Workers Own the Means of Production

The government's proposal that the United Auto Workers take their pension-fund payment in Chrysler stock gives the labor union a 55% stake in the company, making the union the effective owner of the company.

It's interesting that the UAW only gets 1 seat out of 9 on the Board of Directors. That immediately weakens their authority.

From a Marxian economic perspective, this is a case of workers owning the means of production. As some cutting-edge Marxian theorists have argued, ownership of the company may not be the same thing as appropriation of the surplus value created by the workers. In the modern joint stock company, there is a separation between the owners (the shareholders) and the appropriators, a responsibility which is given to the Board of Directors. While shareholders interests are supposedly represented by the board, it is unusual for shareholders to get involved in the appropriation process. If they do, they are labeled activist investors, like Carl Icahn.

An insight from Marxian theory is that there is always conflict over the distribution of the surplus, no matter what class structure exists. For example, there is conflict over the surplus within a corporation between the management and the shareholders. How much of the corporation's profits go to dividends or share buybacks vs new investment in the firm?

For the UAW, being an owner could create a new kind of thinking. Instead of being focused on higher wages, better retirement packages, better benefits, etc., they could begin to focus on the labor process and think in larger terms about what would be in the interests of the workers. That would be an interesting shift.