On October 7 and 8, over 100 trade unionists and union-nominated pension fund trustees from all over the world gathered in Toronto for the annual 2024 CWC Conference to meet and strategize with the peers around the responsible investment of workers’ capital.
On day one, trustees and labour activists convened in the morning for interactive discussions on key learnings and challenges around trustee leadership and embedding labour rights in the investment chain. The 2024 CWC Conference then kicked off with a land acknowledgement and welcome from Joseph Bastien, and remarks from Canadian Labour Congress and International Trade Union Confederation representatives.
Next, SHARE’s Kevin Thomas moderated a discussion with Canadian labour leaders Paul Finch (BCGEU) and JP Hornick (OPSEU), offering a Canadian-specific perspective on workers’ capital – including the best means of preparing trustees for their roles and unique challenges faced in the Canadian pensions landscape.
Day one of the conference also featured investor, trade union, and worker perspectives on recent engagements at Glencore, Starbucks & Tesla. This highlighted how investor stewardship can be a conduit for company-level changes around workforce practices. This was followed by an address by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. The day wrapped up with a public session on how dialogue with unions can assist investors in their stewardship efforts and how the Labour Rights Investor Network can facilitate this information flow.
On day two, Paddy Crumlin, President of the International Transport Workers’ Federation opened by announcing the launch of the CWC leadership statement on investment chain accountability and labour rights stewardship. The statement lays out the workers’ capital priorities around asset manager accountability, private market investments and labour rights stewardship.
A recurring thread of the 2024 Conference was resistance to power and capital consolidation. In the keynote address, Harvard Professor John Coates – author of The Problem of Twelve: When a few Financial Institutions Control Everything – drilled down further on this dilemma, expanding on the challenges created by the concentration of power by global asset managers and the rise of the private equity industry.
Union leaders from NUPGE, the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the American Federation of Teachers highlighted practical ways in which asset owners and trade unionists are responding to this consolidation of capital with a panel on responses to the growing role of private markets in the economy. Asset owners representatives also touched on systematically important stewardship actors by discussing tactics to hold global asset managers accountable on ESG stewardship.
The Views from the Board session gave voice to global union nominated trustees from Spain, the U.S., and France, helping attendees understand how ESG issues have evolved over the last 5-10 years and the challenges facing trustees at the board table in 2024.
Day two closed with a discussion on how investors and trade unions can navigate the explosion of regional and global standards and regulation and closing remarks from CWC Chair, Christoffer Jonsson.
It was two days of engaging discussions and shared learning, and the lessons learned at the 2024 CWC Conference will continue to help inform and shape action through the coming months and beyond.
In 2025, the CWC will hold the largest global asset managers, along with private market managers, to account for their labour rights stewardship, provide educational opportunities for investors on responsible workforce management and fundamental labour rights, and increase its visibility and impact in policy and regulatory processes.
