Why Are Unions Interested in Worker Co-ops?
- Adds to labor union membership
- Allows the labor force to respond to economic downturns with flexibility by decreasing workload and pay rather than laying people off
- Workers empowered through ownership and control of management
- Businesses less susceptible to attack and decimation from capital
- Builds member wealth in the form of enterprise ownership and sustainable wages
- Helps redirect labor unions toward more democratic practices
- Involves organized labor in constructive vs resistance work
Why Are Worker Co-ops Interested in Unions?
- Immerses workers in broad and deep economic analysis
- Encourages solidarity with the union movement in advocacy on workers rights
- May offer benefits through the union
- Provides research and organizing expertise, and capital for co-op formation
- Provides model collective bargaining agreements, operating procedures and rules, and grievance procedures with neutral facilitators
- Provides solidarity purchasing arrangements
