In the context of what is happening in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, it is unconscionable that our pension and welfare plan is contributing to, and turning a profit from widespread human destruction, torture, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, through its investments in weapons companies. It is well documented that international humanitarian laws are being repeatedly broken by Israel with the support of war profiteers in other countries, including Canada.

Therefore:

We, as concerned electrical workers of IBEW Local 213, call on the Local 213 Electrical Workers' Welfare and Pension Plan Trustees and Director to:

1) Divest from all companies and funds involved or invested in weapons manufacturing and research, as well as related transportation

2) Divest from all corporations conducting business in the Occupied Territories of Palestine

3) Divest from all corporations based in, or doing business with Israel, until Israel complies with international law in relation to Palestine

4) Develop a clear written policy for the Local 213 Electrical Workers' Welfare and Pension Plan that will prevent similar investments from being undertaken in the future, notably investments related to weapons manufacturing and implicated in human rights violations

5) Set a reasonable timeline and accountability process for the achievement of prior objectives

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Supplementary information:

How does our investment portfolio pick investments?

Our Pension Board of Trustees chooses to invest in various equity funds that are overseen by fund managers. Our money is then put in these funds, and in turn within the various companies within the fund. Pension policies and legislation dictate that trustees and directors act to ensure that investments are undertaken with the best interests of the beneficiaries in mind, and the long-term viability of the plan. Fund managers report back to the Board of Trustees and have a yearly meeting with membership in December.

Fulfilling the fiduciary duty does not necessitate investments in weapons. Many of our investments are in green energy and infrastructure - a legacy from the Board of Trustees securing assets that align with the values of our local. Given the diversity of investment vehicles there are real opportunities available that would not compromise human rights and labour values. Many pension and fund managers are coming to recognize that arms related investments are not safe from a financial perspective, and contain inherent economic, political, and reputational risks. Taking a more ethical approach does not necessitate financial loss and there are alternatives which are stable and successful.  

How do we know which companies are problematic?

We gathered the information we've referenced from the fund management websites, several databases, and Local 213 Electrical Workers' Welfare and Pension Plan Annual Reports.

After reviewing our pension's holdings, as listed in the Local 213 Pension Plan's 2023 Annual Report - Independent Auditors Report - Schedule of Investments, we then cross-referenced with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Who Profits?, which are both organizations that have produced extensive lists of companies that are manufacturing weapons, and are involved in supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Additionally, we used the UN Database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements, as well as further research into specific companies, such as Royal Bank.

In the following section, we have outlined our asks and given a partial summary of problematic companies we have found within the equity funds invested in by our pension plan.

Further explanations:

1) Divest from all companies and funds involved or invested in weapons manufacturing and research, as well as related transportation

      An immediately impactful first step would be to remove our investments from several high-profile war profiteers all at once, through removing Orbis Institutional Global Equity L.P. from our Equity Funds.

• Orbis Institutional Global Equity L.P. investments include:      

      (i) BAE Systems: The largest weapons manufacturer in Europe, BAE is one of the primary contractors in the production of Lockheed Martin’s F35 combat plane. As producers of the fuselage, tailpieces, and electronics components for each aircraft, they are currently used in the Israeli bombing of Gaza, and the previous bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia.

    (ii) Howmet Aerospace: Manufactures engine components for the F35.

      (iii) Intel: Weapons components manufacturer, including processors for Elbit Systems with a history of development and manufacturing in Israel

      (iv) Motorola: Multiple equipment contracts with Israeli military, police, and settlement operations.  Long history of developing technology to uphold occupation and apartheid, such as the military cellular network and the tiered pass system used at checkpoints

    (v) Alphabet: Provides Israeli military surveillance technology through Project Nimbus

2) Divest from all corporations conducting business in the Occupied Territories of Palestine

      With pressure from the people providing the money, fund managers have an opportunity to remove companies from a fund to clean up their slate and ensure they are complying with international law. Some funds only have single but significant problematic investment, such as the following.

• Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. - investments include:

3) Divest from all corporations based in, or doing business with Israel, until Israel complies with international law in relation to Palestine

     All major humanitarian relief agencies have announced that their aid is heavily restricted from entering Gaza and there have now been several documented cases of aid distribution being target by Israeli Forces. International humanitarian law (IHL), Israel is required, as the occupying power, to make sure that the basic needs of the population of Gaza, such as food and water, are met.

Of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 19 are out of service and 17 are only partially functioning after being directly targeted on numerous occasions. According to IHL, medical units must be protected and respected in all circumstances.  

From October 2023 to October 2024, the official death toll of civilians in Gaza was 42,718, with at least 10,000 people reported missing or under the rubble as of October 23, 2024. Over half of the confirmed reported deaths are children (13,319), women (7,216), and elderly people (3,447). Of these, 146 are journalists, over 224 are humanitarian workers, and almost 1000 medical professionals. According to IHL, all of these people should be protected and respected as civilians.

Prior to this increase in violence, there are decades of documented human rights violations.

There are several other questionable assets contained within larger investments. The Bank of Montreal (BMO) has been reducing their stock in Israeli investments as consumer pressure continues to show they are bad investments.

This is relevant to our investments through:

• Leith Wheeler Canadian Equity Fund Series A - investments include:

       (i) Royal Bank: Invested in Elbit Systems, Israeli drone manufacturer

       (ii) Toronto Dominion Bank: Invested in Elbit Systems

       (iii) CN Rail: Operates contract for ZIM - Israeli shipping company involved in weapons transportation.

4) Develop a clear written policy for the Local 213 Electrical Workers' Welfare and Pension Plan that will prevent similar investments from being undertaken in the future, notably investments related to weapons manufacturing and implicated in human rights violations

      An issue for accountability is the lack of transparency and definitions related to Environmental, Social, Governance criteria (ESG) and similar guiding principles. We need to be clear that going forward we disallow initial and ongoing investments that are found to support occupation, war crimes, apartheid, and genocide.

A number of the funds held in our pension are investing in companies which produce weapons and military grade technology currently being used by the Israeli military. Beyond this there are a number of corporations with close economic ties to Israel that are fueling a decades long occupation, which has culminated in the bloodshed now occurring. These facts are irreconcilable with the values of human rights and the labour movement - many of which are enshrined in the IBEW constitution.

Our members request for the removal of the noted investments from our pension, and the development of a clear written policy - to prevent similar investments in the future.

5) Set a reasonable timeline and accountability process for the achievement of prior objectives

     As the assault on Palestinians intensifies and expands from Gaza to Lebanon and throughout the area our concern grows.

Each of the above listed companies are complicit in assisting the attack on the citizens of Gaza, in what has been described as a plausible genocide, by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).  

As one of the most densely populated areas on earth - roughly the size of Surrey with a population four times larger - the mass of bombs dropped on Gaza in the first 6 months exceeded the bombings of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined, during WWII.  Over 70% of the infrastructure is demolished.

These pointed statistics, Israel breaking International Law, evidence of war crimes, and Israeli officials continuously expressing intent to continue removing all Palestinians from the geographic area have led experts to call this a genocide. A recent study by the Lancet medical journal estimated that if a ceasefire was put in place immediately, the death toll would continue to increase by 3 to 15 times due to current injuries, as well as famine and disease. These outcomes are the result of ongoing Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure (bakeries, markets, schools, and universities), as well as directed attacks on sites that violate international law (hospitals, emergency responders, international aid, food sources, journalistic outlets, water and sewage). At the conservative end this would mean 7 to 9% of the total population of Gaza. For comparison, 1-2% of the Ukrainian civilian population has been killed in the conflict with Russia since 2022.

Let's build the call to keep our investments accountable to us.

We cannot be idle while our money is used to slaughter innocent people.

The following petition with all of our signatures will be sent to Local 213 Electrical Workers' Welfare and Pension Trustees and Director