Phillips Asked to Comply With Standards
Episcopal News Service. December 21, 1978 [78364]
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Claiming that the South African affiliate of Phillips Petroleum Corporation is "virtually as segregated today as it was in 1972," the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has authorized joining stockholder action designed to bring the multinational company into compliance with accepted standards by the end of 1979.
The Council, meeting here Dec. 13-14, took the action as a followup to an earlier move in which the company disclosed its employment practices in the racially segregated country. At issue are the "Sullivan Principles," devised by the Rev. Leon Sullivan, a social activist clergyman and director of General Motors Corp. Sullivan has drawn up standards of minimum desegregation and fair employment for American firms operating in South Africa and 103 firms -- including Phillips Petroleum -- are signatories.
In September, the Council had authorized its Social Responsibility in Investments Committee to join in an action asking Phillips to reveal to all its stockholders the steps it had taken to comply with the six principles.
Council member Dr. Paul Neuhauser of Iowa City, Iowa, reported that Phillips had responded to that action with a partial report and said that on the basis of that report their compliance was "appalling. There are six principles. They appear to be violating all six."
Neuhauser said the situation as of June 30 was identical to an earlier report from 1972. No job category contained both races. All blacks -- including so-called supervisors -- were in lower-paying categories than any white. Facilities were still segregated and pension and benefit plans for blacks were different and lower-paThere was no audible dissent as the Council passed the resolution asking that Phillips establish a corporate policy, "That in the event that Phillips' South African affiliate has not complied, by December 31, 1979, in all respects with each of the six Sullivan Principles, the corporation shall take whatever steps are necessary to dispose promptly of its ownership interest in its South African affiliate."ying than for whites.
The Council also joined a strongly-worded National Council of Churches of Christ (NCCC) resolution protesting federal immigration practices which the NCCC feels have violated the rights of Haitian refugees.
The resolution asserts that work authorization has been withdrawn and legal counsel denied to the refugees and calls on the NCCC and the member churches to press the refugee case with Congress and federal authorities.
This was followed by a strong appeal in general for refugee sponsor parishes in the Episcopal Church. The Council had issued such an appeal at its September meeting and the current resolution reinforced that effort and commended President Carter for his stated commitment to ease the plight of refugees. The Episcopal Church is expected to provide sponsors for about 726 refugee families before June.
In other action, the Council commended the National Committee on Indian Work for its efforts in revising an NCCC policy statement on Indian Affairs and commended the paper to the Church for study.
The Council also called on church people to study a policy/strategy statement of the recent Family Life Conference which called for family issues to be made a high priority in Church life and for Church policies to contain family impact statements.