SEIU: 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 http://www.improveassistedliving.org/who-owns-atria-senior-living/

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