Capital Stewardship Program

Workers and their unions have fought long and hard to secure workers’ retirement, health and welfare benefits.  Today, more than $4.1 trillion worth of assets in union- and other worker-related pension, health and savings funds protect the future of American workers and their families.  At UFCW-affiliated funds across the United States, almost $34 billion in working capital protect our members’ future.  In times when reckless corporate looting and mishaps—such as the recent financial market meltdown that sparked an economic recession in the United States—bring down companies and cost shareholders billions of dollars, the UFCW Capital Stewardship Program spearheads the Union’s efforts to protect the retirement security of its members and promote corporate best practices and reform. 

What We Do
The UFCW Capital Stewardship Program protects members’ assets through active ownership of UFCW-affiliated Taft-Hartley pension, health and welfare funds, 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement plans, as well as union reserve funds.  These funds own stock in most public company in the United States and numerous large foreign companies.  Active ownership means proactively exercising rights as shareholders to engage corporate management on various issues of concern, such as director elections, executive compensation, divestments, and mergers and acquisitions, through voting on proxy items and shareholder engagement.

The UFCW Capital Stewardship Program works with UFCW fund trustees, their investment managers and other related professionals to make sure our members’ assets are managed in their best interests.  We also work closely with the Change to Win Investment Group and the capital stewardship offices of other CtW affiliate unions.

As part of our commitment to ensure that the best governance practices are utilized in the companies that our members' retirement funds own, UFCW Executive Vice President Patrick O'Neill was elected to serve on the board of directors of the Council of Institutional Investors in 2009.  The Council of Institutional Investors is the leading national voice for large institutional investors, including public, union and corporate pension funds whose combined assets total more than $3 trillion.  The Council works with its members and the public to advance good corporate governance, shareowner rights and related investment issues.

Resources
The CTW Investment Group
The AFL-CIO Office of Investment
The Council of Institutional Investors
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
The Corporate Library
The Harvard School of Law Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
ShareholderProposals.com 

For more information, please contact:

Click Here for a PDF of UFCW -affiliated Taft-Hartley funds.