Public pension funds — many of them representing union retirees — own a substantial amount of stock in one of the most virulently anti-union companies in the history of America: Wal-Mart. According to research compiled by Sprawl-Busters, public pension funds are a major Wal-Mart stockholder. TIAA CREF, the teacher’s pension fund, is the 15th. largest institutional investor in Wal-Mart, holding 20.5 million shares, worth $945.2 million. The TIAA CREF Trust Company owns another 126,680 shares, worth another $5.8 million. CALPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, is the 17th. largest institutional investor in Wal-Mart, owning 19.25 million shares, worth $887.58 million. Public Employees of Ohio own 5.06 million shares, worth $233.3 million. The New York State Common Retirement Fund owns 10.2 million shares of Wal-Mart stock, worth $470.5 million. The Teacher Retirement Fund of Texas owns 8.5 million shares, worth $392.1 million. The State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement owns 8.07 million shares, worth $372.05 million. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board owns 4.42 million shares, worth $203.7 million. The California State Teacher’s Retirement Board owns 3.98 million shares, worth $183.58 million. The Public Retirement System of Colorado owns 3.32 million shares, worth $153 million. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Retirement System owns 2.57 million shares, worth $118.57 million. The Texas Permanent School Fund owns 2.17 million shares, worth $100 million. Teacher’s Advisor’s of New York owns 1.04 million shares, worth $47.87 million. Teacher’s Retirement of Kentucky owns 1 million shares, worth $46.29 million. The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board owns 333,500 shares, worth $16.29 million. The public retirement funds own a total of $4.24 billion in Wal-Mart stock. Of Wal-Mart’s 4.16 billion shares of outstanding stock, 1.496 billion shares (35.9%) are owned by institutional investors. Of the public funds invested in Wal-Mart, TIAA-CREF (whose motto is “investing for the greater good) and CALPERS, make up 43% of all the retirement fund investments, or $1.832 billion in Wal-Mart stock.
It is ironic that many of the retirement systems which are funded by teachers and public employee retirement funds, are major investors in the nation’s premiere anti-union, anti-public education retailer, Wal-Mart. Many of these union retirees have no idea what holdings their money is invested in. Sprawl-Busters is part of the “Make TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition”, which has been meeting with the giant pension fund staff to try to make the fund invest in more responsible corporations. For further information on public retirement fund investments in Wal-Mart, contact [email protected]
