Unions and worker cooperatives have a lot in common when it comes to passions and principles for democratic workplaces. Where they differ is in strategy and tactics. At this moment in history, it is clear to many that much needs to be torn down and much needs to be built up. To face this challenge and change our economic system to achieve genuine workplace democracy requires new ways of doing business and a multi-pronged approach.
To explore these issues in greater depth, the Community and Worker Ownership Project at the City University of New York (CUNY) published a report titled A Union Toolkit for Cooperative Solutions, which highlights seven case studies of how unions and worker co-ops have together built worker power.
More such collaborations are sorely needed. The current rules and values of our capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist, and patriarchal system set the table for how work gets done, and how money and resources move. Worker co-ops and unions each can contribute to changing this reality. Worker co-ops provide a means to collaborate within a framework of deep collaboration fostering inclusion and agency at work. Unions help take on corporations and their rules and regulations, with a rich history of struggles, both wins and losses. Today’s labor and ownership laws reflect a capitalist paradigm. Challenging that paradigm requires knowing what levers exist with the current system to better conditions, even as new systems are developed that lay the groundwork for more egalitarian ways to be together at work and in communities.
Read the rest at Nonprofit Quarterly
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