In the past six months, through our affiliation with the FAIRR Initiative, we have engaged a variety of meat processing companies such as Tyson, Armor, Farmer John, Smithfield, and other brands in Australia, Brazil, and China regarding significant labor issues at their facilities and overall operations in the areas of worker voice, working conditions, grievance procedures, wages, paid sick leave, and an assessment of the impacts of contractors and automation on the workforce and productivity.
Through our affiliation with the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, we supported a letter with dozens of our colleagues urging the largest 50 global banks to undertake human rights due diligence across all forms of finance, including lending, asset management, and bond underwriting. We aligned these efforts with longstanding international business and human rights frameworks in consultation with impacted rights holders in high-risk areas.
We asked the banks to report on how adverse human rights impacts have been identified, managed, and addressed to provide grievance and other remedies that address adverse impacts. Thus far, per BankTrack, banks leading the way in this realm include Citi (the only American bank), Barclays, and PNB Paribas, while the laggards feature JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
