Overview

From award-winning economic historian Sanford M. Jacoby, a fascinating and important study of the labor movement and shareholder capitalism. Since the 1970s, American unions have shrunk dramatically, as has their economic clout. Labor in the Age of Finance traces the search for new sources of power, showing how unions turned financialisation to their advantage. Sanford Jacoby catalogs the array of allies and finance-based tactics labor deployed to stanch membership losses in the private sector. By leveraging pension capital, unions restructured corporate governance around issues like executive pay and accountability. In Congress, they drew on their political influence to press for corporate reforms in the wake of business scandals and the financial crisis. The effort restrained imperial CEOs but could not bridge the divide between workers and owners. Wages lagged behind investor returns, feeding the inequality identified by Occupy Wall Street. And labor's slide continued. A compelling blend of history, economics, and politics, Labor in the Age of Finance explores the paradox of capital bestowing power to labor in the tumultuous era of Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Dodd-Frank.

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9780691217208

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Reviews

Jacoby brilliantly illustrates the Sisyphean character of labor's exertions on the tilted terrain of finance. Yet, equally importantly, he wisely shows how unions began learning to fight on a battlefield likely to become even more decisive in coming years. Anyone who seeks to understand labor's present predicament or fight those future battles simply must read this indispensable book. ---Joseph A. McMartin, Labour History [a] must read for labor, management, and finance scholars and their students .... At a time when financialization, extreme inequality, and calls for 'accountable capitalism' are center stage, Jacoby's book is timely. He offers a landscape of historical examples of labor's financial strategies, what has worked and what hasn't, and why it is so difficult to change deeply embedded government rules and corporate norms that favor the rich and powerful. His research is painstaking and impeccable -- bringing to life his inside stories of union shareholder campaigns and political struggles over financial regulation. ---Rosemary Batt, Industrial and Labor Relations Review Jacoby's book is an impressive and vital addition to the history of organised labour. By also getting readers to think about the question of what modern financialization has wrought, it has much broader relevance. It deserves a wide readership. ---Jeff Borland, Economic Record Jacoby focuses on explaining his source material, rather than belaboring broad lessons. This will make the book of interest to employment relations practitioners and to academics across multiple disciplines. But, several general themes emerge ... labor's role (both as handmaid and as critic) in the shareholder revolution and financialization .... the ubiquity of feuds and bedfellows in strategic campaigning .... Jacoby demonstrates how these webs of ownership and employment intermediation, often identified as a barrier to traditional worker bargaining power, also offer new sources of worker leverage. Beyond these core themes, Jacoby litters the book with insights that could fill a whole shelf of future dissertations. ---Nathan Wilmers, Perspectives on Work Readers of this book will encounter numerous lessons of value. ---Laura J. Owen, Economic History Association

Author Information

Sanford M. Jacoby is Distinguished Research Professor of History, Management, and Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include Modern Manors: Welfare Capitalism since the New Deal and The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States (both Princeton).

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