The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism

It is often hoped and assumed that union stewardship of pension investments will produce tangible and enduring benefits for workers and their communities while minimizing the negative effects of what are now global and intensely competitive capital markets. At the core of this book is a desire to question the proposition that workers and their organizations can exert meaningful control over pension funds in the context of current financial markets.

The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism is an engaging and readable text that will be of specific interest to members of the labor movement, pension activists, pension trustees, fund administrators, environmental activists, and employers/managers, as well as academics involved in pension or labor research. The contents and arguments of the book are applicable across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, because these countries experience a similar macroeconomic context and face a similar pension landscape.

Kevin Skerrett is a Senior Research Officer (Pensions) with the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ottawa. Chris Roberts is the National Director of Social and Economic Policy at the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa. He is the author of Pension Confidential. Johanna Weststar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Organizational Studies at Western University in London, Ontario. Simon Archer is co-director of the Centre for Research in Comparative Law and Political Economy at Osgoode Hall Law School and practices law with Goldblatt Partners LLP.