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Global - 2006
A Stakeholder Perspective on Alcoa
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The following was written by Sister Susan Mika of the Benedictine Sisters in San Antonio, Texas.
Since 1995, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an association of 275 faith-based institutional investors with a combined portfolio value estimated at US$110 billion, have met regularly with representatives from Alcoa in a constructive dialogue. The shareholder dialogue group has worked to explore how the company identifies and manages the social and environmental risks of its projects and how it protects human rights, consistent with respect for human dignity and International Labor Organizations' core labor standards.
The dialogue with Alcoa has two components. The first is focused on fair treatment of workers at Alcoa's plants in Mexico, including those in Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras. The goal of these discussions is to establish consistent standards for workers' health and safety and to promote a fair and dignified quality of life for workers and their communities.
Alcoa has engaged with shareholders and local workers, where workers raise their issues directly to top management in an attempt to get problems resolved at the plant level. Participants in our discussions have included the president of AFL Automotive (formerly Alcoa Fujikura Ltd.), who has met with religious shareholders and workers every six to eight months, usually in San Antonio, Texas, or Mexico, since 1996. During these years, workers have, at times, attended annual meetings so their voices might be heard.
The second component is focused on Alcoa's corporate policies. Religious shareholders pressed Alcoa to adopt a human rights policy. A statement was adopted in 2001 and has been adopted as a policy that will be implemented throughout the company. In addition, shareholders have filed resolutions and had dialogues on sustainability reporting. Shareholders have given the company feedback on report drafts and have seen improvement over time in the level of detail in Alcoa's sustainability reports, which have been based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines.
In future reports, the religious shareholders encourage additional discussion about deep-seated challenges facing the company, including its ability to negotiate the balance between its development, environmental protection, and acceptance by communities of its projects.
A few examples of challenges not easily resolved and, in some cases, requiring the involvement of many players include: programs to reduce dependence on water and minimize discharges to the environment; minimization of employee layoffs; movement of production to countries with lower wages; development of guidelines to engage with communities impacted by Alcoa's smelter projects; and hydropower plants and other projects in fragile areas in Brazil and Iceland.
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