Shareholder Advocacy:
A Human Trafficking Committee Member’s Perspective
By Ethel Howley, SSND
“We . . . act in collaboration with others
for the dignity of life and the care of creation.”
-24th Directional Statement
“Shareholders are calling the world’s most powerful companies to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities.” This is the phrase that caught my attention about 12 years ago when I became a part of the SSND Cooperative Investment Fund. My role as the Social Responsibility Resource Person involved participating in dialogues concerning a corporation’s environmental and social policies with their executive officers and lawyers.
In one dialogue with a Food and Beverage Company, we were asked to give advice as they developed their goals for next ten years on water reduction, methane leakage, and other environmental issues. A fossil fuel company meets with us each year to give updates on their work with indigenous communities where they are drilling in Latin America. Another company with USA Department of Defense contracts began their conversation by paying tribute to another sister who had been dialoging with them since the days of South African apartheid.
I have also been involved with corporations within the Automobile Industry to discuss their supply chains: child labor, forced labor, and unsafe working conditions. Since every car has 30,000 parts there are many companies in the supply chains where children are often working, such as with cobalt for batteries, mica for car paint, rubber for tires, and leather for seating. These operations are in countries in other continents and we question the auto manufactures about their policies in dealing with these suppliers and their interactions with local governments about enforcing their labor laws.
With the Airline Industry, social responsible investors have taken on the challenge of human trafficking where the employees had often come upon suspicious looking individuals and did not know how to handle the situation. The large airline companies now have training programs for their employees about what to look for and how to respond to these situations. These programs are updated from time to time and have been helpful to the stewards and all those who deal directly with passengers in identifying young girls being trafficked.
More recently, we began addressing the Information Technology companies because of the online sexual exploitation of children. Similarly, we push them to develop policies to prevent the possibility of children getting access to these sites, and to identify their methods of implementing the policies.
Together with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, I continue to be “inspired by faith and committed to action.”
More Resources:
Water: Check out our new Green Habits series starting with #Changethebag our no-plastics campaign!
Immigration: Please view our latest Just Act materials, this recent prayer service by the Immigration committee, and Sister Linda’s interview with NDMU student, Heyssel, a DREAMer.
Trafficking: Read the latest Stop Trafficking Report.
Haiti: Visit the Beyond Border’s website to learn more about our partner and our work in Haiti.
Reflections toward a COSMIC VISION by Sister Kay O’Connell
What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: The just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is –
Christ – for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
Lines from As Kingfishers Catch Fire, G. M. Hopkins, SJ
