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Oblates and other Faith-Based and Socially Responsible Investors Work to Clean up Garment Industry Supply Chain May 16th, 2013
The Missionary Oblates, Oblate Investment Pastoral and GS-JPIC Rome have joined with more than 100 other institutional investors, with over $1.2 trillion in assets under management, in a statement condemning the broken supply chain system in the garment industry, especially in Bangladesh. This system, much of which urgently needs fixing, continues to result in huge loss of life in unsafe factories, as well as unfair remuneration for workers, many of whom are young parents.
This large coalition of religious groups and investors is pressing major American retailers to join a sweeping plan to improve safety in Bangladesh apparel factories, calling on them to act together to force changes in overseas workplaces.
Read the article about investor activism in the garment sector in the New York Times…
List of Signatories to the investor statement…
Additional press coverage:
Clothing Retailers Pressed on Safety Issues May 12th, 2013
Photo credit: Emma L. Herman
The Rev. Seamus Finn, OMI (OMI JPIC Office Director) was quoted in a recent New York Times article on the building collapse and fires in the Bangladesh garment industry, saying: “What happened in Bangladesh is a game-changer because of the gravity of the situation and the tremendous loss of life,” Father Finn said. “People are really coming to life about this and saying, ‘We need to do something.’ ”
Rev. Finn is circulating a letter among other faith-based and socially responsible investors – groups that control more than $100 billion in assets — expressing displeasure with U.S. retailers. He says the retailers have not done nearly enough to improve workplace safety for the more than three million garment workers in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh labor costs in the garment manufacturing industry are the lowest in the world. Decent factory operations there are under tremendous pressure from their purchasers to lower costs, with the buyers threatening to ‘take their business down the road’ unless their terms are met.
NRCAT Urges in Congress: Close Guantanamo! May 10th, 2013
A Congressional Briefing, broadcast on C-SPAN, offers important information about the realities at Guantanamo and how the President can move forward with closing the prison there. We encourage you to watch it. The briefing is hosted by Rep. Jim Moran and is sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), The Constitution Project, and the New America Foundation. The Oblate JPIC Office is a member of NRCAT.
The situation at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center continues to deteriorate. Eleven years after it first opened, and more than 4 years after President Obama mandated its closure, there are still 166 men being held at Guantanamo – 86 of whom have already been cleared for transfer or release. Currently, 100 of the detainees, responding to a growing sense of hopelessness and despair over their continued detention, in most cases without charge or trial, are engaged in a prolonged hunger strike.
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Death Penalty Abolished in Maryland May 10th, 2013
On May 2, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a law repealing the state’s death penalty. Supporters of the death penalty have announced they will try to to petition for a referendum to re-instate the penalty. Death penalty opponents are gearing up for a campaign supporting the repeal should the needed signatures force a referendum.
One of those who devoted much effort to the repeal effort was Vicki Schieber (pictured) of the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty, who spoke at a workshop during the Consistent Life 25th Anniversary Conference on her experience as a mother of a murder victim.
For more information please visit the Consistent Life web page
Support Just and Compassionate Immigration Reform May 9th, 2013
Call on Congress to Pass Just and Compassionate Immigration Reform!
Send the electronic postcard below to your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask for passage of immigration reform legislation in the 113th Congress.
Simply click on the postcard below or this “Take Action” link to send the postcard.
Go to www.justiceforimmigrants.org for more information.
After you have sent the postcard to your Washington, DC lawmakers, forward this message to your email contacts throughout the country and urge them to send the e-card to their U.S. Senators and Representatives. Thank you!
