By Mary Grace Wagner, Social Responsibility Operations Coordinator
and Mary Minette, Senior Director of Shareholder Advocacy, 
Mercy Investment Services

Faith-based investors gathered in New York City in late March 2026 for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) biannual conference. Panels covered topics impacting shareholder advocacy and the changing federal policy landscape for shareholder proposals. 

A panel on chemical risk management included a discussion of the Portfolio Advisory Board’s (PAB) ongoing engagement with Target Corporation on pesticide use and its impact on biodiversity in Target Corporation’s supply chain.  

A panel about engagement with the critical minerals sector included panelists who spoke about engagements with mining companies about the critical minerals needed to build electric vehicles. Panelists also spoke of the plans to engage automakers, including General Motors and Ford, about the human rights implications of their battery supply chains. 

Member-led panels included a presentation from Ben Cohen, founder of the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brand, about his battle to retain the brand’s social activist profile after its former parent company, Unilever, spun its ice cream business off to a new company, Magnum. The session also included an opportunity to enjoy ice cream!

Shareholders also discussed the rapidly growing gap between CEO and worker pay. In recent years, the average CEO of large U.S. companies has made 300 times the wage of their median workers. 

In a panel discussion, the ICCR Advancing Worker Justice Working Group on Excessive Executive Compensation previewed their new executive pay guidelines. The guidelines were released, together with an investor statement signed by the PAB, calling on investors to strengthen their oversight of executive pay by reviewing their proxy voting practices and guidelines on excessive compensation and engaging with companies.

And finally, industry experts gave an overview of the various federal policy changes that have created obstacles for investor proposals and actions. This included changes by the SEC in how shareholder proposal challenges by companies are treated, actions to block small shareholders from accessing the public SEC database to promote their shareholder proposals, and a number of state laws that could impact how investors can vote their proxies when they disagree with management’s recommended vote. 

A panel of experts also discussed how ICCR members and others have responded to these new restrictions, including by filing successful lawsuits against companies to get their proposals on the proxy ballot. Panelists also discussed the potential for further legal restrictions by the SEC to shareholder rights and pledged continued diligence in reporting to ICCR members about opportunities to respond.

By Mary Minette, Senior Director of Shareholder Advocacy, 
Mercy Investment Services

March 2, 2026, Washington, D.C. – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a change in policy late in 2025 that is impacting shareholder proposals, a key tool used by the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) and other investors to engage with the companies we own. Most publicly traded companies hold their annual shareholder meetings in the spring, so each fall, shareholders consider whether it would be useful to file a non-binding proposal under SEC Rule 14a to encourage companies to engage in more focused dialogue on key issues, including climate change, human rights, and improvements in corporate governance.  

Under Rule 14a, if a company believes that the subject of a proposal is not appropriate or that they are already doing what the proposal requests, they must ask the SEC for permission to omit the proposal from the proxy ballot for their annual meeting. Under long-standing policy, the SEC will either allow them to do so or indicate that they are required to include the proposal on their proxy. 

This past fall, as investors were preparing to begin filing proposals for the 2026 proxy season, the SEC announced that it would not respond to most requests by companies this year to omit proposals from their proxy ballots, citing a lack of resources due to the extended government shutdown. Companies are still required to inform the SEC that they will not include a proposal, and to outline their reasons for doing so, but the SEC will not compel them to print a proposal in their proxy.

Many companies have chosen not to take advantage of this “free pass.” For example, Tyson Foods had already requested permission from the SEC to omit a proposal filed by the PAB requesting a report on how changes in immigration policies are impacting their workers when the SEC announced this change. The company elected to include the proposal on the proxy ballot for its annual meeting in February. 

However, some companies elected to omit proposals. GEO Group, a private prison company that owns and co-operates more than 20 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, informed the SEC that it would omit a proposal filed by the PAB from its 2026 proxy. The proposal requested that the company hire a third party to determine whether they are complicit in violating international human rights law by providing transportation and security services to assist ICE deportations, such as their role accompanying detainees from GEO detention centers on flights to CECOT prison in El Salvador. The company also failed to respond to requests from investors for dialogue on this issue.

Recently, the SEC announced another policy change that will impact shareholder rights.  The SEC maintains a database called EDGAR where public companies file their required reports. Under SEC rules, any shareholder who holds more than $5 million in a company’s shares is required to file a Notice of Exempt Solicitation on EDGAR any time they wish to urge their fellow shareholders to vote their proxies in a specific way (against certain directors or for a specific shareholder proposal). Smaller shareholders were also permitted to use EDGAR to file a voluntary Notice of Exempt Solicitation to urge support for a proposal they filed or other proxy voting campaign. The SEC announced in January 2026 that they will no longer allow EDGAR to be used for voluntary filings, blocking use of a key communications tool by small shareholders.

Despite the challenges posed by these SEC policy changes, the PAB is continuing to file shareholder proposals and will find alternate ways to generate support for our proposals.
 

By Christopher Richardson
Shareholder Advocacy Manager, Mercy Investment Services

January 13, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – Data centers, the physical backbone of the modern digital economy – including artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing – are expanding at an unprecedented pace. Due to this explosive growth, data centers are quietly becoming one of the most consequential drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and rising electricity costs, posing risks to climate goals and the communities hosting them.

Utilities across the United States report historic demand driven predominantly by new data center development, as a campus can consume as much electricity as a mid-sized city. AI-optimized facilities require exponentially more power due to high-density chips, cooling systems, and all-hours usage. Utilities are delaying coal plant retirements, expanding gas generation, and investing billions in new transmission and infrastructure, which create ecological and financial costs that may ultimately result in health and environmental impacts and higher electric bills.  

The Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) is engaging with utilities such as Southern to understand how they are managing costs for their consumers, particularly their low-income consumers, in light of the unprecedented electric load growth from data centers. The PAB also seeks to understand how Southern is minimizing the environmental impacts of serving this rapid growth in demand.

In addition to their heavy electricity demand, computing facilities can use millions of gallons of water a day due to their evaporative cooling systems. This water use competes directly with community needs, agriculture, and long-term aquifer stability. Some technology companies report portfolio-level water metrics, but few disclose water use at the facility or watershed level, leaving investors and residents unable to assess local impact.

Data centers’ significant environmental and water footprint remains complex and largely invisible to the public and dangerously underexamined by policymakers and utilities. That complexity is precisely why investors, including the PAB, are increasingly stepping in. 

Engagements with technology companies such as Amazon, Meta (Facebook), and Alphabet (Google) are focused on urging companies to conduct climate transition planning, and to disclose how their growth strategies align with 1.5°C scenarios. Investors are seeking facility-level emissions data, resource needs, water risk assessments, renewable energy procurement, and capital expenditure alignment with climate goals.

 

By Caroline Boden
Director of Shareholder Advocacy, Mercy Investment Services

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger identifies ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 and ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for everyone. The Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI), which advocates for healthier and more affordable food products, released the fifth edition of its Global Index at the end of 2024, assessing how 30 of the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers are improving access to healthy foods. 

The 2024 Global Index, based on updated and strengthened methodology, noted several key findings since the 2021 edition: 

•    Healthier products, as defined by the Health Star Rating Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) system, account for 34% of sales – a small improvement from the last index, but below the 2030 target of 50%.
•    Some 30% of companies now use internationally recognized NPMs to assess and benchmark the healthiness of their portfolios for reporting and target-setting, which standardizes reporting for investors and other stakeholders.
•    37% of companies established age thresholds for product marketing and are marketing more responsibly to children.
•    30% of companies now have an affordable nutrition strategy.
•    Food product healthiness in low- and middle-income countries scored much lower than high-income countries, highlighting disparities in product offerings across different markets.

The Portfolio Advisory Board will use this data in ongoing engagements with food and beverage companies ranked in the index. For example, an engagement with Campbell’s will address improving the healthiness of the company’s products; benchmarking its portfolios against internationally recognized NPMs to improve disclosure and data standardization; marketing responsibly, especially to children; and improving access and affordability of healthier products. 

Since the 2024 Global Index was released, Campbell’s remains one of the few companies that reports on the affordability of its nutrition-focused foods and overall portfolio. The PAB will continue to engage companies such as Campbell’s to ensure that all consumers have access to quality and affordable healthy food.
 

By Mary Minette
Mercy Investment Consultant

In proxy year 2025, shareholder proposal filings decreased from the previous year due to a variety of factors, including successful withdrawals in 2024; rising sentiment against the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria for determining an organization’s social impact; and uncertainty about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approach to shareholder proposals in a new federal administration. 

The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) estimates that member-filed shareholder proposals decreased 15 percent from the 2024 proxy season, with a 43 percent drop in climate proposals, a 38 percent decline in human rights and worker rights proposals, and a 25 percent drop in health-related proposals.

The rate at which companies challenged shareholder proposals at the SEC has also increased compared to previous years, due in part to a mid-year policy revision that included significant changes in how SEC staff interpreted the rules for the permitted content of proposals. In addition, the SEC invited companies to submit challenges even if the deadline to exclude a proposal from their proxy had expired at the time the new rules were issued.  

According to ICCR, about 17 percent of member filings were challenged in 2024, and nearly 47 percent of filings were challenged in 2025. The SEC allowed companies to omit 25 percent of the challenged proposals. 

In addition to these changes to the proposal process, the new SEC chair, Paul Atkins, has indicated that he would like to restrict or even eliminate the shareholder proposal filing process. A recent report from the Business Roundtable also supports substantial restrictions on shareholder proposals, claiming that they are time-consuming and costly to companies and often concern issues with no material financial impact. Finally, the legislature in Texas recently passed a law that will allow companies incorporated in that state to amend their by-laws to opt out of allowing shareholder proposals.

Companies are removing public disclosures on ESG programs and performance objectives to avoid being targeted by anti-ESG proponents. Other companies have announced rollbacks of climate commitments and diversity programs. Through dialogue, we have learned that many of these companies remain committed to progress in these areas, showing the importance of ongoing dialogue and strong relationships with companies to maintain progress on environmental and human rights issues.

The news is gloomy, but the Portfolio Advisory Board remains committed to our work in shareholder advocacy, engaging in dialogues with 42 companies and filing 10 shareholder proposals in the 2025 proxy season. We will continue to support the rights of shareholders to bring critical issues to the attention of the companies they own and to push companies to be transparent about their efforts to address issues such as human rights and climate change that pose a risk to their business, as well as to our communities and the Earth.

 

Feature image at top: "Shareholder" by 2210178venushree, CC BY-SA 4.0

By Maxwell Homans
Shareholder Advocacy Associate, Mercy Investment Services, Inc.

The Portfolio Advisory Board filed a proposal this year at Dollar General, asking the retail dollar store to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy aligned with international human rights standards. Mercy Investment Services worked closely with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) Advancing Worker Justice Initiative to advocate for this resolution, carrying forward engagement with Dollar General following the company’s unsatisfactory responses to previous human rights concerns. 

A previous resolution in 2023 had asked the retail chain for a safety audit to address reports of unsafe conditions, understaffing, and violence at many of its stores. The 2023 resolution received a majority vote with more than 77% shareholder support. However, the company surprisingly refused to engage with the shareholders who had led this proposal. Dollar General chose instead to conduct an audit privately, choosing a “union-busting” law firm as the auditor; the audit found minimal problems with company policies.
 
Since that time, Dollar General agreed to settlements with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for unsafe store conditions and illegal union-busting activities. The company was fined $12 million by OSHA in July 2024 for repeat safety violations, and in July 2023 the NLRB ruled that Dollar General was practicing “blatant hallmark unfair labor practices” based on their corporate response to store workers attempting to unionize in Connecticut. In addition, workers have reported continued understaffing, low pay, and feeling unsafe at stores, with no meaningful changes since the audit and agreement with OSHA to increase safety protocols.

Recognizing the need for further engagement on worker safety and rights, the proposal the PAB filed this proxy season focused on requesting a corporate-wide human rights policy, asking for greater protections for workers and customers still experiencing unsafe conditions in stores. 

To highlight the voices of Dollar General workers calling for change, ICCR co-hosted a webinar briefing ahead of Dollar General’s annual meeting to build support for the human rights proposal. Dollar General workers told personal stories of receiving violent threats at work, being ordered to block fire exits, and feeling embarrassed that peer retailers offered safer conditions and higher pay for their workers. Investors also made the case for a human rights policy, connecting worker testimonies to widespread financial risks and penalties faced by Dollar General. 

The human rights proposal received 22.9% of the shareholder vote at the company’s annual meeting, falling short of a majority, but high enough to allow investors to re-file the proposal next year. PAB and our fellow investors will continue our push to improve workers’ rights and human rights in Dollar General stores. 

As workers demand more from U.S. retailers, it is imperative that these companies uphold workers’ legal rights to organizing and collective bargaining and a safe and healthy workplace. Stores including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Starbucks have all seen their workforces unionize in recent years, and with Dollar General surpassing 20,000 stores in the U.S. this past year, responsible business means embracing workers’ rights, not systematically denying them. 

Workers and shareholders will continue to speak up to ask companies to respect human rights; to be successful, companies like Dollar General need to listen.

 

By Judy Byron, OP

I kept my fourth- to sixth-grade students safe by conducting fire and earthquake drills. Lockdowns weren’t in my teacher’s toolkit.

I didn’t have students bringing packets of ketchup with their school supplies, as I recently heard about one little girl doing. If a shooter came to her classroom, she wanted to be prepared to spread ketchup on herself and her friends so that the shooter would think that they were dead.

Everytown for Gun Safety reports that every day, 125 people in the United States are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. And research by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found that since 2020, firearms have been the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 17. When motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death for children, we changed that statistic by mandating seat belts, airbags, car seats, and driver education. Can we change the statistics on children and firearms?

Faith-based investors think we can. In 2017, the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment (NWCRI), along with a group of colleagues from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), joined a growing number of public health experts, gun owners, state and city governments, and citizens in seeking solutions to gun violence.

We purchased stock in firearm manufacturers such as American Outdoor Brands (Smith & Wesson), Sturm Ruger, and Dick’s Sporting Goods, with the goal of engaging these companies regarding the positive role they can play in ending the epidemic of gun violence.

We wrote letters to the companies to raise our concerns and to request dialogue. When none of the companies responded, we filed shareholder resolutions with the manufacturers in early January 2018, “requesting a report on the company’s activities related to gun safety measures and the mitigation of harm associated with gun products.”

The Dick’s Sporting Goods resolution, filed in December 2018, requested a “report on actions our Company has taken on elements such as those based on Sandy Hook Principles,” including measures designed to curb gun violence such as background checks, technology to enhance the safety of guns, and gun safety education at point of sale. The company, including Chief Executive Officer Ed Stack, dialogued with us regarding the actions the company was taking. We were convinced that management was taking steps to reduce gun violence, so we withdrew our resolution.

We had not heard from the manufacturers when the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day 2018 ignited a youth movement that had the potential to address gun violence in our country. Yet the manufacturers of firearms remained on the sidelines, even as their largest investor, BlackRock, publicly urged the companies to address gun safety with questions identical to those in our shareholder resolution.

At the Sturm Ruger annual meeting on May 9, 2019, a majority of shareholders – 69 percent – made it perfectly clear that they wanted the company to take seriously the social impact of its business and that gun safety is a significant and growing social issue. Chief Executive Officer Christopher Killoy’s response to the vote was, “The proposal requires Ruger to prepare a report. That’s it: a report…. What the proposal does not and cannot do is force us to change our business, which is lawful and constitutionally protected.”

Our resolution and dialogue with Dick’s Sporting Goods, however, did result in the company changing its business. On February 28, 2018, Dick’s announced that the company would no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 or sell assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines. Stack ended his media release saying, “We deeply believe that this country’s most precious gift is our children. They are our future. We must keep them safe.”

Four years later, on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the teachers and students knew what to do when confronted with a mass shooter, yet 19 children and two teachers did not survive. Today, compelled by the 10-year-old girl who survived and pleaded with the 911 operator, “Please help. I don’t want to die,” NWCRI and our colleagues continue to press firearms manufacturers to help end gun violence.

Used by permission from Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, A Matter of Spirit, Spring 2025, No. 145

Feature photo at top: Gun Safety Committee panel with Giffords Law Center, Guns Down America, and Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, whose daughter Jessie was killed in the Aurora Theatre in 2012.
 

By Mary Minette
PAB Consultant

December 16, 2024, New York, New York – Faith-based investors gathered in September for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s (ICCR) annual fall conference to explore and collaborate on various topics impacting shareholder advocacy. Through shareholder advocacy, faith-based organizations buy shares of corporations, allowing them to advocate for the corporation’s adoption of just policies.

The conference focused in part on how companies adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools and how AI affects people and communities. Panels focused on how investors can effectively engage companies to ensure users’ privacy and safety in light of increasing use of AI; the challenges and risks posed by the increased use of AI tools by health insurers to make coverage decisions for individuals; and on AI’s impact on public conversations and access to information in an election year that is key for the United States and many other countries. 

In addition, the conference included discussions of new and evolving issues: 

•    The impact of healthcare consolidation on coverage and care for patients, which highlighted real-world impacts through conversations with healthcare providers and recipients.

•    The increasing challenges investors face following the recent Supreme Court decision impeding the ability of federal agencies to issue common-sense regulations to protect public interests, as well as anti-environmental, social, and governance (ESG) legislation and lawsuits.

•    The suboptimal working conditions in the seafood industry. The panel included local labor organizations who delved into on-the-ground insight and provided shareholder actions.

•    Just transition, including a panel discussion by local organizations who discussed the impact of the development of wind energy on local economies.

The ICCR conference concluded with the organization’s annual event, "Navigating Troubled Waters: Corporate Political Responsibility in Turbulent Times." Corporate representatives spoke about how their organizations are navigating political discourse in our divided country.  

Most importantly, the annual event also included the awarding of ICCR’s Legacy Award to Pat Zerega of Mercy Investment Services, who has worked as a consultant to the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) for the past decade, for her “five decades of shareholder advocacy on behalf of people and planet.”  

In granting the award to Pat, the ICCR noted that she “has dedicated her life and career to serving and speaking out for the ‘least of these my brothers and sisters.’ Her care and concern for the dignity of each person is at the core of her being, her faith, and her mission to advance corporate respect for human rights from the community to corporate boardrooms. Pat has been indispensable in her service to ICCR, both as a board member and as an active member and leader of several working groups.”

The PAB joins the ICCR in celebrating Pat’s dedication to our shared work and the legacy of impact on corporate policies!
 

Caption for above feature photo: Pat Zerega, center, former consultant to the Portfolio Advisory Board, holds the 2024 Legacy Award from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). With her are, from left, Rob Fohr, Chair of the ICCR Board; Katie McCloskey, Vice President of Social Responsibility for Mercy Investments; Susan Markos, retired Vice President of Social Responsibility for Mercy Investments; and Josh Zinner, CEO of ICCR.

By Mary Minette
Mercy Investments Consultant

Image attribution: kris krüg, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - Gulf of Mexico, CC BY-SA 2.0

August 19, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – In the 2023-2024 proxy season, the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) filed 19 shareholder proposals. Eight were withdrawn for agreement; eight went to a vote; two were omitted from the proxy statement; and one (Smith & Wesson) will be voted on in September. 

According to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), overall shareholder filings decreased from 460 in 2023 to 400 in 2024. Climate change continues to be the top issue area for filing, but human rights and workers’ rights were the second highest issue area filed this year. 

The top industries receiving shareholder proposals in 2025 were banks and oil and gas companies. Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, ExxonMobil, and Chevron continued to receive the most shareholder filings. In 2024, the PAB filed at all of the above companies except for Chevron.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed companies to omit 52% more proposals from their proxy statements in 2024 than in 2023. Two proposals filed by the PAB were omitted from proxies. Both proposals requested more detail from large U.S. banks regarding their climate transition plans.

The PAB filed shareholder proposals with five pharmaceutical companies concerning their patenting practices and how they impact patient access to affordable medicines. One proposal went to a vote, and four were withdrawn for agreement. Notably, Pfizer agreed to make significant improvements in its Human Rights Policy as well as committing to establish a human rights due diligence process around its pricing and access initiatives in the next 12 months. Gilead agreed to provide additional disclosure, including listing all the in-force patents it currently has on its top five selling drugs.
  
The PAB co-filed a resolution asking Exxon to issue a report evaluating the economic, human, and environmental impacts of a worst-case oil spill from its expanding operations offshore of Guyana. During a call with investors, Exxon shared additional information on how it is enhancing process safety and managing spills. The company also shared that it has assessed the costs of responding to a Guyana spill with an independent third party, assuring the company that $2 billion would cover the cost of the spill. Based on the information shared by the company, investors decided to withdraw the proposal. 

However, in January, ExxonMobil took the extreme step of suing two small shareholders to keep a climate change proposal off their proxy ballot, rather than going through the SEC “no action” process to ask for approval to omit the proposal. The company elected to continue the suit even after the shareholders agreed to withdraw the proposal and took an aggressive stance against other shareholders with proposals on its proxy ballot, questioning whether they were “real” investors or merely activists with an “extreme agenda.” 

In response, several ExxonMobil shareholders filed exempt solicitations urging their fellow shareholders to vote against members of the board, including CEO Darren Woods and lead independent director Joseph Hooley.  

Despite these actions indicating shareholder disapproval of company leadership, ExxonMobil continued with its aggressive stance and its lawsuit. The lawsuit was finally dismissed by a court in Texas after the shareholder proponent agreed in writing not to refile their climate proposal with the company in the future. 
 

By Caroline Boden
Director of Shareholder Advocacy, Mercy Investment Services

In early 2023, The New York Times reported on the use of illegal child labor, mostly unaccompanied migrant children, in the United States. These children were illegally employed by suppliers for some of the biggest U.S. companies, including in factories producing Cheerios for General Mills, dinner rolls sold at Walmart and Target, auto parts for Ford and GM, and cleaning meat processing plants that supply JBS, Tyson, and others. Since then, additional investigative reports may have exposed child labor violations in the restaurant, construction, and other sectors in the United States.

As minors, and especially as unaccompanied migrants, these children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Although the children weren’t employed directly by these major brands, their illegal employment by the suppliers violates these companies’ human rights policies and supplier codes of conduct, as well as U.S. child labor laws. Additionally, the principle of human rights due diligence outlines the responsibility of all actors within a value chain to identify, address, and remediate any potential or actual human rights violations.

Following the reporting, responsible investors and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) reached out to several of the named companies, including Target, Tyson, and Walmart, to understand how they were addressing the issue and engaging with the violating suppliers to prevent further harm. 

These conversations showed that most companies were surprised, as suppliers in  North America have generally been perceived as low risk for human rights violations. Most companies shared that they were investigating the violating suppliers and working to strengthen recruiting and hiring practices; however, public disclosure of companies’ efforts to address the violations and remediate the harm caused to the children is lacking.

As part of our shareholder advocacy work, the Adrian Dominican Sisters Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) is joining other investors and NGO partners to ask these companies to conduct human rights impact assessments for the region, especially given the high use of migrant labor in the United States. 

The PAB joined other Walmart shareholders in filing a shareholder proposal for the 2024 proxy season that addresses the child labor issue and requests the company conduct a human rights impact assessment. An ICCR partner filed a proposal asking Tyson to commission an independent report evaluating the effectiveness of their policies and practices to prevent illegal child labor throughout the company’s value chain. The proposal received 12.1% of the shareholder vote in favor.

Unfortunately, one of the responses to the child labor violations has been an effort in many states to roll back child labor protections, such as lowering the eligible age to work, allowing minors to work in hazardous work environments, and extending the number of hours that minors can work. As of February 2024, 28 states had introduced bills to weaken child labor laws, with 12 states enacting such legislation.