A New York City subway operator, a school teacher, and other public workers have filed a lawsuit against the city’s pension fund managers, charging that they have misused pension investments to pursue a political agenda and harmed public workers who depend on that money to fund their retirements.
Filed in New York state court on May 11, the lawsuit states that city pension fund managers are “obligated to administer their respective Qualified Pension Plans (the ‘Plans’) solely in the interests of the Plans’ participants and beneficiaries, and for the exclusive purpose of providing retirement benefits. But instead of honoring that obligation, Defendants have breached their fiduciary duties and abused their control over plan assets by divesting the Plans of approximately four billion dollars of holdings in companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels, in a misguided and ineffectual gesture to address climate change.”
