| Worker Cooperative |
Article Index for Worker |
Website Links For Worker |
Information AboutWorker Cooperative |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT WORKER COOPERATIVE | |
| worker cooperatives | |
| labor | |
| industrial workers of the world | |
|
HISTORY OF WORKER COOPERATIVES Since there is no coherent legislation across the United States, much less Federal laws, most worker cooperatives make use of traditional consumer cooperative law and try to fine-tune it for their purposes. In some cases the members (workers) of the cooperative in fact "own" the enterprise by buying a share that represents a fraction of the market value of the cooperative. But this is seldom the case in most modern day worker cooperatives. This system of "buying-in" has proven unworkable because as the value of the cooperative increases, new members cannot afford to buy a share and are reduced to purchasing over a long-term, which means going into debt to the cooperative, maybe for years. Worker cooperatives organized this way mostly became traditional businesses with the original coop members hiring employees. When the current cooperative movement resurfaced in the 1960s it developed mostly on a new system of "collective ownership" where par value shares were issued as symbolic of egalitarian voting rights. Once brought in as a member, after a period of time on probation usually so the new candidate can be evaluated, he or she was given power to manage the coop, without "ownership" in the traditional sense. In the UK this system is known as Common Ownership . Some of these early cooperatives still exist and most new worker cooperatives follow their lead and develop a relationship to capital that is more radical than the previous system of equity share ownership. The 'new wave' of worker cooperatives that took off in Britain in the mid-70s created the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) as their federation. The sector peaked at around 2,000 enterprises, and in 2001 ICOM merged with the Co-operative Union (which was the federal body for consumer cooperatives) to create Co-operatives UK, thus reunifying the cooperative sector. 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. WORKER CO-OPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES The United States Federation Of Worker Cooperatives is the only organization in the U.S. representing worker cooperative interests nationally. There are local networks and federations throughout the U.S. in the San Francisco Bay area, the Twin Cities, Portland, Oregon , and Boston, Massachusetts , and Asheville, North Carolina . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|