serious reservations about the military-related guidelines." 
The foundation has raised no objections to the tobacco company prohibition. 
 
     Fifteen companies are currently on the Assembly-mandated 
military-related divestment list.  The criteria for inclusion on the list 
are: 
 
     *    the top 10 defense contractors, based on dollar volume of sales 
     *    the top 10 foreign military suppliers, based on dollar volume of 
          sales 
     *    companies dependent on military contracts for more than 25 
          percent of their sales 
     *    producers of indiscriminant "anti-personnel" weapons, such as 
          land mines, nuclear weapons and chemical and biological weapons. 
 
     Lauderbach, Smith and Dennis Murphy, the foundation's senior vice 
president and chief financial officer, argued that with the collapse of 
Communism and the Cold War, the economic and political climate surrounding 
the manufacture and sale of military hardware has changed and so the 
guidelines, established a number of years ago, should be reexamined. 
 
     The committee quickly agreed to revisit the guidelines and established 
a subcommittee to begin that work, asking it to meet before the July 
meeting of MRTI.  The Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman, MRTI staffer, said 
the agreement to revisit the guidelines should make it unnecessary to ask 
the General Assembly to require the reexamination. 
 
               Two corporate commendations approved 
 
     In addition to divestment, shareholder actions and dialogues with 
company officials, MRTI annually presents Corporate Achievement Awards to 
companies that take significant positive actions. The awards are formally 
announced at General Assembly and then presented at a meeting of the 
presbytery where the companies' home office is located. 
 
     Two Corporate Achievement Awards were approved: 
 
     *    to Motorola, for its announcement that it is ceasing production 
          of electronic parts used to make land mines 
     *    to Starbuck's Coffee, for adopting a "code of conduct" for 
          suppliers requiring adequate wages and human rights for workers. 
 
     The award to Starbuck's is contingent upon evidence that the company 
is enforcing the code with its suppliers. 
 
                       New officers elected 
 
     With the term of chairperson the Rev. Gary Miller expiring, the 
committee elected the Rev.  Harry Smith of Santa Fe, N.M., as its new 
chair.  Smith, who has been MRTI's vice chair, recently retired after many 
years of service at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.  Miller is chaplain 
at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., 
 
     As vice chair, the committee elected Susan M. Rush, who co-owns and 
operates with her husband an environmental consulting firm in Idaho Falls, 
Idaho. 

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