[Sri-news] Spring Issue

Fri Apr 15 13:28:08 EDT 2005

Dear SRI-News Subscribers:

In this issue you will find:

1) A Report from Jo Haberman of First Universalist Church of Minneapolis on 
   Submitting a Resolution on Global Labor Standards at the Disney Meeting
2) Socially Responsible Events at General Assembly
3)  Exxon May Face More Heat on Global Warning
4) Celebrate Earth Day - April 22nd! UUA Resources; Coop America Launches
    New Web Site
5) One UU Congregation's SRI Story - Neighborhood Church of Pasadena CA

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1) Representing the UUA and the New York City Pension Fund at Disney
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On a chilly Friday, February 11th, in Minneapolis' Convention Center, over 3,000 Disney stockholders filed past Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and a gaggle of posing princesses to attend the annual Disney stockholders meeting.  

Having been contacted by Jim Gunning of the UUA Committee on Socially Responsible Investing and Jerry Gabert, Treasurer and Vice President of Finance for the UUA, about their shareholder advocacy efforts, I was pleased to attend the Disney stockholders meeting representing the New York City pension systems, holders of 7,628,000 shares of the Walt Disney Company.  I was there to submit a resolution requiring that the Disney board conduct a thorough review of the adherence of Disney's suppliers in China to its code of conduct and core conventions of the International Labor Organization.

With proxy material in hand, I waited for my moment in the annual meeting agenda while perched on my assigned seat,  four feet in front of a watchful security guard.  From this vantage point, just under a large banner featuring Tinkerbell sprinkling fairy dust over the magic kingdom, I had a ringside view of the mega audio/video barrage of images flashing trailers for every movie expected to be released in 2005, and virtually every new product expected to be rolled out through 2006.  

Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, Disney board chair, and Michael Eisner, Disney CEO, spoke at length about the enormous success of one of the world's largest multinational corporations.  A key focus was the new Disneyland opening in Hong Kong soon - and the hoped for draw of up to 30% of the population from mainland China.  This was a fitting prelude for a resolution addressing Disney's human rights labor standards in China - the problems of child labor, sweatshop conditions, and denial of labor rights in US corporations. 

Although some applause followed the resolution's introduction, the vote tally was:

No                    1,142,702,284
Yes                     111,595,575
Abstaining            175,878,157

Exiting the auditorium, it was impossible not to pass by a larger-than-life Mickey, ordering Goofy to lie down, roll over, and beg. 

While such a vote can feel discouraging, this percentage is high enough for the resolution to be brought back next year.  The resolution had not been expected to pass at this annual meeting and it did receive a larger than anticipated percentage of favorable votes from shareholders as compared to previous years. 

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2) SRI Workshops at General Assembly
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There will be several workshops AND a plenary presentation on Socially Responsible Investing at the 2005 General Assembly in Fort Worth.

Topics include: 

Promise the Children--Safe Homes & Caring Communities
Shareholder Advocacy: Investing in Social Justice
Investing Responsibly with Faith
RI Basics and How to Get Your Congregation Involved. 

For more information, see http://www.uua.org/finance/sri/news/ga05sri_prog.pdf.

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3) Exxon and Global Warming
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Of interest to SRI-News Readers may be a recent Wall Street Journal article by Jeffrey Ball (March 28) that gives some details on how shareholder resolutions have to pass a test at the Securities Exchange Commission.  Fr. Mike Crosby is the lead filer on the issue of global warming for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, of which the UUA is a member.

Exxon lost its try to get the SEC to quash resolutions on the issue of global warming.  It will now go on the agenda at the Annual Meeting.  See http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/news/sbnews.cfm?id=5824.

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4) Celebrate Earth Day - April 22nd!
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**UUA Celebrates Earth Day!  See http://www.uua.org/ for congregational resources to celebrate Earth Day, including information on the current Study Action Issue on Global Warming.

**The UUA environmental affiliate the Seventh Principle Project at http://www.uuaspp.org/ has a new Global Warming Network and other resources for congregations.

 **Co-op America's Launches New Website on April 22nd

You can find resources for your congregation for socially responsible shopping, the National Green Pages, Green festivals, actions on global warming and more.  See http://www.coopamerica.org/ and visit again on Earth Day.  

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5) One Congregation's SRI Story
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Neighborhood Church - Pasadena, CA
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"We want a more hands on approach to affordable housing development - not just loaning them our money.  We have attempted to find a partner that does not proselytize in the process of providing housing." 

Jo'Ann DeQuattro, Outreach Director, Neighborhood Church, Pasadena California

Affordable housing fast became the obvious choice for our community investment initiative, as the local housing market has skyrocketed.  Many hardworking hourly wage earners are paying more than 50% of income on housing.  We chose to work with the UU Affordable Housing Corporation http://www.uuahc.org/ a proven entity in the east, and are hoping that together we can build a similarly successful initiative in California.  Choosing the right partner for our congregation was very important.  Not only that, we received a UUA matching grant which doubled the impact of our Investment.  See http://www.uua.org/finance/sri/community/matching.html.

Send us reports of your congregation's SRI activities and we will add to our website.

Thanks!

Susan Leslie
Staff Liaison to Committee on Socially Responsible Investing
Director for Congregational Advocacy and Witness
Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon Street, Boston MA  02108
(617) 948-4607; sleslie at uua.org 
www.uua.org/justice 
Subscribe to SAC-News, Advocacy-News & SRI-News at www.uua.org/mailman/listinfo