PressActivists Expose Losses and Mismanagement at Lazard-Affiliated Investment Owned by State and International Pension Funds
MADISON, WISC. --Activists picketed outside a 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.
"We
moved my mother to Atria so she would be safe and well taken care of,"
said Wisconsin resident Susan MacArevey, whose mother was at an Atria
Senior Living facility until 2007. "But they were always short-staffed,
and the workers don't have any support from management. I can't believe
our state's pension board is allowing this to go on with one of their
investments."
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.
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