The Heartland Labor Capital Network: Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions

U.S. pension funds are now worth more than $7 trillion, and many people believe that an important task for the labor movement is to harness their share of this capital and develop strategies that will help, rather than hurt, workers and unions.

Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions challenges money managers and today's labor movement by asking how workers' hard-earned savings can be put to use in socially and economically progressive ways. Responsible management of pensions will create greater growth and prosperity in America, and the authors of Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions show that the long-term interests of pension plan beneficiaries are well served through a "worker-owner" view of the economy.

Workers are looking beyond their workplaces, and beyond the defensive mind-sets imposed by global capitalism and right-wing zealots. They are putting their money to use themselves, with a view to the long-term, a view to whether today's investments will mean jobs in the future for their children.

Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers of America, and a driving force behind Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions says, "We asked money managers what they were doing with our pension funds and our assets. Why do their decisions have such negative repercussions for the beneficiaries: working people? As it turns out, this question has become an increasingly important dividing line in terms of how labor's capital is managed." Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions provides the hard research necessary to take on today's conventional thinking and challenges pension fund managers' narrow shareholder theory of value.

Editors Archon Fung, Tessa Hebb, and Joel Rogers build on the work of the Heartland Labor Capital Network supported by the United Steelworkers of America, the Steel Valley Authority, AFL-CIO's Center for Working Capital, and several foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, to draw together the wisdom of a number of experts on labor's next best moves in the pension market.

Further information and excerpts from Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions can be obtained on the resources page. Copies of Working Capital can be purchased through Cornell University Press at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu, Barnes and Noble at www.bn.com.

A 'worker-owner view of value is not just a theory; it's a reality that pension fund trustees have proven works. Wall Street has a narrow view of how value is created and tells pension fund trustees that there is little room for innovation. We have a more realistic view that promotes superior investment returns and retirement security while supporting decent jobs and healthy communities. This book helps trustees see how they can make a difference.

Richard Trumka
Secretary Treasurer AFL-CIO

WORKING CAPITAL
The Power of Labor's Pensions

Archon Fung, Tessa Hebb, and Joel Rogers (eds.). Forward by Leo Gerard. Woking Capital was published by Cornell University Press in May 2001; 288pp, $35.00

Contributors include:
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Eric Becker, Trillium Asset Management
Michael Calabrese, New America Foundation
Archon Fung, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Leo W. Gerard, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO/CLC
Teresa Ghilarducci, University of Notre Dame
Tessa Hebb, Hebb, Knight and Associates
David Mackenzie, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO/CLC
J.W. Mason, Center for Working Capital, AFL-CIO
Patrick McVeigh, Trillium Asset Management
Marleen O'Connor, Stetson University College of Law
Bill Patterson, AFL-CIO
Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO
Jayne Zanglein, George Meany Center for Labor Studies

Editors: Archon Fung is assistant professor of public policy at the John. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is coeditor with Joshua Cohen of Institutions of Justice: Constitutionalism, Democracy and State Power. Tessa Hebb is an independent economic consultant working with unions in the US and Canada on pension and investment issues. She is director of the Capital Strategies Program at CSTIER, Carleton University, Canada. Joel Rogers is professor of law, political science, and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author with Richard B. Freeman of What Workers Want, also from Cornell.