Reflections from the Worker Cooperative National Conference

The human response to unfairness evolved in order to support long-term cooperation, according to a research team from Georgia State University and Emory University.

Fairness is a social ideal that cannot be measured, so to understand the evolution of fairness in humans, Dr. Sarah Brosnan of Georgia State's departments of Psychology and Philosophy, the Neuroscience Institute and the Language Research Center, has spent the last decade studying behavioral responses to equal versus unequal reward division in other primates.

In their paper, published in the journal Science, she and colleague Dr. Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Psychology Department at Emory University, reviewed literature from their own research regarding responses to inequity in primates, as well as studies from other researchers. Although fairness is central to humans, it was unknown how this arose. Brosnan and de Waal hypothesize that it evolved, and therefore elements of it can be seen in other species.

Read the full article at Phys.org

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Unions in Greece have organised a huge portion of the workforce, and this is the primary source of their strength. In the UK, unions struggle particularly to unionise young private sector workers, making the gig economy—which depends on this demographic—a corporate dream – but success on this magnitude will only yielded with similar numbers.

Perhaps, however, the solution for workers lies not within but away from these corporate giants. Across Europe, CoopCycle, a federation of worker-owned courier platforms, have set up courier co-ops in 63 cities. The member co-ops use and develop shared software, allowing new cooperatives to get off the ground without needing to pay for expensive app development.

One recent addition to the federation that exemplifies the benefits of worker ownership is Wings, a courier company operating in North London. Unlike Deliveroo, Wings pays all its riders London Living Wage and grants the right to sick pay and other benefits. All its deliveries use zero-emission transport like bikes, and most critically, workers have a voice and stake in the business, governing the enterprise democratically on a one-member-one-vote decision-making basis and receiving a share of any profits.

Read the rest at Tribune

From September 25th-27th, more than 230 practitioners, researchers, organizers, and experts came together in Oakland and Vallejo to learn from each other about how to start more – and improve existing – PB processes as part of the 3rd International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in North America (#PBConf).

We believe that we can get to 500 PB processes in North America in the next 5 years.

Here are 4 things the we'll need to make it happen:

Read the full article at the Participatory Budgeting Project blog

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On a recent fall morning, despite the chill in the air, workers at Taharka Brothers Ice Cream were packing a freezer truck and a van with pints of honey graham, peanut butter cup and pistachio. In the office, business metrics on retail performance, catering and home delivery moved across a screen on the wall. “It’s a really busy day,” said Detric McCoy. “Even right now, I don’t think I could run it by myself.”

He doesn’t have to.

In December 2020, Taharka officially became a worker-owned cooperative, and McCoy shares responsibilities that would typically fall on one person’s shoulders with four other worker-owners.

Read the rest at The Washington Post