Worker Coops and Unions

[exerpt] Corporation Busting: A strategy for Unions and Coops Toward Building a Labor-Ownership Economy

2006-12-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

by Lisa Stolarski

Published in issue 71 of GEO. The full article is not currently online. But here's an excerpt from the sidebar:

What can cooperatives offer unions?
• Strategic control of unemployment levels
• An overall resulting increase in wages
• Place-based say in the organization of production
• Profit-sharing
• Stable revenue stream for organizing within capitalist enterprises
• A growing worker-based economy in which to participate as consumers
• Leverage in negotiations with employers throughout industries which cooperatives provide high road and high wage models

What can unions offer cooperatives?
• A share in start-up risks
• Motivated work force
• Access to a large pool of worker intellectual capital
• Perpective on industry-wide trends
• Cross-company worker solidarity
• A resulting leverage with competition
• The potential to reproduce the cooperative model in abandoned facilities

Lisa Stolarski is a founder of Jane Street Housekeeping, a worker cooperative, and also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Unionized Coop Design Studio and Printshop

2006-12-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

Bit of a personal plug, since I work at Design Action and wrote this, but OurBiz now has an article up about Design Action and Inkworks--both being unionized worker-coops, seemed relvant:

Click here to read the artcle

Unions and Cooperatives: Allies in the Struggle to Build Democratic Workplaces

2006-12-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

by Lisabeth L Ryder
Republished from Issue 71 of Grassroots Economic Organizing

As labor organizers, we struggle in the field every day to improve the lives of workers; we are in search of tools and alternatives for working people that will meet the needs of today's casualized and insecure workforce, with shrinking or negligible benefits. It is in the spirit of innovative leadership that we propose that the labor movement use worker cooperatives, an alternative organizing strategy added to more traditional labor organizing methods, as a means of returning control of their lives to the American working people.

The work of unions is to create workplace democracy, and in the larger picture, economic democracy. Currently, we do this in the context of an adversarial relationship between employer and employee. A worker cooperative is an alternative that reaches outside of the limitations of this model, converting workplaces into democratically run institutions owned by the workers. Worker cooperatives are not a panacea for the woes of today's labor movement. Yet, worker cooperatives have a long history in the American workers' struggle for economic democracy and hold potential for expanding the labor movement into unexpected workforces, as well as providing alternatives for better serving the workers we already represent.

Our objective is to bring about an institutional change to allow members of worker cooperatives to become full dues-paying members of labor unions and to make the formation of new worker cooperatives one of our organizing strategies. Unions could assist in the formation of worker cooperatives by forming an organizing committee in the workplace, researching a business plan, finding funding sources, preparing the legal structure, preparing the documents of incorporation, offering training in leadership development and conflict resolution, acquiring healthcare coverage, and structuring a pension plan and 401 (k). Incorporating worker cooperatives into union membership would broaden our political power and dues base, as well as expand our organizing potential.

A worker cooperative can be defined as any democratically organized workplace which is wholly owned by the workers. In the history of the American labor movement, labor unions and worker cooperatives have gone hand-in-hand as striking workers repeatedly formed cooperatives in response to employer lockouts. The world's first large-scale working class cooperative was built in the late 1800's as part of the Populist Movement, the largest and strongest mass democratic movement in American history; and served as the organizational base of the Populist agrarian revolt. Twentieth century experiments in mixed ownership, such as Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) have had some successes, including Southwest Airlines, Home Depot, and Avis Rental Cars. But beyond the rise and fall of these social experiments, worker cooperatives, by their stubborn resurgence, have proven to be a natural component of the struggle for workplace and economic democracy and could help to strengthen and grow today's labor movement.

As the labor movement moves into organizing non-traditional workforces, such as child and home care providers, we have already started moving away from the realm of traditional employer-employee relationships. In these campaigns around the country, organizers have seen worker cooperatives as providing means for improving the lives of these workforces. A registry or referral service, a hiring hall, a pool of substitutes or assistants, or a rotating group of providers to provide coverage for days off, sick days and vacations are examples of worker cooperatives that can meet the needs of both child and home care providers alike. In addition to giving us real solutions for the workforces we are organizing today, worker cooperatives hold potential for opening up new work forces for labor organizing programs.

Worker cooperatives tend to be small community-based businesses, for example many taxicab dispatchers and their cabs in Los Angeles and San Francisco / Bay Area are cooperatives. These cooperatives lack a cohesive political lobbying presence. When taxi drivers seek a rate increase, small groups meet with city officials over long periods of time to win miniscule rate increases. As members of organized labor, they would be in a better position to speak truth to power.

Worker cooperatives are usually restricted to the private sector, but subcontracting of public sector jobs creates an opportunity for organizing worker cooperatives in the public sector. The conservative program of cutting taxes and shrinking government has led to a public sector workforce under attack. The rising tide of contracting-out of public sector jobs is shrinking the core workforce for traditional organizing of public sector unions. Yet, the large national and international corporations that contract with public agencies have proven difficult targets for traditional labor organizing.

When traditional organizing methods have failed against a subcontractor, unions could assist the workers in forming their unit into a worker cooperative that could bid for the local contract. Since they would not be supporting large management salaries, they could under-bid the large corporate subcontractor.

The labor movement could then use their lobbying strength to create legislation and budgetary policy favoring local worker cooperatives. Awarding a contract locally keeps the monies in the local community, within the local tax base. Much like the Living Wage campaigns, this strategy would help stem the tide of outsourcing of public sector jobs, while safeguarding of public monies and ensuring the greatest community benefit from the expenditure of public funds.

Yet there are obstacles to this marriage. The labor movement is in a life and death struggle in an economic war. Representing only 11% of the American workforce, the labor movement seeks to organize in larger and larger bites with fewer and less experienced staff (for those in the field, this sometimes seems uncomfortably close to the logic of the desperate gambler who places larger and more reckless bets to recoup devastating losses). Worker cooperatives tend to be small business endeavors, ideologically attractive but strategically unattractive.

To win the numbers game, labor must do a better job of agitating, educating, and mobilizing its members to become volunteer member organizers actively involved in small scale organizing campaigns in their local communities on an ongoing basis. As it stands, most locals lack an organizing program and lack organizing targets. Empowering locals to help organize worker cooperatives in their community would benefit all working people.

Therefore we appeal to the worker cooperative community to join with us in developing the labor-coop paradigm by helping us to find organizing targets in the worker cooperative model. As we all know, the labor movement is built on small incremental gains of brave committed people standing up for their ideals. Healthcare and other benefits, worker’s compensation, the 40 hour work week, 8 hour over time, vacations and sick days, pay increases, health and safety regulations, and the ever popular weekend add up to a lifestyle we now take for granted. Many smaller bites may prove a more easily digestible staple diet for union organizing without precluding the periodic feast.

Lisabeth L Ryder is the Western Regional field administrator for the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees in Oakland, California

Labour and Worker Co-ops in Canada

2006-12-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

Some links and resources from the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation, including a report from their 2006 "Labour and Worker Co-ops" Summit: www.canadianworker.coop

Also see Worker Buy-Out Boom Ahead

Worker-Owners and Unions: Why Can't We Just Get Along

2006-11-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

by Dan Bell; Dollars & Sense; October 06, 2006

You have probably heard the story of the scorpion that convinces a frog to carry it across a river. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog, which means both will drown. The frog does not understand; the scorpion explains, "I couldn't help myself. It's my nature."

In the abstract, worker-owned enterprises and labor unions would appear to have much in common. Both share the goal of improving pay and working conditions. Both aim to give workers a say in the workplace. And both belong on any progressive's short list of strategies for building a more just economic system.

But when unions and worker-owned businesses actually interact, they sometimes act more like the fabled arachnid.

Read the Complete Article

Unionized Worker-Coops in the United States

2006-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

List in progress (please send additions):

Collective Copies (MA)
Colors Restaurant (NY)
Community Printers (CA)
Cooperative Home Care Associates (NY)
Design Action Collective (CA)
French Broad Food Coop (NC)
Inkworks Press (CA)
The Lusty Lady (CA)
MANOS Janitorial Cooperative (CA)
Red Sun Press (MA)
Rene Pujol Restaurant (NY)
Salsedo Press (IL)
Union Cab (MA)

Why Union?

2006-11-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from Design Action Collective's personnel manual:

We are often be asked why Design Action is a union shop if it is worker-owned. Here are a few reasons:

1. Unions set standards: As working people in our trade, we benefit from the collective bargaining efforts of our union and the standards they set for the industry. Our union contract ensures that we are accountable to these standards even in our more petit bourgeois moments.

2. Unions offer benefits: As members of CWA, we can take advantage of union retirement plans, joint benefits packages, dispute arbitration services, and fill-in job opportunities at other CWA shops, amongst other things.

3. Union standards are important to our customers: Just like many people request Fair Trade certified coffee and sweat-free t-shirts, many of our clients request union labor. Granted, unionized design studios are so rare that few even bother to ask. But we’re out to change that.

4. Unions are essential to cooperatives: Even worker coops find themselves facing labor disputes—especially as they grow larger and implement representative forms of management. Examples of worker-coop sectors from around the world show that unions can play an important role in preserving power in the hands of workers—even those who ostensibly share ownership.

5. We want to have a voice in the labor movement: Unions are an essential force in any movement to challenge corporate capitalism. Trying to out-compete those with capital at their own game using worker-owned companies will unlikely be enough. Yet organized labor as a democratic movement is only as progressive as it’s membership. As working people, we earn our voice in this movement through our participation in the struggles of others.

Wikipedia on Unions and Worker Cooperatives

2006-11-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

Trade Unions
Unions are often unnecessary in worker cooperatives because the workers have direct control over the management and ownership of the business - they are negotiating with themselves. Some worker cooperatives still choose to become members of local unions to demonstrate their support for the labor movement and to working conditions that have resulted from years of struggle. While an unusual situation, there is no contradiction in doing so. Worker cooperatives that join unions often benefit from the trade that comes their way from the community of union members and those who support unions for political reasons. The labor contract negoitiated becomes the baseline of benefits due to the membership and guarantees to the community that the working conditions are not those of a "sweatshop". Union membership also guarantees that the worker cooperative will not operate on the basis of typical small business sacrifice, where the owner (s) sometimes work day and night to keep their business afloat and expect similar sacrifices of their workers. Union membership for worker cooperatives gives the enterpise a legitimate standard of operations.

Go to Wikipedia

Major agreement in Italy between the Cooperative Confederations and the Trade Union Confederations on the SCE Directive and other topics

2006-11-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

4/10/2006 News from CICOPA

On 28 September, the three Italian cooperative confederations (AGCI, Confcooperative and Legacoop) and the three trade union confederations (CGIL, CISL, UIL) signed a common opinion for the implementation of the European directive n. 72/2003, on the involvement of workers in the European cooperative society (which completes the European regulation on the statutes of this type of society) through a legislative decree, which is expected soon.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Labour, with the presence of Mr Barrafarano, head of the secretariat of Minister Damiano, and of Mr. Onelli, head of the legal department of the ministry.

Furthermore, at the same meeting, the three cooperative confederations and the three trade union confederations committed themselves to resume their negotiations on Law 142 of 2001 on the worker-member, and to enlarge their discussions also on the following topics: cooperative governance, the contribution of cooperatives to the economic development of the country, the supervision of the cooperative system, the correctness of the public procurement system to face social dumping, etc.

Cooperatives and trade unions from the North and the South join to promote decent work

2006-11-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

ILO (International Labor Organization) Bulletin

They range from small-scale to multi-million dollar businesses across the globe, employ some 100 million women and men and have more than 800 million individual members. Cooperatives play an important role in integrating unprotected workers in the informal economy into mainstream economic life. On this International Day of Cooperatives, cooperative enterprises worldwide make fair globalization a reality. Here are some examples of recent ILO activities aimed at creating decent jobs and reducing poverty around the globe.

GENEVA (ILO Online) – When Maate Sulait isn't shining shoes, he has his sights set on realizing the UN's Millenium Development Goal to fight poverty, gain the respect of local authorities and obtain better rights and entitlements.

Maate is one of a host of workers in so-called "cooperatives" who do everything from shining shoes to cutting hair and selling goods. And along the way, they are now benefiting from a collaborative international effort that reaches out to cooperative members by changing the mindsets of trade unions and cooperative leaders.

The initiative, known as SYNDICOOP, was developed by the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) and its Cooperative Branch in Geneva as a joint effort of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the ILO. Begun in 2002, the effort focused first on workers in the informal economy in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with Kenya joining more recently.

"We have been a partner of the ILO-SYNDICOOP project since its inception and our members have benefited from the project's revolving loan fund to expand the business with new products and increased their income", says Mr. Sulait, who is a member of the Uganda Shoe Shiners' Cooperative. "Our voice is now heard and respected by the local municipal authorities to get better treatment in terms of rights and entitlements."

An invisible economy
The informal economy is often referred to as the "invisible" or "underground" economy. Yet in East Africa, as elsewhere in the region, informal activities are far from being invisible. Informal workers sell newspapers, fruit, watches or whatever else they think will generate income. They offer to shine the shoes or cut the hair of office workers, store clerks and tourists.

Their informality consists not of invisibility but the lack of connection to the formal structures of society, those of both government and civil society. Says Hassan Raha of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, "The ILO-SYNDICOOP Project is a wake-up call to our respective governments to support the majority of the poor who are daily struggling in the informal economy to make ends meet".

SYNDICOOP brings together representations from associations of trade unions and cooperatives, governments and the leaders of small groups of informal economy workers. In Tanzania, the national steering committee includes the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives, Savings and Credit Cooperative Union, the government and individual informal economy groups.

An important first step has involved assisting cooperative and trade union leaders to think about strategies to adapt their operations to organize informal economy workers. In each country, ten cooperative, trade union and informal economy group leaders has been in trained in these issues. In addition, each national steering committee has selected a number of informal economy groups to work with directly. By May 2004, there were 12 such groups in Uganda, seven in Tanzania and five in Rwanda.

A key aspect of the project is to ensure that groups gain assistance in improving working conditions and generating income. To this end, each national committee has established a revolving loan fund for member groups. In Rwanda, the project has supported a group of women waste collectors and recyclers. These women have relied on this activity to generate income after their husbands were killed in the genocide.

"The project has strengthened the organization of the poor women who are working in the informal economy in Rwanda. Collecting the garbage and recycling it for environment-friendly use is the struggle of our members. The ILO-SYNDICOOP project contributes to the improvement of our working conditions through training and access to micro credit under the Revolving Loan Fund", explains Florida Mukarubuga from the AMIZERO Women's Association, Rwanda.

Her organisation, AMIZERO, has received advice on working conditions – which can be hazardous given the nature of their activity – and will use credit to purchase supplies and tools. The main recycling activity involves collecting household waste, either from public bins or scattered heaps. This waste, including potato and banana peels, are dried and made into briquettes for cooking. The briquettes, which are sold to households, are cheaper than charcoal and help to reduce the cutting of trees around the city.

Dealing with waste is hazardous, so the project is working on effective training and the use of protective gear to protect the working conditions of these women and the removal of their children from these activities.

Twinning cooperatives from the North and the South
Another example for concrete action is a cooperative development project in Orissa, India, financed by the Federation of MIGROS Cooperatives of Switzerland and technically supervised by the INDISCO Programme of the ILO's Cooperative Branch. The project follows the signing of a partnership agreement between the ILO and the ICA (International Cooperative Alliance) to promote decent work and reduce poverty through cooperatives in February 2004.

It is also a response to ILO Director-General Juan Somavia's call at the ICA General Assembly held in September 2003 in Oslo to promote twinning arrangements between cooperatives of the North and the South: "Would it be a dream to think that in the future every cooperative of developed countries would have a partnership with a developing world cooperative? That would create the most impressive global network of enterprise-to-enterprise cooperation."

The MIGROS-funded project will assist 3,000 tribal families in 30 villages in Orissa, India in creating decent jobs and strengthening their community organizations. In this twinning exercise, the ILO plays the role of a facilitator, giving full responsibility to the tribal communities to manage their development with technical advice from the ILO.

ILO and ICA have been working together since the 1920s to promote cooperatives, and collaborated in the adoption of ILO Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2002. The ILO-ICA partnership will focus on the implementation of Recommendation 193 at the national level.

The new partnership will also seek to address the UN Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, improving maternal health a nd reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, environmental sustainability and the development of global partnerships for development.

Another goal of the initiative is to have wider impact on the policy process by providing a direct channel between informal economy groups and poverty reduction strategies (PRSP process).

Under the terms of the partnership, ILO and ICA will jointly organize a funding campaign among major multi-bilateral donors and other development partners to finance the activities foreseen under their "Common Cooperative Agenda".

For more information, please contact the ILO's Cooperative Branch, coop@ilo.org; the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities, actrav@ilo.org, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), www.ica.coop or the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), www.icftu.org.

The Take

2006-11-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats, and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

www.thetake.org

Rustbelt Buyouts: Why Ohio Leads in Worker Ownership

2006-11-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

by John Logue
From Dollars and Sense

No one said it was going to be easy for the employees of Brainard Rivet to take ownership of their company. Certainly not Jeff Chine, the worker heading the buyout committee: "They arrested us, handcuffed us, took us to the station, booked us, and in 45 minutes we were back on the picket line. READ MORE

Case Study: Union Workers Buy Mill--Strike Deal with Environmentalists

2006-11-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

In October, 1997, Champion International Corp, of Stamford, CT, then an independent multinational paper maker, announced that its DairyPak Division with two sprawling paper mills in western North Carolina and finishing plants in five other states, was for sale. READ MORE

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On May 14, 1999, in the largest union-led buyout in the country since 1994, employees and the KPS Special Situations Fund together bought a paper mill, an extruding plant, and five converting plants from Champion International for $200 million.

The new company, Blue Ridge Paper Products, has 2200 new employee owners who work in the paper mill in Canton, North Carolina, in the extruding mill in Waynesville, NC, and in five Dairy Pak converting plants in Georgia, Iowa, Texas, New Jersey & Olmsted Falls, Ohio. READ MORE

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More on the investment firm that partnered with the union

Gung Ho Industrial Cooperatives

2006-11-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

from wikipedia

Gung-ho is a phrase borrowed from Chinese, frequently used in English as an adjective meaning enthusiastic. The original Mandarin Chinese phrase is Gōnghé (工合), a standard abbreviation for gōngyè hézuòshè (工業合作社), meaning industrial worker's cooperative. (It is true that gōng means work and hé means together, but gōnghé by itself is not a standard Chinese term and serves only as an abbreviation for gōngyè hézuòshè: an English-language analogy of a not-fully-comprehensible abbreviated phrase would be "IndCoop".)

The phrase entered the American vernacular when it was picked up by then-Major Evans F. Carlson, USMC. According to Carlson, it was used as a slogan by the WW2-era Communist Party of China's 8th Route Army, led by Zhu De.

The phrase was originally coined by Rewi Alley, a New Zealander who went to China in the 1920s and whose contribution to the country was later recognised when he became modern China's first honorary citizen. The industrial workers co-operatives that were formed as part of the Gung-ho movement stemmed from Helen Foster (Peg) Snow, wife of American journalist Edgar Snow. Peg Snow suggested to Rewi Alley that China needed widespread industry through the establishment of a movement (Alley, 1987).

Carlson traveled with the 8th and with Rewi Alley. Later he used gung ho during his (unconventional) command of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion. From there it spread throughout the Marine Corps (hence the association between the two) and into American society as a whole. It is now often used in the ironic sense of excessively enthusiastic, overzealous.

Alley, R. (1987) Rewi Alley - An Autobiography, New World Press.

Worker Buy-Out Boom Ahead?

2006-09-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

Media Release from the Canadian Labour Congress

Analysts have forecasted more plant closures in industries like forestry across the prairies in the years ahead. But there could also be many more worker-led plant rescues and buyouts if a new joint task force has its way.

The independent task force was commissioned this weekend in Saskatoon at a movement-to-movement dialogue that brought together about 20 regional leaders of the trade union and worker co-op movements. They traveled from across the three Prairie provinces to discuss the spate of recent plant closures – including the former Weyerhaeuser plant in Prince Albert and Worldwide Pork in Moose Jaw – as well as other industries at-risk in the new globalized economic climate. Delegates to the Saskatoon Summit vowed to build their capacity to respond effectively and rapidly in future job-threatened situations.

Over two days of intensive discussions, leaders from the Prairie Region of the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation exchanged ideas for advancing the ability of workers and communities to defend their jobs and local economies and outlined some next steps.

Legendary leader of the Steelworkers’ plant rescues across North America, Lynn Williams, declared the meeting “historic.” When the bottom fell out of the North American steel market and 250,000 jobs were lost, Williams emerged as one of the pioneers of union-led buyouts – like the rescue of Algoma Steel, a Sault St. Marie success story that is now buying other steel companies. Williams is now 82, but traveled from Toronto to be the weekend’s opening speaker.

Facilitating the regional dialogue was Dan Bell of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center. In the heart of the so-called ‘rustbelt,’ where de-industrialization took a devastating toll, the Kent University-based OEOC has helped put employee ownership plans in place in 77 companies, maintaining about 14,400 jobs in Ohio since 1987.

Participants also struck a steering committee to guide further discussions on strategic joint planning. Priorities for that committee, the Prairie Labour-Worker Co-operative Council, will include:

q† developing an outreach and education campaign to raise awareness of the co-operative worker ownership model with union members, development partners and the public;

q† assembling a string of technical assistance ‘SWAT teams’ that can respond rapidly and effectively to shut-down threats, and;

q††rolling out a financing committee to assess and develop specialty financing tools for conversions to worker ownership.

The steering committee was also mandated to pursue proactive applications of the worker co-op model in non-crisis situations. These include orderly retirement succession plans to the large group of owners now approaching retirement age and the use of the worker co-op model as a tool for new enterprise development and job creation, particularly in distressed and vulnerable communities.

The Saskatoon Summit was organized by Co-operative Ventures, a worker co-operative specializing in technical assistance delivery to other worker-owned firms in the Prairie region. It was primarily funded with the assistance of another worker co-op, The Big Carrot – a very successful organic grocery store in Toronto which created a fund called Carrot Cache to support other workers’ efforts to take control of their economic lives.

For more information, contact:

April Bourgeois, Co-operative Ventures and Prairies Region Director, Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (306) 244-2210, or Hazel Corcoran, Executive Director, Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation, (403) 287-2069
David Winter, Prairie Region Director, Canadian Labour Congress (Regina) (306) 525-6137 or cell 536-7703