PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSION FUND OWNERSHIP ACTIVITIES

WHEREAS, public employee pension funds represent the deferred wages of state and local government employees who also often make direct contributions to their pension funds out of their own earnings; and

WHEREAS, existing federal, state and local laws require tax-qualified public employee pension funds to operate exclusively in the interest of plan participants and beneficiaries; and

WHEREAS, some public employee pension funds make investments in the U.S. and elsewhere without considering labor, health and safety, worker rights, and environmental standards, nor the impact of such investments on American workers, including public employees; and

WHEREAS, a loss of private sector jobs in our communities reduces the tax base, putting downward pressure on public employee wages, benefits and employment; and

WHEREAS, public employee pension funds are significant stockholders of major U.S. corporations and many of these corporations underwrite political organizations that work to drastically reduce taxes and eliminate necessary public employee positions, thereby harming plan participants and threatening the quality of life in our communities; and

WHEREAS, public employee funds often own shares in corporations that privatize traditional public sector jobs, working against the interest of plan participants; and

WHEREAS, public employee funds own shares in corporations that play communities off against each other in a "race to the bottom," forcing communities to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax incentives, effectively robbing governments of much-needed funds for education and other services; and

WHEREAS, unions strengthen their collective voice in the capital market by working together on common strategies, and public employee pension funds are key to such strategies, given that private sector single-employer plans have no employee representation, and multi-employer funds, while allowing workers a voice, represent a fraction of the assets held in public employee funds:

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to pursue its efforts to create a computerized database of trustees on public employee pension funds, to collect information about these funds and to communicate with participant and union trustees on shareholder and investment issues; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to support union-sponsored and worker-friendly investment vehicles that earn prudent rates of return while creating and preserving union jobs and providing other benefits such as affordable housing in our communities; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support responsible employer policies for public employee pension funds in association with their real estate holdings, which can be prudently implemented; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support shareholder campaigns demanding corporate accountability on issues such as corporate governance, fair workplace practices, including organizational neutrality and labor-management partnerships, and community accountability, which are in the long-term interest of plan participants and beneficiaries; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support the aggressive commitment of the AFL-CIO to capital strategies and support all federation-affiliated unions in the public and private sectors in efforts to develop a capacity to undertake pension investment and shareholder strategies.