For the coming 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) season, CODEPINK would like to highlight three shareholder proposals about human rights and nuclear weapons filed by faith-based investors represented by Investor Advocates for Social Justice. Proposals with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and PNC Bank will go to a vote at shareholder meetings this spring.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, released a statement indicating that it would like companies to implement and disclose their human rights processes to identify, manage, and prevent adverse human rights impacts. Like BlackRock's statement, proposals with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin request that the companies produce a human rights impact assessment report, while the PNC proposal asks for an assessment of risks associated with financing the nuclear weapons industry. As a top ten shareholder in all three companies, BlackRock plays an essential role with its ability to leverage its power by voting in support of these resolutions.
Proposals
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Northrop Grumman - Human Rights Impact Assessment (Annual Meeting: May 19, 2021)
- Filed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cooperative Investment Fund and the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell
- Shareholders request that Northrop Grumman publish a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, with the results of human rights impact assessments examining the actual and potential human rights impacts associated with high-risk products and services, including those in conflict-affected areas.
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Lockheed Martin - Human Rights Disclosure (Annual Meeting: April 22, 2021)
- Filed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cooperative Investment Fund
- Shareholders request the Board of Directors prepare a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, on Lockheed Martin’s human rights due diligence process to identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, and remedy actual and potential human rights impacts associated with high-risk products and services, including those in conflict-affected areas.
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PNC - Nuclear Weapons Finance (Annual Meeting: April 27, 2021)
- Filed by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood
- Shareholders request that the Board of Directors issue a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, assessing the effectiveness of PNC’s Environmental and Social Risk Management (ESRM) systems at managing risks associated with lending, investing, and financing activities within the nuclear weapons industry.
Take action
Tell BlackRock to vote for YES in favor of the three resolutions at the upcoming shareholder’s meetings. Take action here!
Background
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman has business in controversial arms trade, military training, nuclear weapons, and border surveillance systems. The company is one of the largest defense partners to Saudi Arabia, which has led the war on Yemen. Gross human rights violations, including war crimes, have been committed throughout the conflict, and both Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were named as integral companies in supplying arms and services to the Saudi Arabia/UAE-led coalition. The companies co-manufacture the Longbow system, a weapons equipment package for the Apache helicopters and hellfire missiles. The UN has identified airstrikes by warplanes and helicopters as the "single largest cause of civilian casualties'' in the war. Northrop Grumman also has contracts with or supplies weapons to multiple states engaged in conflict, including the United Arab Emirates, India, Israel, Morocco, and Colombia. Furthermore, the company has at least $68.3 billion in outstanding nuclear weapons contracts, and is developing a biometric database for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that risks privacy rights, increased surveillance, racial bias, and harm to immigrant communities. The high likelihood of severe impacts linked to Northrop Grumman’s business in conflict-affected and high-risk areas warrants disclosure of a human rights impact assessment report to shareholders and the public.
Lockheed Martin
In the past five years, Lockheed Martin has exported military goods to at least 12 states which are engaged in armed conflict, have a record of human rights violations, or are at risk of corruption and fragility. Along with co-manufacturing the Longbow system with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin weapons and technology have played a significant role in the Saudi-led war in Yemen since March 2015. In August 2018, Lockheed weaponry was linked to a school bus bombing that killed 40 children. Furthermore, the remains of M26 cluster munitions made by Lockheed Martin, weapons that are illegal under international law due to risk to civilians, were found at two missile strikes in Yemen. Similarly, Lockheed Martin has provided weaponry to the Israeli military, whose occupation of Palestine has displaced over 1 million people and is considered a “flagrant violation under international law” by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Lockheed weapons have been used repeatedly by the Israeli military on densely populated civilian areas, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties, large groups of them children, potentially amounting to war crimes. The company is also connected to $40 billion in contracts related to nuclear weapons. Given that Lockheed is the world’s largest defense contractor, and the use of its products and services in conflict-affected areas such as Yemen and Israel present serious risks to human rights, the company should prepare the report mentioned in the above proposal.
Read more about why support for the shareholder proposal with Lockheed Martin is warranted here.
PNC Bank
On January 22, 2021, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force, rendering nuclear weapons illegal under international law. Though the U.S. has not signed on, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the signing as "an important step towards a world free of nuclear weapons." The treaty prohibits using, developing, testing, production, manufacturing, acquiring, possession, stockpiling, transferring, receiving, threatening to use, stationing, installing, or deploying nuclear weapons. Even though this historical day brings the world one step closer to eliminating nuclear weapons, PNC Bank continues to finance the nuclear weapons industry.
The Hibakusha survivors of the two atomic bombs dropped on August 6th and 9th in 1945 state:
"This is the cry of our soul. Wars and conflicts are still going on in the world, and many lives of innocent people are lost. Nuclear weapons are being used to threaten others. There are also moves to develop new nuclear weapons. The destructive power of existing nuclear weapons, which number well over 10 thousand, amounts to that of tens of thousands of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Nuclear weapons are the "weapons of the devil". They could wipe out the human race and all other creatures. They could destroy the environment and turn the globe into a dead planet."
Despite lending over $1.6 billion to nuclear weapons companies, PNC Bank determined that these loans do not pose any “material credit, legal or reputational risk” to the company. Human rights risks associated with nuclear weapons are severe and irremediable, and the Treaty has inspired other financial institutions to actively exit financial relationships with nuclear weapon producers. It would be in the Board of Directors' best interest to issue a report as indicated in the above resolution.
Read more about why support for the shareholder proposal with PNC is warranted: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001636143/000121465921003487/r326210px14a6g.htm
Take action
Tell BlackRock to vote for YES in favor of the three resolutions at the upcoming shareholder’s meetings. Take action here!
References
CODEPINK Report on War Profiteers: Benjamin, M., & Davies, N. J. (2018, September). War Profiteers: The U.S. War Machine and the Arming of Repressive Regimes. Retrieved March 2021, from https://www.codepink.org/download_special_report_on_war_profiteers
News, U. (2021, January 22). Guterres hails entry into force of treaty banning nuclear Weapons | | UN NEWS. Retrieved April 06, 2021, from https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1082702
PNC Proxy Statement: https://thepncfinancialservicesgroupinc.gcs-web.com/static-files/b339e70e-663c-488e-a38b-36ba40989fe9
Lockheed Martin Proxy Statement: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/eo/documents/annual-reports/2021-proxy-statement.pdf
Northrop Grumman Proxy Statement: https://investor.northropgrumman.com/node/37926/html