This October, myself – Jante’ (development and comms), and our loan steward,Tan, attended the Union/Co-op Symposium, hosted by Co-op Cincy, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The symposium brought together cooperatives, co-op developers and enthusiasts, and union members and organizers to discuss and strategize around practices, structures and opportunities to both strengthen our movement for worker-ownership and labor solidarity, and to weather this current political reality and its likely outcomes. In the two days of small group discussions and plenaries, I had the chance to better grasp the current benefits and strategic potential of stronger relationships between unions and co-ops, and to consider opportunities within non-profit structures to expand the reach and community benefit of worker co-ops through their tendency towards leadership development and political education of a grassroots membership base.
Immediate value for co-ops joining unions includes access to health and retirement benefits, as well as further solidifying values-driven policies through a union contract – protecting workers and interrogating power dynamics within the workplace. Furthermore, partnerships between co-ops and unions grow the collective bargaining power of workers and the power base within specific markets for greater industry impact and transformation. At L.A. Co-op Lab, where we work closely with worker centers and unorganized workers in highly exploited industries, we recognize the potential of worker co-ops to raise the standard of work for its worker-owners and contribute to raising the overall standard of work within an industry. Even more so, as co-ops join unions, greater progress and alignment around adoption of cooperative and just transition principles can be affirmed and wider spread, moving us closer to a vision of the means of production truly and freely owned by workers.
When we talk about the benefits of worker cooperatives, we often highlight growing economic democracy as a key outcome. It’s true that co-ops build the capacity of workers to model democratic decision-making and governance that can be scaled up within a community, for example, to do community budgeting. Additionally, social cooperatives multiply the ability of community members to identify, prioritize, and respond to their needs. We work with a number of grassroots, base-building organizations who are incubating emerging worker co-ops. Beyond the potential for worker-owned enterprises, these organizations are building and shaping the leadership, political ideology, and overall worldview of their membership, laying a strong foundation for these members to contribute to and lead community care work with a clear political strategy.
As we work towards a solidarity economy in LA, we continue to look for and experiment towards models that grow the skills of our communities to govern and care for themselves. Attending the Union/Co-op Symposium generated many ideas and questions around how we cooperate with each other in Los Angeles and move towards an economy that creates space for us to steward, share, and restore our resources to ensure there is enough for everyone for generations to come. To build this future together, we hope you will join us, become thought partners with us, and build experiments of your own as we both demand and practice good management of the places we call home.
