WE NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW, "Make TIAA-CREF Ethical" loyal supporters
4th February 2008
In the coming weeks TIAA-CREF (TC) will decide on which of its portfolio companies to engage* during the spring-summer period of annual company shareholder meetings. TC notes that one opening for them is to work around shareholder proposals submitted to companies—and this year we or allies have submitted several such proposals.
We need now to expand the base of individuals/groups trying to influence TC—or to gain further public exposure.* SO, even beyond your personal contacting of TC, more important is your getting other individuals involved, particularly TC participants mainly at schools, but anyone who might contact TC. Even better is a letter or resolution that a collective body at a school/organization utilizing TC might send to them (like a faculty senate or union). See the attached resolution sent by an organization. Also, if you have any local or national media contacts, give us leads or get in a story yourself (and let us know). See our basic “advertising” message below for your outreach efforts (individuals, faculty union newspapers, web/listserv postings, etc.).
*THANKS FOR YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW.* “Make TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition”
*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, Philip Morris/Altria, and Rite Aid*? 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.”
*In 2007, the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) passed a resolution critical of CREF’s continued investment in several of** these corporations*. *(See attached resolution.) 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 and
Rite Aid
- * 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:
- * *
As a faculty or staff body, send a letter to TIAA-CREF and/or
pass a resolution similar to NYSUT's and send them to: Herbert
Allison, CEO, TIAA-CREF, 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
- * * Tell local or national media about the concerns** raised in your
letter or resolution*
- * * Individuals should 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,
Philip Morris/Altria, and Rite Aid 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; *and if you are able to do so at
your institution and feel strongly enough, say that you (or your
whole school) will withdraw money from TIAA-CREF if they don’t
decide to engage or withdraw from some of these companies*.
* * Individuals should also 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
Neil Wollman; Ph. D.; Senior Fellow, Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility; Bentley University; Waltham, MA, 02452; NWollman@Bentley.edu ; 260-568-0116
/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, //International Longshore and Warehouse Union/
/./
Make TIAA-CREF Ethical is a project of the Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility; Bentley University.
VIEW THIS DOCUMENT : NYSUT RESOLUTION
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