By: Pat Daley
May 3 -- Although 78% of Canadians tell pollsters corporations should be socially responsible, retail giants Wal-mart may be blocking efforts toward a labour practice code that would set standards for how consumer products are made.
As a result, the Canadian Partnership for Ethical Trading (CPET), set up last year by the federal government to develop a Canadian Base code of labour practice, is falling apart. (See Don't like sweatshop stuff? Shop in good conscience.)
This is all the more ironic because this week is Corporate Social Responsibility Week in Canada. And, on the same day the Conference Board of Canada released a survey showing Canadians see that responsibility as a key issue, two interesting activities took place.
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The Conference Board's survey showed 78% of people disagreed with the statement: "Successful businesses should focus on money and profit rather than on social and community issues." |
Yesterday, a minority group of shareholders presented Talisman Energy, the country's largest independent oil company, with a proposal for dealing with its operations in Sudan and the effect on that country's human rights situation. At the same time, Canadian Labour Congress President (CLC) Ken Georgetti, speaking for the Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG), was issuing a denunciation of the Retail Council of Canada's decision to sidestep negotiations on a Canadian Base Code of Labour Practice and essentially scuttle the whole process.
The Conference Board is sponsoring Corporate Social Responsibility Week. It's an issue that can affect a company's bottom line, according to Gilles Rhéaume, Vice-President of Policy, Business & Society. The board's survey shows Canadians expect private businesses to act ethically by respecting human rights (90%), the environment (89%) and their employees (85% support humane downsizing).
That's a message a group of shareholders is trying to get across to Talisman Energy. The company has come under fire for its involvement in Sudan, where it owns a 25% interest in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company - a partnership with the state oil companies of Sudan, China, and Malaysia.
Twelve churches and religious orders from Canada and the United States along with the New York City Employees Retirement System and the New York State Common Retirement Fund together own more than half a million Talisman shares. They proposed that the company:
issue within 180 days an independently verified report on the its compliance with the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business and with internationally accepted standards of human rights. The company should also ensure as much as possible that money going from it to the Sudanese government is not being used to finance the government's war efforts
provide shareholders a summary of the report
implement ongoing, independent compliance investigation and reporting
According to Diana Bronson, Co-ordinator of the Globalization and Human Rights Program for the group Rights & Democracy, Talisman management was ready with a counter proposal that left out the deadline and didn't mention the use of oil revenues for government military activity. Sudan's civil war has already resulted in two million civilian deaths.
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"A company that sells clothes made in Burma, where forced labour is a well-documented reality, is not serious about labour or other human rights." - CLC President Ken Georgetti on Wal-Mart |
Talisman has recognized the outcry over its involvement by adopting the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business but the shareholder group and Rights & Democracy want proof of their compliance. They also want Canadians to know a lot of their money is going into Talisman. Kathleen Mahoney, Chairperson of Rights & Democracy, points out: "If you are a teacher in British Columbia or Ontario, if you buy certain Royal Bank mutual funds, if any of your money is managed by the Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec, that is exactly where your money is going."
Meanwhile, the Canadian Partnership for Ethical Trading (CPET) is falling apart. It would have given consumers peace of mind knowing which clothing and shoe manufacturers and retailers had agreed not to use sweatshops at home or abroad. And consumers do want to know. The Conference Board's survey showed 78% of people disagreed with the statement: "Successful businesses should focus on money and profit rather than on social and community issues."
CLC President Georgetti accused the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) of violating the trust of labour, church, and non-governmental organizations by drafting its own code of conduct. ETAG secretariat staff Bob Jeffcott told Straight Goods that the code is basically the same as the last proposal the RCC brought to the table. He said it's a set of voluntary guidelines that don't even meet the standards already set by companies like Hudson's Bay and Sears Canada.
ETAG members believe the driving force behind RCC's action is Wal-Mart. In a press release, Georgetti said, "Wal-Mart sat on the committee that drafted the Retail Council's proposal … A company that sells clothes made in Burma, where forced labour is a well-documented reality, is not serious about labour or other human rights."
(By the way, if Wal-Mart is your pharmacy of choice, don't bother looking there for Preven, the morning-after pill. They refuse to stock it.)
Sharon Maloney, General Counsel and Vice-President Government Relations at the RCC, says it's a question of including something in the code that its members may not be able to follow: unqualified freedom of association. It can't be done, she says, in countries like China or the maquila zones where workers are not allowed to organize. Solutions to these issues should be found government to government, she says, adding, "We don't believe it is appropriate for business to become a fourth level of government."
Maloney stresses that the RCC did not walk away from discussions, but that agreement was not possible. That group will review its proposal and circulate it to the RCC's 8,500 members in early summer. If adopted, it will be a voluntary code. The RCC, says Maloney, would like to continue discussing issues such as how standards are monitored, how a safe workplace is defined, and what happens when a company finds out that child labour is being used by its manufacturers.
The one thing both sides agree on is that process is falling apart. Jeffcott said MP John English, appointed by the federal government to facilitate the process, says he sees no reason to have future meetings with the current participants. For its part, ETAG says it is willing to continue working on a Canadian code with any grouping of retailers, manufacturers or industry associations that are prepared to accept core labour rights and the principle of independent code verification.
Happy Corporate Social Responsibility Week!
Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.
Get More/Do More
Is corporate social responsibility important to you?
Tell Straight Goods
Check out some of ETAG's work at the Maquila Solidarity Network website: www.web.net/~msn.
Visit the website of the Retail Council of Canada at www.retailcouncil.org.
Check out the Wal-Mart foundation - community funding - at www.walmartfoundation.org.
For a satirical look at Wal-Mart, visit www.walmartsucks.com.
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