Nation's Largest Union Calls on Pension Boards to Stop Risking Retiree Pension Money,...

Nation's Largest Union Calls on Pension Boards to Stop Risking Retiree Pension
Money, Launch Effort at Wisconsin Pension Board Meeting
Activists Expose Losses and Mismanagement at Lazard-Affiliated Investment
Owned by State and International Pension Funds

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Activists picketed outside the
State of Wisconsin Board of Investment (SWIB), calling on the board to stop
risking state workers' pension fund money during the fund's monthly meeting
here Wednesday, Sept. 10. The protestors are targeting pension fund
involvement in a Lazard-affiliated fund which owns Atria Senior Living, one of
the largest senior living chains in the United States. The Lazard-affiliated
fund has consistently underperformed and has even lost millions since its
inception in 1998.
Wisconsin's is just one of several pension funds in the United States,
Canada and Europe invested with a Lazard-affiliated real estate fund which
owns Atria Senior Living. Atria Senior Living has been accused of violating
workers' civil rights and cited by state authorities for serious resident care
problems.
Atria has also become a target of increasing scrutiny by state regulators
and elected leaders for problems ranging from short-staffing and poor quality
care to consumer price-gouging. Atria workers have filed numerous federal
charges against the company for threatening, intimidating, harassing, and
retaliating against workers for trying to form a union.
Today's protest launched a new international effort by the largest
healthcare union in the United States, SEIU Healthcare, and The Campaign to
Improve Assisted Living to call on these pension funds to hold Lazard
accountable to investors and working families. In the past, several of these
pension funds have successfully pushed the Lazard-affiliated fund to make
changes.
Activists will also protest during upcoming meetings of the Illinois
Municipal Retirement Fund and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees'
Retirement System later this month.
Here is a partial list of pension funds and others invested in Lazard-
affiliated Atria Senior Living: La Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec
(Quebec, Canada)
PGGM (The Netherlands)
N.Y. State Retirement Fund ("New York Common")
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF)
Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS)
Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (COPERA)
State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB)
Utah Retirement System
Virginia Retirement System
General Motors Asset Management
Government of Singapore Investment Corp.

More at www.improveassistedliving.org/who-owns-atria-senior-living/

SOURCE SEIU Healthcare

Jennifer Kelly of SEIU Healthcare, +1-213-401-3321, jennifer.kelly@seiu.org