Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Action Alert

The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke has joined with other human rights groups in the “Make TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition.” The coalition urges the pension system to divest of shares in corporations involved in human rights violations, and public health and environmental degradation, and instead invest in socially responsible ventures such as small area housing and businesses.

Please contact TIAA-CREF, one of the largest pension funds, regarding its huge stake in Coca-Cola and the other companies noted below. Your call/email will coincide with other actions aimed at pressuring TIAA-CREF.

TIAA-CREF needs to hear a strong message from you about its holdings in Coca-Cola and other socially irresponsible companies.

Call TIAA-CREF CEO Herbert Allison at 800-842-2733 or 212-490-9000. Ask for Mr. Allison's office and ask to speak to his assistant Joanne Mahoney.

Calls are best, but otherwise email HAllison@tiaa-cref.org.

Tell the person with whom you speak that as of the end of 2004, TIAA-CREF had Coca-Cola investments worth about $800 million. As a large holder of Coke stock, TIAA-CREF is essentially an owner of the company and has a duty to ensure that Coca-Cola acts responsibly.

Urge TIAA-CREF to support the proxy resolution of the New York City pension funds for an independent investigation of human rights abuse associated with Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia — and pressure The Coca-Cola Co. to agree to such an investigation; also, ask TIAA-CREF to pressure Coca-Cola to end all marketing (including Coke toys, in-school marketing, and product placement) aimed at children — or divest.

Also raise concern about Coca-Cola's:

• Overexploitation and pollution of water sources in India (www.IndiaResource.org);
• Use of sugar processed from sugarcane dangerously harvested by children in El Salvador
• Opposition to Environmentally-Sound Bottle Deposit Bills
• Fraudulent Business Practices

Below are other issues upon which TIAA-CREF is being pressured. Feel free to raise these issues as well:

• Philip Morris/Altria has been legally proven to be responsible for thousands of tobacco related deaths world wide. It should not be in any TIAA-CREF portfolio.
• TIAA-CREF should request that Costco close its warehouse in Cuernavava, Mexico. The company is responsible for hurting the quality of life in that city, severely damaging an archeological site, and abusing human rights. This was concluded by the Office of the High Commission for Human rights of the United Nations.
• TIAA-CREF should request that Wal-Mart close its Aurrera warehouse in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Like Costco, the company is responsible for destroying world heritage and violating human rights and civil liberties.
• The fund should urge Wal-Mart to implement ways to lessen its destructive impact on local economies; while both Nike and Wal-Mart must stop benefiting from abusive sweatshops world-wide.
• TIAA-CREF should pressure Unocal to stop financially supporting a Burmese government that has one of the world’s worst human rights records. Unocal recently lost a U.S. court case that found them liable for such abuses.
• We thank TIAA-CREF for divesting from World Bank bonds. We ask that it publicly pledge to buy no new bonds as long as WB policies contribute to economic hardship globally.

www.MakeTIAA-CREFethical.org

Members of the MAKE TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition:
• The US Campaign for Burma • Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) • World Bank Bonds Boycott • Press for Change • Social Choice for Social Change • Canadian Committee To Combat Crimes Against Humanity (CCCCH) • Citizens Coalition (Frente Civico) • Educating for Justice • National Community Reinvestment Coalition • National Congress for Community Economic Development • Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc. • Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood •