A Union Tool kit for Cooperative Solutions

Feb 27

By Rebecca Lurie and Bernadette King Fitzsimons

Abstract:

Labor unions and worker-owned businesses share the objectives of generating better jobs and giving workers control

over their workplaces. The scaling of worker ownership paired with unionization offers pathways to expanded worker

power and wealth-building for working people. The purpose of this paper is to show strategies used by labor unions to

support the creation of worker cooperatives and other worker-owned businesses. It gives a brief overview of the potential

for unionization and worker ownership to strengthen workers’ rights, and a list of seven union resources to use toward the

creation of worker-owned businesses. The paper includes seven case studies of interaction and collaboration between

labor unions and worker-owned entities, in which unions get out their tools to apply their power and capacity toward

worker ownership for expanding avenues for worker power.

Kevin Gallagher