wfn.org | ELCA Committee Okays Seven Draft Shareholder Resolutions

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 30, 1998

ELCA COMMITTEE OKAYS SEVEN DRAFT SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTIONS
98-35-197-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- An advisory committee of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) is recommending that seven resolutions start a
long journey toward 1999 shareholder meetings in corporate America.  The
ELCA Division for Church in Society, through its Advisory Committee on
Corporate Social Responsibility, counsels various institutions of the
church that invest in stocks.
     "Corporate social responsibility is one arm of advocacy by the ELCA
that has had a profound effect on the policies and practices of many
companies in the past," said Trudy A. Brubaker, ELCA director for corporate
social responsibility.  "This new set of shareholder resolutions will
provide the corporate social responsibility program with the proper tools
to meet this challenge for the coming year."
     The committee met here Sept. 19.  Its advice will be presented to the
division's board which meets Sept. 24-26 in Milwaukee.
     Generally, resolutions are filed with corporations before the end of
each year in preparation for stockholder meetings to be held the following
spring.  Many resolutions are withdrawn before reaching the stockholder
meetings because they prompt significant dialogues between the filer and
the corporation's management.
     Lutheran institutions are not necessarily the primarily filers of the
stockholder resolutions.  The division works with its counterparts in about
275 other religious organizations through the Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) based in New York.
     The ELCA's advisory committee commended seven ICCR-prepared
resolutions for Lutheran institutions to pursue this year:
* Board Inclusiveness Review -- asks for a report on efforts to encourage
diversified representation on the company's board and requests a greater
effort to locate qualified women and people of color as nominees for the
board;
* Ending Negative Images of Indigenous Peoples -- asks the company to
review its corporate advertising policies and practices to ensure they
exclude negative images of indigenous peoples;
* Endorsement of the CERES Principles -- asks the company to endorse
specific principles of corporate commitment and accountability for
environmental performance;
* Equal Employment Diversity Report -- asks for a report summarizing the
company's affirmative action policies and charting employment practices
regarding women and people of color;
* Glass Ceiling Review -- asks for a progress report on the company's
efforts to remove any artificial barriers to the advancement of women into
corporate management positions;
* Proposal for a Global Set of Corporate Standards -- asks for a review of
the company's code for its international operations and summarize that
review in a report to the shareholders; and
* Request for Review of Maquiladora Operations -- asks for a review of the
company's policies regarding factories it owns in Mexico.

For information contact:
Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director 1-773-380-2955 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html