As the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2024, July marks seventeen years since the founding of its oldest member council – the Union Co-ops Council. Established to bridge worker cooperatives and organized labor, the Council has become a crucial player in both movements, fueled by the resurgence of unions and worker co-ops throughout the beginning of the 21st century. Just as the USFWC concludes its first twenty years with renewed energy, ambition, and capacity, the Union Co-op Council also reflects on its successes and sets a clear path forward to advance worker ownership and power.

Formation

The Union Co-ops Council was conceived at the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD) in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2007, when a group of organizers came together to address the divide between unions and worker cooperatives. Early co-directors Mary Hoyer and Lis Ryder, experienced in both unions and worker cooperatives, noticed a lack of networking between these movements.

Read the full blog article at: https://geo.coop/articles/union-co-ops-council-seventeen-years-forging-worker-alliances 

The local union is looking to join the New York based Drivers’ Cooperative after the ride-share platforms threatened to leave the city over a minimum wage hike

Taxi drivers in Minneapolis could form a co-op after ride-hailed platforms Uber and Lyft threatened to leave the city over a new minimum wage.

A new local ordinance in the Minnesota city has imposed a minimum wage of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute for drivers. Uber and Lyft say this is not sustainable and have vowed to pull out of the city on 1 May.

“We support a minimum earning standard for drivers, but it should be done in an honest way that keeps the service affordable for riders,” said a Lyft spokesperson. Continue reading →

“This is the story of how ordinary people made extraordinary things a lifestyle,” says a newly released promotional video launched by the ICA.

In three minutes, the video explains how the ICA plays a key role in connecting cooperatives around the world, advocating for the interests and successes of cooperatives worldwide and collaborating with global and regional institutions to promote the model.

The video has been produced by Bruna, a worker cooperative from Barcelona, Spain, specialising in filmmaking.

Watch it here:-

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies are holding a free online seminar

Why not join them in a virtual panel discussion on the role of the labor movement in solidarity economy hosted by the Solidarity Economy Club at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies on Friday, May 10, at 4.00pm ET (9.00pm BST).

Register at:-
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vgAZA6P4T2ms5lgR0Sq83A#/registration

Colleagues at Princeton University in the States (The Workers’ Algorithm Observatory) have run a really interesting project (FairFare) to study Uber’s profit take from its drivers.

Over 200 drivers have participated in a tech driven study of the margin Uber takes (steals?) from its drivers and the results (unsurprisingly) show they’re profit gouging. Who knew?

Read their blog post here

https://medium.com/the-workers-algorithm-observatory/fairfare-is-1-and-growing-6e5ae8781477

We are pleased to see the CWU and the Govt. have talked again about the possibility of a mutual to take over running the Post Office. This would be a great step forward, but it is important not to fall into the same hole as the “Big Society” so called mutuals Cameron foisted on the nation.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/07/constructive-talks-held-over-transfer-of-post-office-ownership-to-operators 

We will be reaching out to the CWU to offer our support of course.

The law was changed to allow this in 2011, but little has happened since. These talks are a great step forward, especially as Co-operatives UK are also involved.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/sep/18/post-office-mutualisation-proposals

We’ve just set up a WhatsApp Community. This will enable our members and supporters to not just get up to date news, but also chat to each other on specific subjects or in specialist groups

Why not join us using the QR Code below?

Why not sign up for website updates as well and get an email every time a new Post or Page is added. Just add your email to the box in the RH Column

Last year, at the June 2023 meeting of the United States Federation of Worker Coops’ (USFWC’s) Union Co-ops Council, Jonny Sopotiuk presented on the Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI), an exciting project out of Vancouver, BC which was founded in 2021.

In this video, Jonny talks about the history of our US partner organisation, the UCI, its co-ops and prospects, their strategies, and how the union co-op model is proving successful. 🌲

Lots more info is available from the US Federation of Worker Co-ops on their website 🌲
Register for their upcoming events https://www.usworker.coop/calendar/
Sign up for their monthly newsletter https://www.usworker.coop/subscribe/

Employment & Social Inclusion Entrepreneurship Sustainable Growth

08 Nov 2023 Event EaSI / ESF+ programme

THE EVENT

CECOP is excited to invite you to attend its conference “Workers Buyouts – what is the cooperative key to success?”, as the flagship event of its worker and social cooperatives skills campaign – #coopskills2023.

During the event, we will look at the support system provided by the cooperative movement, the know-how, technical, and human expertise it encompasses to make workers buyouts successful and sustainable in the long term.

When: from 14:30 to 17:00 (CET) | 29 November 2023
Where: L42 venue | Brussels (Belgium) | Full programme coming soon

The event will take place in person in the L42 venue , situated at Rue de la Loi 42, Brussels and it will be streamed on Zoom.

Interpretation will be provided in English, Spanish, French, and Italian.  

Register here

 

This campaign has been funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

We are pleased to announce that one of our members, Martin Strube of Co-operative Solutions is offering to carry out a Democracy Audit for union-coops:uk corporate members free of charge (they would charge only for out of pocket expenses, travel etc.)

The Democracy Audit is a method of assessing the quality of an organisation’s democracy. It is an independent audit by Co-operative Solutions as contracted outside observers intended to “measure” the state of an organisation’s internal democracy.  

Many democratic organisations such as voluntary bodies, trade unions, or co-operative societies may be democratic in the sense that this was always the intention and is still the assumed norm.  However, a scratch at the surface may illustrate that all is not quite as it should be from a democratic perspective.  Organisations often lapse into customs and practice which may save time or appear simpler but in fact slowly diverge from the democratic intent of founders or independent reviewers.  

Assessing democracy – performing a “democracy audit” – is not routinely practised in the UK.  Occasionally organisations may revisit their principles and their constitutions in order to update them in line with current thinking or modern practices, but rarely do they set out to qualitatively assess the extent to which they may or may not be functioning in an objectively observed democratic way.  

If you’re interested in this generous offer, then contact Martin direct: martin(at)solutions.coop