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McDonald's Corporation
CREA's executive director, Dr. Ruth Rosenbaum, TC, PhD, has for the past two years participated with other concerned investors in a collaborative project in China with the Walt Disney Company and McDonald's Corporation. The group recently (August 2004) released the following public statement about the project, which is still in process.
"McDonald's Corporation and the Walt Disney Company have joined together with a group of faith-based and socially responsible institutional investors to carry out a unique project that seeks to promote sustained compliance with labor standards mandated by their codes of conduct for manufacturers.
"For many years, both companies have maintained strict codes of conduct for their licensees and manufacturers. These codes address a range of key labor rights issues including the prohibition of forced and child labor and the setting of requirements in such areas of health and safety, working hours, compensation and compliance with applicable laws. In addition, both companies have been active in undertaking educational, monitoring and remediation efforts to promote compliance with these codes at the factories where their products are sourced throughout the world.
"The project has been launched as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the effectiveness of these labor standards by drawing on the interest and expertise of interested investor organizations and jointly exploring means of promoting 'sustained compliance' with labor codes.
"This collaborative project seeks to foster the creation and testing of internal systems within factories in order to promote such compliance over time, including enhanced training and education for management, supervisors and workers and potential positive compliance incentives.
"This project will also seek methods of encouraging remediation in facilities that demonstrate significant compliance issues, in order to minimize circumstances in which factory termination is the only business alternative.
"In pursuing the project the group will work with both local nongovernmental organizations and governmental authorities, as well as individual factories, with the goal of developing practicable implementation approaches, including training and remediation methods and tools.
"The group's broad objective is to identify effective practices that can be applied acorss different industries, geographic regions and socio-economic and regulatory systems. The participants anticipate completion of the project over the next 18 months and plan to report periodically on project progress and results.
"The project has grown out of the mutual concerns discussed during the extended dialogue among the investor group and the two companies regarding ways to improve conditions in factories on a sustained basis.
"The investor group participating in the project includes representatives from As You Sow Foundation; the Center for Reflection, Education and Action, Inc (CREA); the Connecticut State Treasurer's Office (fiduciary for the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds); Domini Social Investments; the General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church; the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR); and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate."
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