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Chapter List

Pensions at Work: Socially Responsible Investment of Union-Based Pension Funds

Jack Quarter, Isla Carmichael and Sherida Ryan (Editors)

In order, the book consists of the following chapters:

1) Socially responsible investment of pensions: Issues and debates—this introductory chapter by the editors of this collection (Jack Quarter, Isla Carmichael and Sherida Ryan, all of OISE/University of Toronto) provides an overview to the issues in this field and an introduction to the book.

2) Just Having It Is Not Enough: Labour’s Voice on Pension Boards by Johanna Weststar and Anil Verma (Centre of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto) demonstrates very carefully the gaps in education of union trustees of pension funds.

3) Fiduciary Duties, Investment Screening and Economically Targeted Investing: A Flexible Approach for Changing Times by Gil Yaron (the former Director of Law & Policy, Shareholder Association for Research and Education, a community group affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress) addresses the bug-bear of socially responsible investment—is it contrary to the fiduciary responsibility of trustees?

4) Human Capital Based Investment Criteria for Total Shareholder Returns by Jane (Thomson) Comeault (Schulich School of Business, York University) and David Wheeler (Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University) addresses a thorny issue—what is the impact of human capital criteria on shareholder returns?

5) Corporate Governance and Environmental Risk Management: A Quantitative Analysis of “New Paradigm” Firms by Gordon Clark and Jamie Salo (University of Oxford) involves a careful analysis of the impact of corporate engagement upon corporate performance.

6) Social Accounting and Reporting for Economically Targeted Investments: The Expanded Value Added Statement by Laurie Mook (OISE/University of Toronto and a former accountant) moves the research on economically targeted investment forward by creating a new accounting format, an adaptation of a Value Added Statement called the Expanded Value Added Statement.

7) Economically Targeted Investments, Union Pension Funds and Public-Private Partnerships in Canada by John Loxley, (University of Manitoba), undertakes a critical analysis of public-private partnerships (PPPs) from a labour perspective.

8) Economically Targeted Investing: Financial and Collateral Impacts by Kathryn Manley, Tessa Hebb and Edward T. Jackson (Carleton University) undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the impact of economically targeted investments in Canada and also a comparison to those undertaken by the huge pension plan, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) in the U.S.

9) Pension Fund Management and Socially Responsible Investment by Ran Goel (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto) and Wes Cragg (Schulich School of Business, York University) addresses a difficult question: is there a case for socially responsible investment based upon ethics alone?

10) Training for effective action: Evaluation of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) training program on the bargaining and administration of pension plans by Alain Dunberry (Université du Québec à Montréal) discusses a formative evaluation that he undertook of Canada’s leading education program for labour trustees of pension funds—the program of the Quebec Federation of Labour.