Divest Ontario’s University Pension Plan from Genocide, Occupation and Apartheid
The University Pension Plan (UPP) is now the recommended pension plan for institutions of higher education in Ontario. Currently, it manages $11.7-billion worth of pension assets. Workers at the University of Guelph, Trent University, University of Toronto, and Queen’s University are already enrolled in the plan, and workers at Laurier University and the University of Ottawa have recently signed memoranda of agreement. Fourteen other university sector organizations also pay into UPP.
The corporate identity of UPP is structured around two principles: its joint governance structure, which promises a voice to members, and its responsible investing practices, which guarantee the incorporation of Environmental, Social and Government (ESG) principles. “Examples of ESG factors that may be considered by UPP include, but are not limited to, climate change, inequality, human and labour rights, equity, diversity and inclusion, nature and natural systems, Indigenous rights and reconciliation, resource use and efficiency, executive compensation, and shareholder rights,” states the policy.
Investing in Genocide
It is difficult to see how these stated commitments can be reconciled with the fact that, over a year and a half into the Gaza genocide, the UPP continues to hold investments in military contractors that supply the Israeli state. The plan has publicly disclosed holdings of $10 to $25-million in Safran Corporation, which has manufacturing facilities here in Ontario. Proxy voting records from May 2024 indicate that the UPP holds further investments in complicit companies such as L3 Harris, Lockheed Martin, Teledyne Technologies, Raytheon, Textron, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Huntington Ingalls, and the Israeli company Axon Vision, which specializes in Artificial Intelligence weaponry. UPP also holds investments in businesses named by the UN for their operations in illegal settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), such as Booking.com ($5 to $10-million), Expedia, Airbnb, and Motorola. Apartheid investments in companies like Hyundai, whose excavators have been used to destroy Palestinian homes in the OPT, are numerous. An initial calculation estimates UPP’s complicity at around $790-million.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it only took UPP until 11 March 2022 to issue their assurance of the total exclusion of Russian assets from its portfolio. “UPP is deeply concerned about the hostile events unfolding in Ukraine and the impact on the Ukrainian people,” read the statement. “Our Trustee, Alan Jette, and CEO, Barb Zvan, were among the business leaders to issue an open letter to the Government of Canada in support of stricter sanctions against Russia and its leaders, and stronger humanitarian efforts on the ground and for those seeking asylum… We have made our position clear – breaches of international law have no place in UPP’s portfolio.”
If this is the case, we must ask where the exclusions are on investments funding genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation. Why do UN resolutions count when, as on 23rd February 2023, they “deplore the dire human rights and humanitarian consequences of the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” but not when, as on 18th September 2024, they demand that Israel “bring to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the OPT”? Buried in the UPP’s investment exclusions seems to be another, familiar exclusion: their silence on Palestine is blaring.
As university workers, it is incumbent upon us to refuse to allow that our pension plan be invested in the execution of scholasticide. In June 2024, Trent University passed a motion to divest the plan. At the University of Toronto, USW1998 passed a motion in June, CUPE3902 passed a motion in August, and CUPE1230 passed a motion in November. Workers from unions and faculty associations across Ontario who pay into the plan are organizing as the Workers’ Campaign for UPP Divestment to make the following demands:
- Divestment from military industries, including but not limited to Israel’s military
- Divestment from illegal occupation, including but not limited to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine
- A ban on new investments in the above
We invite comrades across the province to join us in the fight for divestment. We join the OSSTF and ETFO and, in Québec, the Coalition Urgence Palestine, in their demands to hold pension plans accountable to their members. A pension is workers’ deferred compensation – future wages which can also shape the future toward Palestinian liberation.
Reject capitalist morality. Boycott, divestment, sanctions, now! •
The Workers’ Campaign for UPP Divestment is a coordinated effort between labour unions and faculty associations at UPP member institutions. The campaign is calling on the University Pension Plan (UPP) to adhere to its own existing policies and framework for responsible investing and end its complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide. To that end, workers are demanding that the UPP divest from military industries, including but not limited to Israel’s military, divest from companies supplying, servicing, or operating on illegally occupied lands, including but not limited to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and implement a ban on any new investments of this nature. Contact the campaign on uppdivestment@duck.com.
