“Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model,”
It may not be the revolutions dawn, but its certainly a glint in the darkness. On Monday, this countrys largest industrial labor union teamed up with the worlds largest worker-cooperative to present a plan that would put people to work in labor-driven enterprises that build worker power and communities, too.
Titled Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model, the organizational proposal released at a press conference on March 26 in Pittsburgh, draws on the fifty-five year experience of the Basque-based Mondragon worker cooperatives. To quote the document:
In contrast to a Machiavellian economic system in which the ends justify any means, the union co-op model embraces the idea that both the ends and means are equally important, meaning that treating workers well and with dignity and sustaining communities are just as important as business growth and profitability.
It might not sound like big news to members of their local food coop but its revolutionary stuff in the context of industrial production. The United Steelworkers represents some 1.2 million members; the average steel plant requires millions of dollars of investment, and theres history here when it comes to worker ownershipsome of it painful.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/27-2