Investor briefing on Private Credit and ‘fire and rehire’ - The Oscar Mayer dispute and Pemberton Asset Management (Thursday 16 Jan)

 

Tomorrow (Thursday 16 Jan) I will be moderating an online investor briefing on Private Credit and ‘fire and rehire’ - The Oscar Mayer dispute and Pemberton Asset Management. 

"Oscar Mayer is a food production business that makes ready meals sold in supermarkets across Britain. It is majority owned and controlled by Pemberton Asset Management, a private credit manager which took over the company in 2023.

550 Unite members working in Oscar Mayer’s Wrexham factory are taking strike action against a fire and rehire scheme imposed by management. Oscar Mayer management have already sacked 30 Unite members to force through savage cuts to terms and conditions.
  
Management is forcing through new contracts that reduce workers’ time off the production line to just two short breaks a day. Under the new contacts, workers won’t be paid for this time.  Overtime for working on bank holidays is also being taken away. All told, the changes will cost workers up to £3,000 a year each. 

Given its ownership, it is clear Pemberton has the capacity to intervene. Unite is calling on pension funds and other asset owners to make no further allocations to Pemberton until the dispute is resolved. Already Clwyd Pension Fund has confirmed it will be making no further allocations.

Unite has additionally submitted a complaint against Pemberton under the PRI’s Serious Violations Policy asking that it be removed as a signatory.

Please join us to hear more about the dispute this Thursday at 4pm UK. The meeting will be moderated by John Gray, trade union representative on London CIV, and include a contribution from Councillor Anthony Wedlake from Wrexham who is a member of the Clwyd pension committee".

Topic: Oscar Mayer dispute and Pemberton Asset Management
Time: Jan 16, 2025 04:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting 

https://unitetheunion-org.zoom.us/j/92892080496  

 

Meeting ID: 928 9208 0496 

Password: 798521 

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Implications of Climate Change for Investment Returns and for Beneficiaries: AMNT Open Day

This is the first in series of posts on last weeks AMNT open meeting and AGM.

I was really pleased to see that there was a quite a few UNISON LGPS member nominated reps present.

The morning was a training session on the implications of Climate Change on Investment returns and for our Beneficiaries. Bearing in mind the very unusal weather we have been having this winter, this is a very topical subject.

Our meeting was opened by our Joint Chair Barry Parr who introduced Catherine Howarth. (see picture) who is a former pension trustee and the CEO of ShareAction (use to be called "Fair Pensions").

Catherine believes that Trust schemes have clear duties to take Climate Change seriously but with Contract schemes it is less clear legally but still a compelling reason to act.

She spoke about the Greenlight report launched recently with Pension Minister Steve Webb MP. There is a need to "nudge" pension schemes into managing the growing risk of climate change. There are a number of good schemes that are addressing this but many others who clearly "don't get it".

One sign of a good scheme is how well it communicates with its members.  Schemes needs to organise relevant training, look at governance policy development and carry out risk assessments. Need to look at low carbon investment opportunities and take into account that Auto-enrolment will bring in many young people into pension schemes, who will bear all the investment risk  of climate change in the coming decades.

Next was a speaker from PRI then climate change expert Meg Brown.

At UN conference on Responsible Investment

Quick post during the lunch break, from the "Palais des Nations" in the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. I am at a "public-private workshop" co-hosted by UNCTAD and PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment).

There are about 200 delegates and visitors from all other the world. The full title is "Policy Context for Responsible Investment". For once the UN has got its timing perfect. I'll post further on the speakers when I get home. The Chair of PRI, Donald MacDonald, (BT pension scheme trustee) introduced the conference with an excellent speech on the collective failure of the investment chain and what needs to be done. The "big issue" is of course the world wide financial crisis, what caused it and what is the role of responsible investment in getting us out of this hole. Policy makers, financial services and investors. Also, how we can stop (or rather mitigate) against it ever happening again. All music to my ears.

One observation is that fund managers keep referring to themselves as "investors". While it is "good" that they do identify themselves in this way, they are not investors, we are. The small savers, pension and insurance policy holders who are the beneficiary owners of companies. They are financial contractors who we employ to look after our money and we should never forget this. My argument is that if the real investors (or owners) had played a greater role in the governance of their money we would not be in the mess we are now in.

The UN site itself is not what I expected. It reminds me of a 1960's University with endless long corridors. It is set in well maintained gardens overlooking the Lake with Peacocks wandering around freely.

BTW - excellent news about the Labour by-election victory in Glenrothes!