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I argue that the financialization of the advanced political economies has facilitated a contentious politics of strategic investment. Based on archival research and in-depth interviews, my study shows that socio-economic actors—particularly, employees and their political organizations—have taken on the role of shareholders in public corporations through the large concentrations of pension capital under their control. My project analyzes employees' shareholder activism since 1974. Through these practices, employees blurred the institutional boundaries of the firm, moving industrial relations to the realm of corporate governance. This did not go unchallenged by the corporate community, the project shows, and both sides confronted each other within shareholder annual meetings and federal agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, it is within these sites that employee-shareholders …