Going to War With the Army You Have
探讨美国劳工组织如何通过养老金基金成为股东行动主义者,推动高管薪酬改革,但面临制度限制,并指出经济下行可能促使投资者与工人利益趋同。
According to Arrighi and Silver, the United States faces a crisis of declining hegemony historically characterized by stagnating wages, hypertrophy of the financial sector, and the shifting of production overseas. Previous cycles suggest that the fate of workers within the hegemonic core depends in part on their political and organizational response. For a generation, organized labor in the United States has sought ways to exercise influence over private and public pension funds. As a result, union staffers have become sophisticated shareholder activists. Recent financial scandals have created a new opening for these activists, who have responded by forming coalitions to reform executive pay. The recent dismissal of a California Personnel Employees Retirement System official implies limits to this investor “pluralism,” but the situation is hardly settled. Another economic downturn might move the interests of investors and workers closer together, and shareholder activists could play a role settling the resulting conflicts over the distribution of income.