Francis Northwood Francis Northwood is a writer who lives in New York.

ESOP Fables | The False Promise of Employee Ownership

Francis Northwood

In December 2021, employees of the prominent New York-based architecture firm SHoP — most famous for designing landmarks like the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Tower, and 111 West 57th, the thinnest supertall skyscraper in the world — announced they were seeking to form Architectural Workers United, the first professional architecture union in over seventy years. Organizers told the press that they had been driven to unionize by mismanagement, an inconsistent...