Northern Ireland divestment sparks more legislative debate

AUGUSTA — A bill to require the state and its pension system to withdraw investments from American companies that do not adopt non-discriminatory policies in Northern Ireland advanced Thursday as Democratic sponsors met with Gov. John R. McKernan to try to avoid a veto.

The Senate voted to match its version of the bill with one pending in the House. The measure, similar to one vetoed by McKernan two years ago, faces final votes in both the House and Senate.

Advocates say their effort to promote compliance with the so-called MacBride Principles could affect about one-quarter of the Maine State Retirement System’s $1.8 billion trust fund.

Following their meeting with McKernan, Rep. John A. Cashman, D-Old Town, and Sen. Michael D. Pearson, D-Enfield, both said the governor expressed a willingness to review the matter. To date, McKernan has opposed the bill.

Cashman termed the meeting “inconclusive.”

“He says he’ll look at it some more,” Cashman said.

Pearson offered a similar account, saying that McKernan “said he’d look into it.” Pearson described the governor as “non-committal.”

The MacBride guidelines include a call to increase job opportunities for “under-represented religious groups in the work force” of Northern Ireland, where unemployment among minority Catholics has been historically higher than among majority Protestants.

Under the pending legislation, Maine’s treasurer and retirement system would be directed to urge companies in which the state invests to “adopt and implement the MacBride Principles” in Northern Ireland operations, using stockholder initiatives “when necessary and appropriate” to encourage corporate action.

If companies have not complied by July 1, 1994, the state “shall disinvest all or part” of its interests “and may not invest new funds” in those corporations.

In recent days, McKernan and House Speaker John L. Martin, who is supporting the legislation, have traded correspondence in debating the bill’s merits, with the governor asserting that Maine should refrain from joining the so-called MacBride campaign because there is “no consensus … among those who live, work and raise families in Northern Ireland.”

McKernan also forwarded to Martin copies of letters from several organizations in Northern Ireland opposing the legislation, including the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union, an Engineering Employers’ Federation and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Martin, in response, cited the governor’s reference to “consensus” and asked: “Do you believe that the South African people were unanimous when governments throughout the world enacted economic sanctions against that country?

“Of course the people of Northern Ireland are truly divided over this issue. Just as the American people were truly divided over the issue of slavery.”

McKernan this week sent Martin a follow-up letter, saying “the Maine Legislature is not a proper forum in which to pass judgment” on MacBride campaign opponents and that the state “is not in a position to stay current on international events.”