No-Divestiture Vote of DWP Unit Protested

Responding to a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pension board’s refusal last week to enact a divestiture policy, representatives of a DWP black employees group and the electrical workers union told a City Council committee Wednesday that the board’s act went against many of their members’ wishes.

These members, the employees’ representatives said, favor following official city policy by abandoning pension plan investments, including their own, in companies doing business with South Africa.

Mamie Grant, president of the Assn. of Black Employees in City Government, said her organization, which includes 2,000 DWP members, wants $139.1 million in DWP pension funds withdrawn from South Africa-connected companies as a protest against segregation of the races there.

Arnold A. Medina, assistant business manager of Local 18 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, which represents 8,000 DWP workers, joined Grant in protesting the pension board’s decision.