"TIAA-CREF Annual Meeting/ Social Responsibility/ You can help"--July, 8, 2007.

JULY 17 IS TIAA-CREF'S ANNUAL MEETING. PLEASE ACT BEFORE THEN TO PROMOTE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. CONTACT TIAA-CREF IF YOU ARE A PARTICIPANT. PARTICIPANTS AND NON-PARTICIPANTS CAN HELP BY DISTRIBUTING THIS MESSAGE TO COLLEGE PERSONNEL AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE. THANKS
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MAKE TIAA-CREF ETHICAL COALITION

IS YOUR INVESTMENT REALLY GOING TOWARD THE “GREATER GOOD”?


Dear Professor/Staff Member:

It’s morning in America---do you know where your pension fund assets were last night?

Would it upset you to know that TIAA-CREF---the nation’s largest retirement fund---is a major investor in companies like Wal-Mart, Nike, Costco, Coca-Cola, Chevron, and Philip Morris/Altria? Millions of TIAA-CREF participants are contributing their money to support abusive human and labor rights practices, destruction of the environment, and harming of human health.

The fact is, some of our country’s worst corporate violators are right at home in the portfolio of TIAA-CREF—which says it provides financial services “for the greater good.”

Recently the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) passed a resolution critical of CREF’s continued investment in several of these these corporations. (See attached resolution.) Then soon after, the 1.3 million member strong American Federation of Teachers passed a similar resolution. As educators and those working along-side them,, we have spent our careers trying to help students learn the truth about the world around them. The truth is that TIAA-CREF continues to invest our funds in these corporate bad actors.

We don’t want our investment—
  • exploiting Third World workers at Nike vendor sweatshops
  • aggressively union-busting American workers at Wal-Mart
  • destroying historic Mexican culture to build Costcos-- and abusing the human rights of those who protest.
  • Polluting drinking waters in India; allowing the intimidation or even killing of union workers under the not-so-watchful eye of Coca-Cola bosses in Colombia
  • Financing the dictatorship in Burma (Myanmar) that savagely abuses human rights
  • Supporting the killing practices of Philip Morris/Altria, including its marketing to youth
It’s time for faculty, staff, and students on campuses across America to tell TIAA-CREF it must use its considerable shareholder power to influence these corporations for the better--or stop investing in them.

What can you do? Let’s turn up the heat on CREF to truly invest for the “greater good.” Help us educate the faculty, staff, and students on your campus and nationwide. Email this message to others at your school and elsewhere. All of us need to:
  • Call TIAA-CREF at 800-842-2733 (212-490-9000) and ask for CEO Herb Allison. Leave the message: “I want TIAA-CREF to put Wal-Mart, Nike, Coca Cola, Costco, Chevron, and Philip Morris/Altria on notice that if they don’t clean up their human rights, environmental, and health practices, that CREF will find other companies to invest in.” Tell them if you are in the TIAA-CREF system.
  • Email Mr. Allison and TIAA-CREF Trustees with the same message: Hallison@tiaa-cref.org; trustees@tiaa-cref.org
For the Coalition, www.makeTIAA-CREFethical.org mail nwollman@bentley.edu for campaign updates (say “TC updates” in subject line).

Neil Wollman; Ph. D.; Senior Fellow; Professor of Psychology; Manchester College, North Manchester, IN 46962;

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), Educating for Justice, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, United Students Against Sweatshops, Canadian Committee To Combat Crimes Against Humanity (CCCCH), Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact), World Bank Bonds Boycott.

Make TIAA-CREF Ethical is a project of the Peace Studies Institute, Manchester College.

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