CREF Annual Meeting Call to Action.
CREF's annual meeting is in Charlotte, NC, July 19. Though our Make TIAA-CREF Ethical coalition will have no formal presence there, please contact them this week about their lack of substantive action on our concerns. We are also calling attention to two other TC-related efforts (see the bottom here).
Even if you are not in the CREF system, you can still make your voice heard from now till July 19:
- For the greatest impact, call 800-842-2733 or 212-490-9000 and ask for CEO Roger Ferguson. You may have to leave a recorded message. We have provided sample copy immediately below, with more details below that.
- Also send him a personal message at RWFerguson@tiaa-cref.org and send a copy to trustees@tiaa-cref.org.
- Please spread the effect by forwarding this email to several of your colleagues/friends, with your personal endorsement and to any relevant listservs.
SAMPLE EMAIL/PHONE SCRIPT:
"I am concerned that TIAA-CREF is a major investor in Wal-Mart, Nike, Coca-Cola, and Costco in Mexico, companies that are involved in ongoing human and labor rights abuses, as well as other irresponsible corporate behavior. I want TIAA-CREF to put these corporations on notice that if they do not clean up their bad practices, TIAA-CREF will find other companies in which to invest. TIAA-CREF needs to either get more aggressive with these companies to improve their practices or to divest from their stock."
Also, let Mr. Ferguson know if you are in the TIAA-CREF system and (if you choose to) that you will ask your institution to withdraw its money from TIAA-CREF if it doesn't address your concerns.
TIAA-CREF, the nation's largest pension system and self-proclaimed leader in corporate social responsibility, has come under fire from a coalition of academics and activists who are questioning TIAA-CREF's commitment on a range of social responsibility issues.
"TIAA-CREF's tagline is 'financial services for the greater good,' but it seems like the only good they are concerned about is the bottom line," said James Keady, Director of Educating for Justice and long-time active member of the coalition that is attempting to hold TIAA-CREF publicly accountable on these issues.
"After years of member lobbying, TIAA-CREF finally agreed to talk to some of the companies we have focused on," said Keady. "Unfortunately, TIAA-CREF's method of 'quiet diplomacy' over the past five years has not led to any substantive changes."
The coalition believes that TIAA-CREF can and should do more. Its Policy Statement on Corporate Governance reads, "While quiet diplomacy remains our core strategy... the TIAA-CREF engagement program involves many different activities and initiatives, including engaging in public dialogue and commentary... engaging in collective action with other investors... seeking regulatory or legislative relief... commencing or supporting litigation." It is time for TIAA-CREF to get aggressive with these companies.
Background Facts
Sweatshops and Labor Rights
TIAA-CREF invests in some of the worst corporate actors: Coca-Cola, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Costco in Mexico. The 1.4 million-strong American Federation of Teachers passed two resolutions critical of TIAA-CREF's investment in the first three of these companies and demanded that it hold these companies accountable on human rights and labor issues.
A year ago, under pressure from Investors Against Genocide and a looming resolution on the 2010 CREF annual meeting ballot, TIAA-CREF changed a long-standing policy and divested from certain companies in Sudan because they did not take meaningful steps to respect human rights. TIAA-CREF should extend that get-tough policy to other important labor and human rights abusers like Coca-Cola, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Costco in Mexico. It is time to reform these four companies--or divest from them:
Coca-Cola
"Coca-Cola and its bottlers operate like a criminal syndicate with impunity. By repeatedly lying, Coke's executives, including Coke's CEO Muhtar Kent, are hiding potential liabilities that could cost Coca-Cola billions of dollars in fines, restitution and legal damages from investors, like TIAA-CREF," said Ray Rogers, Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director. "Coca-Cola has refused to inform shareholders of on-going events, which carry potentially damaging consequences for the company's brand name, legal liability, profits and, of course, stock price."
Charges of human rights abuses, other criminal conduct and lawsuits against Coca-Cola continue to proliferate in China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and The Philippines. These abuses include torture and murder of union leaders and family members in efforts to crush unions in Colombia and Guatemala. In Mexico, Coca-Cola faces allegations of cheating Mexican workers and the Mexican government out of hundreds of millions of dollars through an illegal scheme of outsourcing and tax evasion. A complaint (Reference #: TCR1307395939385) filed in June with the SEC about Coca-Cola's failure to disclose its growing legal liabilities in Mexico urged the regulatory agency to investigate violations of U.S. securities law committed by The Coca-Cola Company and its Chief Executive Muhtar Kent. In India and Paw Paw, Michigan, Coke faces multi-million dollar fines for contaminating and depleting water resources and in Nairobi, Kenya, Coke is facing community outrage over waste water pollution.
Nike
In the past year two major institutions, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University, cut ties with Nike over their refusal to deal with a corporate responsibility matter. At issue was the $2.6 million dollars of back wages and severance owed to 1,700 Honduran factory workers who produced Nike products for the college bookstore market. UW's University Chancellor, Biddy Martin commented, "Nike has not developed, and does not intend to develop, meaningful ways of addressing the plight of displaced workers and their families in Honduras. It has not presented clear long-range plans to prevent or respond to similar problems in the future. For this combination of reasons, we have decided to end our relationship for now." Currently there is a similar case in Indonesia at PT Kizone, a factory that closed at the beginning of 2011 and failed to pay its 2,800 workers at least $3.3 million in legally mandated compensation. Kizone produced collegiate apparel for Nike and adidas/Reebok.
Nike has also been hit with another round of allegations about worker rights violations and environmental abuse. Jim Keady of TEAM SWEAT http://www.teamsweat.org/, an international coalition of workers, consumers, athletes and investors, who are pressuring Nike to improve factory conditions, has visited with workers in Indonesia as recently as June 2011. "I found piles of Nike scrap shoe rubber being burned in a village, workers sharing that they were coached to lie to monitors about factory conditions, cases of union busting, violations of Nike's Code of Conduct, and the ongoing problem of poverty wages being paid to the women and men that produce the real wealth for Nike," said Keady.
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart continues to exploit its workforce, build its profits on sweatshop labor, and damage local communities by constructing huge stores, and then abandoning hundreds of them. "To the extent that TIAA-CREF is one of the largest institutional investors in Wal-Mart stock, they are complicit in the socially irresponsible behavior of the world's largest retailer," said Al Norman, founder of Sprawl-Busters. "TIAA-CREF has lost touch with its higher education investors by continuing to invest heavily in Wal-Mart."
Costco in Mexico
The High Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other organizations have agreed that in 2002, Costco, working with governor Sergio Estrada Cajigal (who is associated with drug lords), was responsible for the violation of collective human rights by violently repressing activists and destroying important natural areas and a 3,000-year-old archeological site in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Costco should place its warehouses elsewhere and make a serious effort to restore the world cultural site that was severely damaged. TIAA-CREF is an accomplice to this damaging and corrupt behavior by neither engaging Costco nor divesting its Costco holdings.
"Make TIAA-CREF Ethical" coalition includes: *Sprawl-Busters; Press for Change; Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc.; Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood; Social Choice for Social Change; Citizens Coalition (Frente Civico); Team Sweat/Educating for Justice; National Community Reinvestment Coalition; United Students Against Sweatshops; Canadian Committee To Combat Crimes Against Humanity (CCCCH); Corporate Accountability International; World Bank Bonds Boycott
Background on the "Make TIAA-CREF Ethical" campaign can be found at www.makeTIAA-CREFethical.com.
Two other TIAA-CREF-related efforts:
TIAA-CREF and the demolition of Palestinian homes and the building of illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
The CREF shareholder meeting will take place this year in Charlotte, NC. Something will be missing though--a participant proposal that called on CREF to start encouraging companies that profit from the demolition of Palestinian homes and from the building of illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in which CREF owns stock, to end these violations of international law. The proponents hoped to give participants a chance to share their views on this issue with TIAA-CREF. But the company does not want to share this information with CREF investors. Nor does it want to hear from participants on the subject. Thousands of participants and a growing coalition of groups--including Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, and Grassroots International--is determined not to be silenced. Go to http://wedivest.org/ for updates (and soon) information about online and local actions in Charlotte and elsewhere! Questions? divest@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Join Us in a Divestment Campaign for Healthcare!
Individuals and institutions are responsible for the impacts their investments have on the world. We believe an investment in the private health insurance industry is a bad investment. These companies not only undermine the well-being of our citizens by restricting and denying access to needed care, they also place a tremendous burden on our healthcare system and hold back the country's economic recovery and progress. Our mission is to educate the public about how health insurance companies put profits above the medical needs of patients. We seek to build support for a healthcare system that thrives without the interference of the insurance industry. And we work to convince individual investors and fund managers to make their money speak for them by not investing in health insurance companies. Currently TIAA CREF "socially responsible" funds are invested in health insurance companies, namely Aetna, CIGNA, Coventry Health Care, Humana, and WellPoint (for CREF-Social Choice) and Humana, Aetna, and WellPoint (for TIAA-CREF Social Equity Funds). We urge fund managers to take a principled stand and demonstrate their leadership by making divestment a part of their portfolio strategy. Our ultimate aim is to affirm healthcare as a human right in America with a publicly funded, single-payer, improved Medicare-for-all system. We support a national healthcare system that ensures that every person has access to affordable, quality care regardless of their age, residence, or employment situation. Everybody in, nobody out. If you are interested in helping to support this campaign, please contact Katie Robbins at katie@healthcare-now.org