A worker-owned co-op is a business owned and controlled by its workers. Worker cooperatives are values-driven businesses that put worker and community benefit at the core of their purpose. In contrast to traditional companies, worker members at worker co-ops participate in the profits, oversight, and often management of the enterprise using democratic practices.
Just some of the reasons that Co-op Cincy, a co-op developer, has identified for bringing unions and cooperatives together:
- Helps co-ops scale with their values intact
- Collective bargaining leads to clear expectations, clear human resource policies
- Balance out the democratic work environment
- Access to improved and affordable benefits
- Direct connection to a movement of workers in the same industry pushing for working conditions industry-wide.
- Connects the co-op to a platform for acting in solidarity with other workers.
- Policy advocacy opportunities
Find resources below to learn more about union, worker-owned cooperatives as a strategy for building worker power. Pair these resources with this six-part series on building community power, published by Nonprofit Quarterly with NEC in 2024.
By Rebecca Lurie and Bernadette King Fitzsimons
The Basics
- FAQs and Takeaways from Union Co-ops Council Office Hours – Union Co-ops Council
- Checklist for planning to start a union, worker-owned co-op – Co-op Cincy
- If the Workers Take a Notion: ‘Works for All’ Showcases Union Coops – Labor Notes
- Unions and Worker Co-ops: Why Economic Justice Requires Collaboration – Nonprofit Quarterly
- Union Co-op History – union, worker-owned printer Worx
- Why Unions & Worker Co-ops Should Ally – Democracy@Work
- Why Worker Co-ops Should Matter to Labor Unions – U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Organizations & Movement Builders
United States
- 1Worker1Vote – NEC member organization dedicated to building a national network of unionized worker-owned cooperative businesses to overcome opportunity, mobility, and income inequality. Founders and others authored Humanity @ Work & Life, 2023.
- Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP), launched in 2019, is a growing Massachusetts network bringing together worker co-ops and developers, grassroots organizations and labor unions, funders and investors to resource and coordinate the advancement of a worker ownership movement across the state. COWOP works with its sister network MASEN (Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Network) and is supported by NEC member Center for Economic Democracy.
- Co-op Cincy – Founded in 2011, NEC member Co-op Cincy is the first and most mature union co-op incubator in the US and now nurtures a resilient, interconnected network of several union and not-yet-union co-ops in greater Cincinnati with the goal of an economy that works for all.
- Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City, an NEC member, with unionized worker-co-op Cooperative Home Care Associates and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East recently (2024) began piloting a program to grow CHCA’s business and spread the values of cooperative economics. CEANYC and 1199 found that 2,734 of the union’s members live in the largest housing cooperative in the US, Co-op City in the Bronx and will help Co-op residents access the quality and values-aligned homecare many of them need.
- Co-op Rhody – Co-op Rhody is a worker cooperative business incubator serving Rhode Island. With a special focus on the union co-op model, it uses community-led organizing to build businesses that keep money and power in the people’s hands. Co-op Rhody grew out of the grassroots campaign to legalize adult-use cannabis in Rhode Island, which resulted in the FIRST EVER cannabis retail licenses being reserved exclusively for worker-owned cooperatives.
Canada
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Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI) – Founded in 2021, the UCI supports the creation, incubation, and operation of unionized cooperatives that provide family sustaining and flexible jobs that are good for people and the planet, that provide business opportunities for underserved communities, and are accountable to the communities we serve. Unions in British Columbia who are part of this venture include the Arts and Cultural Workers Union, Canadian Animation Guild, IATSE Local 891, LiUNA Local 1611, MoveUP and United Steelworkers District 3.
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- What is the Union Cooperative Initiative? – presentation to USFWC Union Co-op Council
- Arts & Cultural Workers Union, IATSE Local B-778 Formation – ACWU presentation
Tools & Resources
- A Union Toolkit for Cooperative Solutions – strategies used by labor unions with case studies supporting the creation of worker cooperatives and other worker-owned businesses, 2021
- Toolkit co-author Rebecca Lurie presentation to USFWC Union Co-op Council, 2022
- Anti-Racist Facilitator’s Guide To Co-op Development – published by a multi-racial collaborative of co-op developers, educators, and labor organizers, 2023
- Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model – foundational publication establishing union co-op model in US, 2012
- USW Resolution: Workers’ Capital, Industrial Democracy and Worker Ownership – union resolution, 2011
- Why Labor Unions Should Care About Worker Co-ops – USFWC Union Co-op Council presentation, 2021
Articles
About Union, Worker-Owned Co-ops
- The Union Co-ops Council: Seventeen Years of Forging Worker Alliances, 2024
- Transforming the Gig Economy: How Unionized Cooperatives Can Create Wealth for All Workers, 2023
- What Ohio’s Co-op Evangelists Learned From Spain’s Thriving Union Co-op Network, 2023
- Innovator Profile: CLEAN Car Wash Worker Center, 2023
- How worker cooperatives shift power to workers, 2022
- Taking the Shop: An Interview with the Slow Bloom Coffee Cooperative, 2022
- How Lobstermen Formed a Union Co-op to Claw Back Fair Prices, 2022
- Chocolatier makes a sweet treat out of solidarity, 2022
- When These Workers Unionized, Their Cafe Was Put Up for Sale—So They Bought It, 2021
- What’s a union co-operative?, 2021
- Explosion of Interest in Worker Cooperatives Drives Economic Changes, 2019
- Nurses Join Forces With Labor Union to Launch Healthcare Platform Cooperative, 2017
- Unions and Worker Co-ops, Old Allies, Are Joining Forces Again, 2017
- Solidarity, PA – Dissent Magazine, 2015
- How America’s Largest Worker Owned Co-Op Lifts People Out of Poverty, 2014
- What If Uber Were a Unionized, Worker-Owned Co-Op? These Denver Cabbies Are Making It Happen, 2014
- Black Co-ops Were A Method of Economic Survival, 2014
- Can Co-ops Save Unions?, 2013
- Anti-Capitalist Meet-up: A Shot Gun Marriage Between Worker-Owned Cooperatives and Trade Unions, 2012
- The Role of Unions in Worker Co-op Development, 2011
In Academic Publications
- Breaking New Ground: Social Movement Theory and the Cincinnati Union Co‑ops, 2022
- Re-Imagining Localism and Food Justice: Co-Op Cincy and the Union Cooperative Movement, 2021
- Shifting power, Meeting the Moment: Worker Ownership As A Strategic Tool For The Labor Movement, 2021
- Building a Cooperative Solidarity Commonwealth, 2020
- Union Co-ops and the Revival of Labor Law, 2018
- Stronger together? Building new worker co-ops with union support, 2017
- Worker-Owned And Unionized Worker-Owned Cooperatives: Two Tools To Address Income Inequality, 2016
News
- Workers at Common Ground coffee shop in Hampden unionize, 12/23/24
- Union Efforts Seek a Voice in PT Food Co-op Conflicts, 10/7/24
- GreenStar workers vote to unionize co-op’s main store, Dewitt Mall location intends to follow suit, 8/28/24
- Worker Coops Bring Undocumented Workers into the Labor Movement, 8/27/24
- Department of Labor announces Division of Employee Ownership and names Chief from the worker ownership movement, 6/24/24
- Sem Co-op Workers Unionize, 5/22/24
- MT Farmers Union Floats Forming Co-op to Keep Pyramid Lumber Open, 4/11/24
- If the Workers Take a Notion: ‘Works for All’ Showcases Union Co-ops, 3/15/24
- Workers at REI Coop march on Seattle HQ with contract demands, 3/13/24
- Lexington Good Foods Co-op employees approve first contract with store since joining union, 10/26/23
- Seward Community Co-op, union reach tentative agreement, 9/28/23
- Department of Labor launches initiative to promote worker-owned businesses, increase workplace democracy, improve bottom line for many Americans, 6/10/23
- White Electric reopens as Rhode Island’s only cooperatively run coffee shop, 5/13/21
- Recurring problems for employees at the Good Foods Co-op is why we want to unionize, 3/8/23