Through their pension funds, workers own, but do not control, most of the finance capital in the United States. Since 1978 the U.S. labor movement's defensive and offensive pension strategies have bolstered union bargaining power and provided funds to profitable and union-only construction projects. However, the role of unions in the U.S. industrial relations system, the structure of pension management and the competing uses of pension funds stymie labor's efforts to control pension funds. Moreover, labor's reliance on property rights and the market rate of return (to identify worthy projects) may, over time, contravene other labor goals. Challenging how finance capital is invested, rather than who owns the capital, is a strategy the labor movement should begin to consider.
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