Committee on Workers' Capital

CWC Conference: Travel and event information

Tamara Herman — 2019-04-10T19:03:13Z

The 2018 Workers' Capital Conference will be held in San Francisco (USA) on September 10-11, 2018 at the LiUNA Local 261 Union Hall. Please continue to check here for up to date travel and event information.

HOTELS

Conference participants are responsible for arranging their own hotel bookings. For your convenience, we have arranged several courtesy blocks with group rates and compiled a short list of recommended hotels within easy travel distance.

Please note that all our recommended hotels are listed as socially responsible union hotels on the Fair Hotel website. We encourage travelers booking their accommodations to consult www.fairhotel.org in making their hotel selection.

Courtesy blocks:

Handlery Union Square Hotel
The Handlery Union Square Hotel is located approximately 15-20 minutes by public transit from the conference site. The group booking rate is available on a first come first served basis until July 23rd.

E-Link for group booking rate

The Kensington Park Hotel
The Kensington Park Hotel is located approximately 15-20 minutes away by public transit. The group booking rate is available on a first come first served basis until August 10th.

E-Link for group booking rate. Our special group code is CWC.

The Serrano Hotel
The Serrano Hotel is located approximately 15-20 minutes by public transit from the conference site. The group booking rate is available on a first come first served basis until July 9th.

E-Link for group booking rate

Other recommended hotels - subject to advertised rates:

Workers' Capital Unites in San Francisco: Summary of the Week of September 10th

Hugues Letourneau — 2018-09-19T00:16:37Z

On September 10-11th, more than 115 worker-nominated pension fund trustees and trade union capital strategists from more than 12 countries came together at LiUNA local 261 union hall in San Francisco to improve accountability in the investment chain and to take stock of advances around the world.

The CWC also utilized the global convening to drive tangible action on asset manager accountability on workers' rights and to elevate the profile of social issues - particularly workers' rights - within the work of the UNPRI.

To access all speaker presentations, please click here and log into to the website to have access to password protected content.

The CWC Secretariat was on the ground in San Francisco the week of September 10th for a full week of events. In addition to organising the Workers' Capital Conference – big thanks to LiUNA and the amicable team at the Local 261 Union Hall – we participated in the UC Berkeley conference on labour in the climate transition along with the PRI in Person. We stand in solidarity with the workers of the Marriott Marquis, where the PRi in Person conference was held, and all workers affiliated to Unite Here local 2 who voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike on Thursday September 13th when the PRI in Person was underway.

This year's gathering of the worker capital community was decidedly action-driven. The CWC worked with its partners to organise a meeting in San Francisco between Australian trustees and one of their fund managers which owns a sizeable stake in a company with questionable human capital management practices. The CWC will press ahead with its network of trustees to identify cases that warrant accountability from asset managers whose claims to integrate social issues in their investments do not always translate into practice.

The CWC leadership team also met with PRI CEO Fiona Reynolds and PRI board members to evaluate progress and next steps on collaborative work items – including raising the profile of just transition as an investor issue, empowering trustees on responsible investment and holding asset managers to account on social issues.

Workers' Capital Conference: a summary of activities
The morning of Monday September 10th, we held an inaugural edition of the CWC trustee leadership workshop which was co-organised by SHARE and the Trustee Leadership Forum in the US. More than 30 trustees from countries such as Australia, South Africa, France, the Netherlands, Canada and the USA met in an intimate setting to discuss their experiences and the challenges they face in embedding workers' rights in the investment policies and practices of their funds.

The CWC Conference opened on Monday afternoon. We heard moving testimonies from former Toys R US workers on the impact of the practices implemented by the private equity-backed toy store and linked this story all the way to the pension fund clients of the PE firm. A specialist on private equity fee structure also challenged the idea that, on a risk-adjusted basis, private equity returns are greater than those of public equities. This was followed by a spotlight on workers' rights violations in an economic sector which is expanding across the globe to cater to e-commerce: shipping and logistics. The day wrapped up with a discussion on sustainability reporting frameworks, such as the Workforce Disclosure Initiative and SASB. An important argument was that effective disclosure on workers' rights could have a similar impact to CEO pay disclosure, which has exposed excessive remuneration.

On Tuesday, the day kick started with a panel on infrastructure investments where speakers from a Canadian union and a union-owned infrastructure asset manager in the USA outlined practical tools and steps that trustees can take to fend off the privatization of public-sector jobs and uphold worker rights in infrastructure investments. The next panel touched on fees in the investment chain. A US trustee spoke about his experience in formulating an investment belief on the alignment on financial interests between the pension fund and its asset managers. Takeaways from this session included the following: a) what pension funds pay in fees to investment managers affects the pool of capital that is available to pension beneficiaries and hence, warrants stewardship by trustees and b) if pension funds and trustees find a way to work together and stand up to the fee structure that is presented to them – eg: by private equity managers – the industry would need to adapt to client expectations.

Our keynote, Lenore Palladino, Senior Economist and Policy Counsel at the Roosevelt Institute, spoke about stock buybacks and why they harm long-term investors and companies, including workers. She also spoke about the importance of having CWC participants call into question the role of the corporation in society and spoke about the growing challenge to shareholder primacy in the US, as evidenced by the recent introduction of a proposed federal bill called the Accountable Capitalism Act in the USA.

The final afternoon of the CWC Conference touched on asset manager accountability on social issues and the just transition to a low-carbon economy. The asset manager accountability panel featured three stories which highlighted how effective connections between union organisers, capital stewards, pension trustees and asset managers resulted in a) asset manager responsiveness to asset owners (workers' capital) and b) positive changes for workers on the ground. The CWC Conference rounded up with examples from unions, trustees and responsible investment practitioners on how the “S” and the “E” need to be bridged accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy across – but also within – companies.

In her final remarks, Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of the ITUC spoke about how her top priority, building workers' power, aligns with the work of the CWC. The ITUC has worked with the UNPRI on a Just transition framework, which was launched in San Francisco. The objective is to gather the commitments of 300 funds with $30 trillion of assets under management ahead of the next COP meeting in Poland in December 2018. Sharan Burrow also raised concern with the monopoly power of the world's largest asset managers – the world's top 5 asset managers, Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and BNY Mellon manage more than $17 trillion - which own stakes in virtually all publicly-listed companies across the globe.

2018 Workers' Capital Conference Program

Tamara Herman — 2018-09-05T23:31:00Z

The 2018 Workers' Capital Conference was held in San Francisco, California on Monday, September 10 from 12:30 pm - 5:30 pm and Tuesday, September 11, from 8:30 am - 4:15 pm.

To access all conference presentations, click here and log into the password protected section of the website.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Trustee Leadership Workshop
For the agenda, click here.

Shareholder Activism Working Group
For the meeting agenda, click here.

Workers' Capital Conference
For the final agenda, click here.

The 2018 Conference included panels on the following topics:

Private equity: This session will explore private equity, focusing on its implications for workers and pension funds. It will begin with an overview of the asset class, outlining key considerations for trustees in the context of a critical examination of the asset class' past and expected future performance. The session will then turn to the specific implications of private equity investments on workers and communities.

Asset manager accountability on social issues: For asset owners, the task of establishing accountability from asset managers on social issues is fraught with challenges. This session will report on the CWC's new asset manager accountability initiative while examining gaps between discourse and action, discussing asset owner experiences in approaching asset managers and exploring strategies moving forward.

Infrastructure: This session will discuss concrete initiatives that seek to help trustees reconcile pension board decision making with the general interest of the trade union movement as they pertain to this asset class including the CWC Trustee Guidance Note on Pension Fund Investment, the ACTU labour standards code for infrastructure asset managers and the development of responsible contractor policies in the US.

Fees in the investment chain: The transparency of costs paid by asset owners has gained increasing attention and scrutiny from regulators and governments in recent years. This session will report on recent regulatory developments in Australia, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA and will chart a path to build the capacity of trustees and unions to seek better cost transparency.

The strategic role of investors in a Just Transition: Investor responses to climate change continue to gain momentum in the form of shareholder engagement, capital allocation decisions and policy dialogues. While the implications of the climate transition for workers and communities has not been embedded into the bulk of these investor responses, the concept of just transition is gaining ground. This session will take stock of progress and discuss ongoing initiatives.

Amazon and the logistics sector: Prime time for a global capital stewardship campaign: The logistics sector occupies an increasingly strategic position within the global economy, producing some of the world's fastest growing and most powerful companies. These companies operate with impunity, employ a brutally exploitative labour model, and fight viciously to prevent unionization — all of which has sparked opposition across the globe. This session explores how two logistics companies – Amazon and XPO Logistics – operate, how workers and unions are fighting back, and what capital stewards can do to build that fight.

2018 Workers' Capital Conference Public Event: The strategic role of investors in a just transition to a low-carbon economy

Tamara Herman — 2018-08-29T22:31:13Z

You are invited to a public session on just transition hosted by the Committee on Workers' Capital with the Just Transition Initiative.

As investor responses to climate change gain momentum, an awareness is growing that a poorly managed transition generates risks of “stranded workers” and “stranded communities” – both of which contribute to inequality and economic stagnation. Some investors are responding by integrating social dimensions into their responses to climate change.

This session will introduce a just transition framework that connects people and the environment in the climate related strategies that investors are considering. Using real-world examples, it will describe some of the complexities that arise on the ground as we transition to a low-carbon economy. It will then discuss how investors are working to integrate social factors into their climate responses in areas such as investment strategies, company engagements, capital allocation and policy advocacy and partnerships.

This session is part of the annual Workers' Capital Conference, organized by the Global Unions Committee on Workers' Capital, a joint initiative of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Global Union Federations (GUFs) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC).

The annual Workers' Capital Conference is the premier forum for international collaboration and dialogue between trade unions and trade union/worker-nominated pension fund trustees. The CWC works to effect change in the global economy through the responsible investment of more than USD 35 trillion of workers' capital.

Speakers:

Erin Hutson, Director of Corporate Affairs, LiUNA (USA)
Kevin Thomas, Executive Director, SHARE (Canada)
Thérèse Schets, trustee, Cleaners and Window cleaners fund & FNV (Netherlands)

Moderator:

Nick Robins, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), (UK)

Session Details
Date: September 11, 2018
Time: 14:45 – 16:00
Location: LiUNA Laborers' Local 261, 3271 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Open to the public

Click here for PDF session brief

Trustee Leadership Workshop Agenda

Tamara Herman — 2018-07-12T00:11:16Z

The agenda for our Trustee Leadership Workshop is now online. Click here to view the document.

We are pleased to be organizing the workshop with the US-based Trustee Leadership Forum and Canada-based SHARE, click here .

Brandon Nelson

Active items

Alex Gomes — 2018-03-07T16:34:19Z

2018 Workers' Capital Conference

Tamara Herman — 2018-01-19T08:12:21Z

The 2018 Workers' Capital Conference took place in San Francisco on September 10-11.
Click here for a summary of the full week of events.
To access all conference material, including speaker presentations, please log into the website and click on the password protected section at the bottom of the page.

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Alex Gomes — 2017-06-27T15:45:19Z

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