View MacBride Resolution

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., on behalf of the City’s five Pension Funds, is asking five U.S.-owned companies that operate subsidiaries in Northern Ireland to implement guidelines to encourage and promote a means for establishing justice and equality in the workplace.

The Comptroller has submitted shareholder proposals urging the companies, which have investments of more than $122 million from the New York City Pension funds, to adopt the MacBride Principles. The companies are Claire’s Stores of Hoffman Estates, IL; Crane Company of Stamford, CT; Raytheon of Waltman, MA; TeleTech Holdings of Tampa, FL; and, Yum Brands of Louisville, KY.

The proposals are sponsored by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), Teachers’ Retirement System for the City of New York (TRS), New York City Police Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS).

The MacBride Principles were created in 1984 by late Irish statesman, Nobel Peace laureate, and founder of Amnesty International, Sean MacBride and several associates to serve as guidelines for corporations in Northern Ireland. The nine principles are as follows:

• increasing the representation of individuals from underrepresented religious groups in the workforce, including managerial, supervisory, administrative, clerical and technical jobs;
• ensuring adequate security for the protection of minority employees in the workplace and while traveling to and from work;
• banning of provocative religious or political emblems in the workplace;
• publicly advertising job openings and recruitment efforts to attract applicants from
• underrepresented religious backgrounds;
• adhering to fair practices in layoff and termination procedures and not favoring certain religious groups;
• abolishing any job reservations, apprenticeship restrictions and differential employment criteria that discriminate on the basis of religion or ethnic origin;
  developing job training programs for current minority employees for skilled jobs, including the expansion of existing programs and the creation of new ones to train, upgrade and improve the skills of minority employees;
• establishing procedures to assess, identify and actively recruit minority employees with potential for further advancement; and
• appointing senior management staff to oversee the company’s affirmative action efforts to set up timetables to carry out affirmative action principles.
  

Since 1989, more than two-thirds of U.S.-based companies operating in Northern Ireland in the City’s portfolio have adopted and complied with the Principles instituted by the New York City Employees Retirement System. Last year, three companies - Coca Cola, Exxon and Marriott International - with total investments worth more than $1.4 billion in the funds, agreed to urge franchise holders in Northern Ireland to implement the Principles and adhere to fair employment standards to foster a diverse workforce.

“While I am pleased that the funds have been successful in urging companies to adopt the MacBride Principles, there is still much more work to be done,” Thompson said. “It is critical that in the coming years we vigorously continue to encourage companies to adopt an aggressive affirmative action policy.”

Serving with Comptroller Thompson on the NYCERS board are: Martha Stark, NYCERS Chairperson and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Finance; Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Borough Presidents C. Virginia Fields (Manhattan), Marty Markowitz (Brooklyn), Adolfo Carrion (Bronx), Helen Marshall (Queens), and James Molinaro (Staten Island); Lillian Roberts, Executive Director of District Council 37, AFSCME; Roger Toussaint, President, TWU-Local 100; and, Carroll Haynes, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

In addition to Thompson and Stark, the TRS trustees are: Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Kathleen Grimm, Deputy Chancellor, New York City Department of Education; Phillip Berry, Vice President, Colgate Palmolive Inc.; and, Sandra March, Melvyn Aaronson and Mona Romain, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

Besides Thompson, trustees on the Fire Pension Fund are: Bloomberg; Stark; Nicholas Scoppetta, Chair, New York City Fire Commissioner; Stephen Cassidy, President, James

Slevin, and Kevin McAdams, Treasurer, and Robert Straub, Bronx Trustee-Uniformed Firefighter's Assoc. of Greater New York; Peter Gorman, President / Captains Rep.Uniformed Fire Officers Assoc.; Arthur Parrinello, Chief's Rep., and Stephen Carbone, Lieutenant's Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Assoc.; and, Joseph Gagliardi, Marine Engineers Assoc.

In addition to Thompson, trustees on the Police Pension Fund are: Bloomberg; Stark; Raymond Kelly, Chair, New York City Police Commissioner; Patrick Lynch, Police Benevolent Association; Mubarak Abdul-Jabar and Scott Williamson, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Police Benevolent Association; Thomas Scotto, Detectives Endowment Association; Edwin Mullins, Sergeants Benevolent Association; Anthony Garvey, Lieutenants Benevolent Association; and John Driscoll, Captains Endowment Association.

The BERS Board of Trustees is comprised of: mayoral appointees Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Alan Aviles, Phillip Berry, David Chang, Tino Hernandez, Souza Kappner, Richard Menschel and Marita Regan; Borough President appointees Jesse Mojica (Bronx), Martine Guerrier (Brooklyn), Jacquelyn Kamin (Manhattan), Michael Flowers (Queens), and Joan Correale (Staten Island); and employee members Thomas J. Malanga of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 891, and Rebecca Marston of District Council 37, Local 372.