FW: New Publication - Working Capital: the Power of Labour's Pensions

[Dan Bell <dbell@kent.edu>]

-----Original Message-----
From: maiser@mail.icftu.org [mailto:maiser@mail.icftu.org]On Behalf Of Jon Robinson
Sent: 08 June 2001 16:39
To: Forum on Workers' Capital (ICFTU/ITS/TUAC)
Subject: FW: New Publication - Working Capital: the Power of Labour's Pen sions


Dear Friends, 
The Canadian release of a new book entitled "Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Pensions" has recently been announced. The book, a collection of essays by academics and financial analysts based on the research papers that were presented to the 1999 Heartland Labor Capital Project's National Conference in 1999, is published by the Cornell University Press. It is co-sponsored by the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO/CLC, and the AFL-CIO's Center for Working Capital and edited by Heartland Canada Director Tessa Hebb, Joel Rogers and Archon Fung. 

Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers of America, says in his foreword that: 
"We asked money managers what they were doing with our pension funds and assets," said Gerard. "Why do their decisions have such negative repercussions for the beneficiaries - working people? As it turns out, this question became an increasingly important dividing line in terms of how labour's capital is managed.......This book provides the hard research necessary to challenge a pension fund manager's narrow shareholder theory of value."

The essays in Working Capital address a number of issues including: 
    -  Establishing a worker-owner approach in light of systematic negative consequences of contemporary financial market operations;

    -  An examination of contemporary financial strategies (institutionally responsible investment vehicles -- screened funds, shareholder activist strategies such as proxy voting, direct investments through fund operation and management), which use capital markets to secure collateral benefits for workers, communities, other stakeholders, and the environment;

    -  The investigation of novel strategies such as the representation of workers in pension fund governance and making economically targeted investment a mainstream financial practice;

    -  The exploration of strategies through which organized labour might advance its capital agenda, including using Canada's labour-sponsored investment funds as a model for targeting investments in the US.

For more information about the book and how to order copies, visit the Heartland web site <<http://www.heartlandnetwork.org>http://www.heartlandnetwork.org>. 

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Jon Robinson - ICFTU 
Tel  +44 (0) 207 467 1224 
Fax +44 (0) 207 467 1317 
Email jrobinson@tuc.org.uk 
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