Invest in freedom
(International Union Rights, vol. 4 Issue 3, 1997)
by Margaret Lynch
director of the UK based NGO War on Want
If you have a pension, a lot of your money will be invested abroad. Campaigning charity WAR ON WANT is asking pension funds to press for better working conditions in developing countries. They want the firms they invest in to ensure basic freedoms; freedom from discrimination, from bonded or enforced labour, from oppressive or dangerous working conditions and most of all freedom of association
In a land far away British pension funds - maybe yours - are being invested in companies which employ people in dangerous and degrading conditions. People work long hours for slave wages. Their lives are at risk and they are threatened or sacked if they try to organise and resist.
Now you, as a trade unionist, can do something about it. If you pay into a pension fund you have a right to a say in how your money is invested. War on Want's new Invest in Freedom campaign aims to unite British workers to make their pension funds work for better working conditions in the Third World.
Fatima works in a typical garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh . She earns £7.30 a month, often working 14 hours a day. If there is a rush on she will have to go without food. Sometimes she has to wait months to collect her wages. Safety provisions are inadequate - over the last two years 25 people died in fires in factories like hers. Anyone attempting to start a union would be dismissed, or beaten up. You can help workers like Fatima in sweatshops get a better deal. And if they do, it will help you too, by holding employers to account and stopping them touring the world looking for ever lower wages.
Basic rights
Among the trade union rights violations that frequently occur in the Third World are intimidation, beatings, torture, and even murder. On 12 November 1995 Rufo Giray, president of the WIFCO union was on a picket line outside Worldwide Paper Mills, Quezon City, The Philippines. Company security guards were used to control the striking workers as they protested. Mr Giray was beaten with truncheons before being fatally shot.
War on Want believes that trade union members will want their pension invested in firms that afford their workers the basic freedoms. They are calling on your pension fund to adopt their Invest in Freedom charter. This calls on companies to support minimum standards covering things like working hours, health and safety, and the right to join a union. Then pension fund trustees can instruct fund managers who invest your money to insist that the companies they buy shares in uphold these freedoms.
British workers' pension funds are worth £600 billion. That financial muscle can be used as a force for good. The aim is to demand that it is used to tackle poverty and oppression: not just by pressing the existing companies a fund has shares in, but by promising new investment to companies that do treat their workers fairly.
Using pension funds to invest in freedom
Eighteen million people in the UK have a private pension. They can each make a difference. Pension fund trustees take investment decisions on members behalf. Pension policy holders can persuade their trustees, either directly or through their trade union, to become active in shaping the policy of companies they have shares in. In occupational funds, at least a third of the trustees will be directly elected by employees. Policy holders can also raise their concerns in meetings with trustees or in writing.
Pension funds hold shares in most of the major companies. If they become active shareholders, pension funds can change the policy of these companies. They can raise issues in their regular private meetings with the company board of Directors, ask questions or put down a resolution at the company's General Meeting and vote to change policy. Funds could call on companies to improve their employment practices worldwide. Workers in some of the poorest countries in the world would benefit. Not only would their working conditions be improved but the existence of free trade unions would mean they could monitor employment conditions in the future.
Good sense
Pension policy holders would also benefit. Improving workers' rights in the Third World will help to stop the downward spiral of employment practices. Employment conditions in the UK will benefit. Improving working conditions can also improve a company's financial performance. Companies that treat their workers well can expect good long-term prospects. Profits will increase, and shareholders, including pension funds, will gain.
It's not a stark choice between socially responsible investment or making money the two can go hand in hand. Over the last few years ethical investments - which take account of human rights - have done just as well as others on the stock market. Using your pension as a force for good makes sense not just for the world's poor and oppressed but for your bank balance as well.
Union aid
The best way to check that working conditions are improving is by having an independent trade union in the workplace. That's why War on Want's union aid scheme exists - to help workers get organised in developing countries. War on Want works for freedom at all levels. From putting pressure on the biggest companies to helping the smallest trade unions.
More and more people are saying they do not want their pension used to prop up appalling conditions and oppression in developing countries. They care about where their money goes. They want to put their money where their principles are.
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