Activists Press for Change, Acknowledge Pension Fund’s Openness to More Positive Directions, with Presence Inside Annual Meeting and Action
Outside New York City Headquarters

(NEW YORK CITY and CHARLOTTE, NC)— As TIAA-CREF, one of the nation’s largest pension funds, holds its annual meeting in North Carolina, activists and shareholders are pressing for changes in investment and governance policies. In response to years of lobbying, TIAA-CREF recently indicated an openness to using its investments in more positive ways. As a $300 billion retirement fund mainly for educators, TIAA-CREF prides itself on being responsible. Activists and shareholders welcome the pension fund’s recent openness, and continue to press TIAA-CREF to take concrete steps toward much greater social responsibility.

“TIAA-CREF seems to be finally listening to some of our concerns and that is appreciated. We are eager to see words translated into action,” says Daniel Cook-Huffman, Assistant Dean of Students at Juniata College and TIAA-CREF participant.

TIAA-CREF has pledged to consider options for community investment, and to explore voting shares in its socially responsible fund consistent with screening criteria for that fund. The coalition of organizations pressuring TIAA-CREF has welcomed these responses, and is working to ensure that the pension fund follows through on its commitments.

As shareholders raise their voices inside the annual meeting today, activists will have a strong presence outside TIAA-CREF’s corporate headquarters in New York City. Despite good potential for positive steps, TIAA-CREF continues to invest heavily in a number of abusive corporations. Pressure groups are asking TIAA-CREF to do the following: (1) drop its stock in Philip Morris/Altria, the world’s largest tobacco corporation; (2) remove Nike and Wal-Mart from the fund's portfolio due to their notorious sweatshop abuses; (3) take action on Chevron, a company in its stock portfolio that is invested in Burma, which has one of the world's worst human rights records; and (4) demand that Costco close its illegal warehouses in Cuernavaca, Mexico, or divest because of human rights and environmental abuses. Activists are also urging TIAA-CREF to vow no new purchases of World Bank bonds, while congratulating them for eliminating their past holdings.

“It is, quite simply, unacceptable for TIAA-CREF to continue to invest teachers’ pension funds in some of the world’s most abusive corporations. While we welcome the pension fund’s recent openness to positive directions, we continue to urge TIAA-CREF to end its complicity in the irresponsible and dangerous practices of corporations like Philip Morris/Altria, Nike, Chevron, and Costco,” says Patti Lynn, Campaign Director for Infact, a leading corporate accountability organization.

A coalition of groups working for TIAA-CREF reform also supports four shareholder resolutions on this year’s ballot: 1) Improved corporate governance via transparency in reporting on their social responsibility dealings with portfolio companies; 2) divesting of gold mining stocks given associated human rights and environmental abuses; 3) divestment from tobacco stocks; and 4) establishing three new socially responsible equivalents to current CREF funds.

Howard Zinn, noted historian, says, “I hope that more and more people will insist that TIAA-CREF funds be invested in socially responsible ways.” University of Pittsburgh Professor Dennis Brutus, the anti-apartheid campaigner who spent time in prison with Nelson Mandela for opposing the racist apartheid government in South Africa, says, “Not only interest, but the interests of the people must be borne in mind when making sound and moral decisions.”

* The US Campaign for Burma * Infact * World Bank Bonds Boycott * Press for Change * Social Choice for Social Change * Citizens Coalition * Educating for Justice * National Community Reinvestment Coalition * National Congress for Community Economic Development