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Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., on behalf of the New York City Pension Funds, has filed shareholder resolutions urging five companies to ensure that their overseas suppliers respect workers’ human rights. 

“Whether companies are operating in the United States or abroad, they should have to abide by basic human rights standards,” Thompson said. “Failing to do so could not only adversely affect workers by allowing oppressive workplace conditions, but also, could prompt a decline in share value which would adversely affect shareholders.”

Based on the conventions of the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations’ Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations with Regard to Human Rights, the workplace rights include: banning child labor; protecting workers’ right to form and join trade unions and bargain collectively; prohibiting discrimination of worker representatives; barring discrimination and intimidation in employment; and, forbidding forced labor, including bonded or prison labor.

The resolutions ask the companies to commit to “the implementation of a code of conduct based on the aforementioned ILO human rights standards and United Nations’ Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations with Regard to Human Rights by its international suppliers and in its own international production facilities, and commit to a program of outside, independent monitoring of compliance with these standards.”

The Pension Funds are the: New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System of New York  City, New York City Police Department Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, and New York City Board of Education Retirement System.

The five Funds resubmitted the proposal to Kimberly Clark of Dallas, TX, in which the Funds hold more than 1.5 million shares valued at approximately $98 million and to Bed, Bath and Beyond of Union, NJ, in which the Funds hold 789,630 shares worth more than $31.6 million. The five funds also submitted the proposal, for the first time, to Urban Outfitters, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA, in which the funds hold 324,649 shares of the company’s common stock valued at approximately $7.5 million.

NYCERS, TRS and Fire resubmitted a similar proposal to Cooper Industries, Ltd. of Houston, TX. Those Funds hold 16,605 shares valued at more than $1.5 million in Cooper Industries.

NYCERS resubmitted a similar proposal to Lear Corporation of Southfield, MI. It was supported by a record high 49.8 percent of the shares voted at the company’s 2006 annual meeting. NYCERS holds 54,941 shares valued at more than $1.6 million in Lear.

The trustees for the Pension Funds are:
NYCERS: New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Borough Presidents Scott Stringer (Manhattan), Helen Marshall (Queens), Marty Markowitz (Brooklyn), Adolfo Carrion (Bronx), and James Molinaro (Staten Island); Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Roger Toussaint, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and, Carroll (Carl) Haynes, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

TRS: New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark (Chair); Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, New York City Department of Education; and, Sandra March, Melvyn Aaronson and Mona Romain, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

Fire Department Pension Fund: Mayor Michael Bloomberg; New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark; Stephen Cassidy, President, James Slevin, Vice President, Robert Straub, Treasurer, and John Kelly, Brooklyn Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Peter Gorman, President and Captains’ Rep., Nicholas J. Visconti, Chiefs’ Rep., and Stephen J. Carbone, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and, Joseph Gagliardi, Marine Engineers Association.

Police Pension Fund: Mayor Michael Bloomberg; New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark; New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly (Chair); Patrick Lynch, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association; Michael Palladino, Detectives Endowment Association; Edwin Mullins, Sergeants Benevolent Association; Anthony Garvey, Lieutenants Benevolent Association; and, John Driscoll, Captains Endowment Association.

BERS: mayoral appointees Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Alan Aviles, Philip Berry, David Chang, Tino Hernandez, Augusta Souza Kappner, Richard Menschel and Marita Regan; Borough President appointees Martine G. Guerrier (Brooklyn), Vivian Farmery (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 Milagros Rodriguez of District Council 37, Local 372.