Unions and Cooperatives: Allies in the Struggle to Build Democratic Workplaces
by Lisabeth L. Ryder
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 that
allows 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
eleven percent 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
fourty-hour work week, eight-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 Ryder is the Western regional
field administrator for the American Federation of State County & Municipal
Employees in Oakland, California. Email her at lryder@afscme.org.
Include the citation below and GEO Newsletter grants
permission to copy, use, and distribute this article.
Permission not for commercial or for-profit use.
©2007 GEO, P O Box 115, Riverdale MD 20738
http://www.geo.coop
|