Shareholder Advocacy

Shareholder advocacy seeks to change corporate behavior through proposing and representing resolutions at annual stockholder meetings. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has engaged in shareholder activism for more than forty years, and has celebrated some key victories. We work together with other religious organizations through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). Our resolutions have advocated for many issues such as good corporate governance, non-discriminatory employment practices, ending predatory lending programs and reasonable pricing of medications for treatment of AIDS. Our resolutions have helped bring press and public attention to the exploitation of Third-World women and children working in cruel labor conditions.

Partnership with New York City Comptroller’s Office
In early 2002, the office for New York City Employees’ Pension Funds contacted the UUA, asking our assistance with a number of shareholder activism projects. With one thousand congregations across the country, we were aptly situated to send representatives of their Comptroller’s Office to the annual shareholder meetings of the companies New York City wished to target.

If you would like to present shareholder resolutions in your area or would like to protest outside of a meeting where the UUA will be presenting a shareholder resolution, please sign up here.