Religious Shareholders Press Texaco

RELIGIOUS SHAREHOLDERS PRESS TEXACO

A few hours before the oil company announced a $170 million
settlement of racial discrimination lawsuits, religious
shareholders met with Texaco Chairman Peter Bijur in the offices
of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, New York.
More than 70 representatives of religious institutional investors
-- ICCR members -- pressed Bijur to implement 16 measures as part
of a program to end discrimination at the oil company and to
diversify its board of directors, management and work  force.
"Progress toward change and public accountability are the only
ways to regain the confidence of shareholders, customers and
employees," said Gary Brouse, director of ICCR's Equality Issue
Group, after the Nov. 15 meeting.  The Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America is a member of the ICCR coalition through the
ELCA Division for Church in Society.  Various ELCA institutions
benefit from stocks held by endowments and foundations.  The
church's Board of Pensions, seminaries, colleges, social ministry
organizations and some congregations make up the ELCA shareholder
network.  The ELCA Advisory Committee on Corporate Social
Responsibility counsels the shareholder network on ways to
present the concerns of the church to the corporations in which
they own stock.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958 or AHAFFTEN@ELCA.ORG; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir.,
(312) 380-2955 or FRANKI@ELCA.ORG; Melissa Ramirez, Assist. Dir.,
(312) 380-2956 or MRAMIREZ@ELCA.ORG