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July 20, 2009 Press Release

Contacts: Pat Clark (718-852-2808; stopkillercoke@aol.com ) or Jim Keady (732-988-7322, JWKeady@aol.com). See info on our "Make TIAA-CREF Ethical" campaign at www.makeTIAA-CREFethical.com )

AT THE CREF ANNUAL MEETING, SHAREHOLDERS SAY:

"STOP OUTSOURCING JOBS OVERSEAS, FIRING WHISTLE-BLOWERS, PAYING YOUR CEO $10 MILLION, AND INVESTING IN SWEATSHOPS--WHILE SAYING YOU SUPPORT GOOD LABOR AND HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES"

(July 20, 2010, 9:30 a.m., TIAA-CREF Headquarters, 730 Third Ave., New York, NY)

TIAA-CREF, the nation's largest pension system, proclaims itself a leader in corporate/social responsibility, and has as its tagline, "Financial Services for the Greater Good." Yet:

I) In its own organization,

• TIAA-CREF has outsourced many job functions to India. These tasks were previously performed by TIAA-CREF employees in Denver, Charlotte, and New York. Quality Assurance is now performed by Cognizant Technology Solution Employees in Mumbai, India. This has resulted in the elimination of several hundred jobs formerly performed by staffers in the United States.

• This outsourcing has gone on under the radar. But recently TIAA-CREF announced publically that it would be outsourcing 70 or so jobs in its large Denver office. It says it is doing so for fiduciary responsibility (of course by that logic it could start hiring people at minimum wage and would have no problems with sweatshops since they would help the bottom line). What makes this particularly appalling is that TIAA-CREF's CEO Roger Ferguson is on Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Is sending jobs overseas a way to promote economic recovery--while the US unemployment rate hovers near 10%?

• TIAA-CREF employee and whistle-blower Chris O'keefe turned in a subordinate who had stolen customer information. It turned out that the thief was a known felon and HR had failed to run a sufficient background check. O'keefe was fired.

• TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson makes in the range of 10 million dollars in total compensation. This is far too high for a non-profit whose academic and non-profit clients earn far less. This is especially out-of-line given TIAA-CREF's long standing shareholder activism regarding CEO salaries.

II) As an investor,

· TIAA-CREF invests in some of the worst corporate actors: Coca-Cola, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Costco. 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:

· Recently, 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 its portfolio certain companies in Sudan because they did not take meaningful steps to respect human rights. TIAA-CREF needs to 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 on the concerns below—which go beyond just human rights--or divest from them:

--Coca-Cola: The Coca-Cola Co. continues its widespread labor and human rights abuses: complicity in death threats to Coke employees and their families in Colombia to bust their union; destroying public water sources in India, Mexico and elsewhere; benefiting from child labor in El Salvador; and continuing to operate in the Sudan. Coke workers in China are reportedly involved "in the most dangerous, intense and tiresome labor, work the longest hours, but receive the lowest wages and face arrears and even cutbacks in their pay." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director Ray Rogers stated, "Top executives of Coke have continually lied to the public regarding their abuses and have blocked any real investigations. With nearly one billion dollars in Coca-Cola stock and other substantial investments in various bottlers, it's time that TIAA-CREF took necessary action against Coke that would lead to change in the company's criminal and immoral behavior."

--Nike: "With child labor recently found in a Nike factory in Malaysia, slave wages recently reported in a Nike apparel factory in Indonesia, and union organizers recently fired in a Nike shoe factory in Vietnam, it feels like the late 90s all over again," said Jim Keady, the founder of Team Sweat, which is pressing Nike to end their sweatshop abuses. "In light of these current reports and given TIAA-CREF's bargaining position with Nike given its large investment in the company, it is time that TIAA-CREF's principals did something that was actually going to make a difference in the world," said Keady. For starters, TIAA-CREF could demand that Nike disclose the wage rates for workers at all of its factories around the world.

--Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart continues to exploit its workforce, build its profits on sweatshop labor, and damage local communities by constructing huge stores--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: The High Commission on Human Rights of the UN, 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. By neither engaging Costco or keeping its Costco holdings, TIAA-CREF is an accomplice to this damaging and corrupt behavior.

After years of shareholder lobbying, TIAA-CREF finally agreed to talk to some of these companies. Unfortunately, TIAA-CREF's "quiet diplomacy" over years has led to nothing substantive with the companies. TIAA-CREF can and should do more. Its Policy Statement on Corporate Governance states, "While quiet diplomacy remains our core strategy…TIAA-CREF's 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." TIAA-CREF's press releases state that "engagement is a multi-step process...TIAA-CREF believes that we should explore the ways in which to influence the companies' behavior and thereby help bring about positive social change" and that they "sometimes threaten tougher actions." Notably, a January 24, 2009 New York Times article asserted that changes in Wal-Mart's environmental practices were prompted by the aggressive work of activists. It is time for TIAA-CREF to get aggressive with these companies.

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