David Webber

Harvard Book Store and the American Constitution Society welcome Boston University Law professor DAVID WEBBER for a discussion of his new book, The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon.

About The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder

When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burd’s boardroom allies.

In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeway’s to shine a light on labor’s most potent remaining weapon: its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco; diversify corporate boards; support Occupy Wall Street; force global warming onto the corporate agenda; create jobs; and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labor’s capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactic’s surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labor’s access to this powerful and underused tool.

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength.

Praise

"A riveting, thorough, and thoughtful book that is not only a fast and fun read, but contributes wonderfully to a new and ongoing conversation about inequality, dark money, and populism in the electorate." —Mehrsa Baradaran, author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

"In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder, David Webber shares the inspirational story of a group of ingenious individuals who discovered a new source of power for the labor movement: shareholder activism. Webber provides a compelling new legal and policy framework for using labor’s capital to advance members’ interests both as workers and as investors saving for retirement." —Jennifer Taub, Vermont Law School

"David H. Webber argues forcefully that the future of the American worker is inextricably bound with shareholder power. It is only when labor’s capital is fully unleashed, Webber theorizes, that American workers will then be able to win back control of their destiny. This is an important book." —Steven Davidoff Solomon, Berkeley Center for Law and Business