I’m a USW member interested in Co-ops and Worker Ownership

What is a Co-op?

Cooperatives are businesses that are based on equitable ownership and democratic control.  The different types of cooperatives are generally defined by who owns it: 

  • Worker Co-ops are businesses owned and controlled by the workers. The world’s largest worker co-op, which is actually a co-op of worker co-ops, is the Mondragon Corporation based in the Basque region of Spain. Worker co-ops in the USW include WorX Printing, Sustainergy, and Wholehearted Bookkeeping. 
  • Consumer Co-ops (or Member Co-ops) are businesses owned by the consumer.  About a third of people in the U.S. are members of a consumer co-op, either through consuming electricity from a rural electric co-op, banking with a credit union, or buying food from a local food co-op. USW members work at credit unions all around the U.S. and Canada, as well as rural electric co-ops in Michigan, Minnesota, and Alabama. 
  • Producer Co-ops are businesses owned by the producers such as farmers (also known as agricultural co-ops), although co-ops of any business or self-employed people could be included here, such as taxi driver co-ops. USW members work at dairy co-ops in Quebec and a bottling and distribution cooperative in New York.  Other examples of producer co-ops include Ocean Spray and Land O’Lakes. 
  • Share-Services Co-ops (or purchasing co-ops) are owned by the businesses that are the customers of the co-ops. Ace Hardware and Carpet One are examples of businesses where the franchise owners own and centralize purchasing, brands, and marketing through their shared-services co-op. 
  • Hybrid co-ops (or multi-stakeholder co-ops) combine different forms of co-ops, like a grocery store partially owned by the workers and partially owned by the consumers. 

Co-ops generally follow the 7 cooperative principles as outlined by the International Cooperative Alliance, which are based on original Rochdale cooperative principles of 1844. 

Mondragon cooperatives have expanded these to 10 principles, which are the basis for our union co-op model.

Sustainability and Better Job Security

Worker ownership is about putting people before profits rather than putting profits before people.

In the 1980s and 90s our union leveraged worker ownership of employers as we attempted to save jobs and keep factories running.  While ownership oftentimes felt diffuse,  in most cases, it accomplished the job of helping struggling companies and saving jobs. Once the company and the economy sufficiently recovered, those ownership shares were sold to put money back in the pockets of workers. While an important tool at the time, this experience taught us that real ownership must mean more than the value of a share. 

Rather than a singular focus on maximizing short-term profits, worker ownership means investing in the long sustainability of the business and prioritizing good paying jobs.  

The financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008/2009 also reminded us that far too many company shareholders and CEOs would gladly lay us off, close our factories, and send our work overseas, paying poverty wages in terrible working conditions just to save a few bucks and tweak their stock price in the short term. If we work in companies that we own, we’re not going to eliminate our jobs, lay people off, or offshore work just to boost the profit margin a half percent.

Work Life

Statistics show that worker-owned companies consistently outperform traditional companies, both in profitability and productivity.  Why?  Because in worker-owned companies, workers are valued as people, not just statistics. This includes: 

  • More dignity and respect for workers; 
  • Better communication – decision makers (workers) are likely to actually listen to the workers who know their jobs best, improving efficiencies and eliminating waste; 
  • Shared success – when the business does well, everyone shares in that success; 
  • More trust – putting people first means that even when things don’t go well, workers can trust that they are the first priority, not the last. 

Organizing

Polling shows that more people in the U.S. view unions more favorably than any time in the past 50 years, but the percentage of union members continues to decline.  Why?  Mostly because corporations and the officials they help get elected are extremely effective in throwing up barriers, even with legal protections like the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  Traditional unions are also typically out of reach for people who work in jobs that don’t have even the minimal legal protections that laws like the NLRA provide.  Co-ops can be a way to help more kinds of workers organize, take collective action, and access the benefits of labor unions.