A New Era of Worker Ownership?

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:


A New Era of Worker Ownership?
All over the country, people—like the workers of Chicago’s New Era Windows—are building worker-owned cooperatives that root jobs in the communities that need them.

by Gar Alperovitz
posted Jul 11, 2012


The workers of the just-formed New Era Windows cooperative in Chicago—the same workers who sat in and forced Serious Energy to back down on a hasty shutdown of their Goose Island plant a few months ago, and famously occupied the same factory for six days in December 2008—are doing more than putting together a bold plan for worker ownership. They are likely to move the entire subject into national attention, thereby spurring others to follow on. Though they have a powerful start, if the past is any guide they will need all the help they can get—financial as well as political.

I was one of the architects of an attempt to establish a worker-owned steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio in the late 1970s—a plan that began with powerful intentions, the financial support of the Carter administration, and the backing of religious and political leaders in the state of Ohio and nationally. The plan was on track, including a promised $100 million in loan guarantees from the Carter Administration—until, somehow, those opposed to the plan sidetracked the effort. The promised money conveniently disappeared just after the 1978 elections had passed.

The Chicago workers have a much, much greater chance of success. They have the skills they need to run a manufacturing business. They have a good market (an energy-efficient window is a good friend in a Chicago winter, after all), and heavy, fragile, made-to-order windows are much less vulnerable to global competition than other products. And, thanks to their inspiring struggle to keep their jobs, they can count on a significant amount of public support.

They also have the backing of the United Electrical workers (UE), an independent and fiercely democratic union; and the support of the Working World, a nonprofit that has helped make hundreds of loans to Argentina’s thriving network of “recuperated” worker-owned businesses. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/a-new-era-for-worker-ownership

[lastlib]

1. probably won't happen if the 1% have any say about it.....

[freshwest]

2. Remaking the workplace by stealth.

[Mopar151]

3. My Dad was in UE

The highest paid executive of UE cannot be paid more than the highest paid member.