American Federation of Teachers Pension Trustees Consider Russian Asset Divestment

WASHINGTON — The American Federation of Teachers is urging its pension trustees to immediately review investments with ties to Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The AFT, founded in 1916, is an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and represents 3,000 nationwide local affiliates with over 1.7 million members collectively. AFT President Randi Weingarten issued a letter to the union’s trustee council on Thursday that condemned Russia’s actions against Ukraine as “an unprovoked and unjustified act of war,” while compelling them to closely examine pension funds for ties to Russia.

Any business entity that is economically engaged with Russia or Russian nationals faces a serious risk of civil and criminal legal consequences as well as severe adverse market reactions, Weingarten wrote. He also underscored the AFT’s solidarity with the Ukrainian government and the “fellow unionists” of its labor movement.

“As this unprovoked and increasingly barbaric war on the sovereign and democratic country of Ukraine continues, we must do all we can to not simply condemn Putin, but exert whatever economic and political pressure we can to try and stop this carnage,” Weingarten said to the trustee council. 

“That’s why the AFT is asking the public pension plans that operate on behalf of our members to examine our exposure to risky Russian investments and weigh where we invest our members’ deferred wages carefully.”

Several other public plans have already chosen to divest assets tied to Russia to avoid the risk of indirectly funding attacks on the country of Ukraine and its people, Weingarten wrote in the letter. 

The letter also cites multiple reports from news outlets asserting evidence exists of Russian war crimes and that civilians fleeing the conflict constitute the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The union believes if all the direct and indirect pensions with links to Russia were to divest, it would represent around $1 billion in total, AFT Media Affairs Specialist Alexis Lopez told The Well News.

Weingarten’s letter requests the trustees to:

• Determine all of the respective funds’ exposure to Russian and Russia-related assets, including but not limited to any investments related to Russian oligarchs.
• Request asset managers to conduct similar investigations into the extent of Russian exposure to the assets they manage on behalf of the funds.
• Question asset managers about what steps they are taking to manage the full range of risks associated with continuing to hold any Russian or Russia-related assets.

“AFT members participate in defined benefit pension plans totaling an estimated $4.2 trillion,” Weingarten told the trustees. “We must closely monitor where our members’ money is invested across all asset classes—including commodities; real estate; natural resources, such as oil, gas and timber; and private equity and hedge funds—and withdraw from any investments with ties to Russia wherever possible, consistent with our fiduciary duty.”

In February, Weingarten issued a statement denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine days after the military operation began. 

While chastising Russian President Vladimir Putin as an “autocratic dictator” in the letter, Weingarten described the invasion as a blatant defiance of international law while praising the Biden administration for responding with economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday similarly welcomed calls for an investigation of international war crimes by Russia for its military actions in Ukraine, as previously reported in The Well News. 

Alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda at a press conference in Warsaw, Harris cited the reported Russian bombing of a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital in her remarks.

Reece can be reached at [email protected].