Questions for cooperatives, employee-owned and unioned owned companies

The hallmarks of cooperative ownership are the employees controlling the means of production and that control being democratic.  How to do that has always been the challenge in expanding cooperation and making it not seem scary to the general public.  Better cash and prizes are the answer - not only do workers vote for the means of production, but they vote for the market basket of consumption.  Most workers make these choices implicitly by working for money.

Expanding cooperation allows another way.  Workers would first decide whether they want the firm to provide the good for free, at cost, provide the means for the employee to make the good itself or provide money to let the employee-owners buy the good independently.  Let me illustrate.

In the old corporate socialist IBM model, Breakfast and Lunch could be purchased at the employee cafeteria. Employee-owners could make this free.  Either way, members can decide whether to grow its own food and process it or buy it on the open market - or from cooperative members.  Or it can not provide this service and workers could eat at home, either after growing the food or buying it at a cooperative store or an outside supermarket. Some employees may face this question differently.  Younger employees might have a dormitory apartment and cafeteria in the dormitory area, which might even include dinner.

Housing for younger employees could be in dormitory apartments, outside apartments or eventually in single family homes - either purchased through a cooperative credit union (or through an account at work) - and possibly with the cooperative building the homes.  Homes could either be standard or food producing in what we call Inter-Independence. This would have been a nice option to have in the age of SARS2. 

A key decision employee-owners make is how to attract and grow new members.  I propose getting them after sophomore year in college and keeping them as long as the fit is good . It is not peonage if they have an ownership stake. This plan also discusses how doctors and nurses are trained – assuming the cooperative wants to do medical care in-house.

Using overseas labor, a decision some cooperatives will inherit, is important - especially how to compensate the overseas labor as members in a way to not cost American jobs. There are even rules for dealing with former communist cooperatives that need to be capitalized.  Excuse the pun We sent a form of these to the Washington firm advising the new Russian Federation in 1992. Sadly, they added making shares fully marketable rather than being held until retirement - and the Putin Oligarchy was born.

Large firms and cooperative networks can either use public roads or build an electric car/electricity distribution and power generation system. 

A big reason to go cooperative is to rationalize pay, so workers at age forty won't be fired for two recent grads.  If firms do it right, workers will get more incentive to innovate than they have in the average hierarchical capitalist firm.  See how here.

There are many ways to get to cooperativism.  One is to convert ESOPs or union-owned firms to a more advanced management structure - part of which is to check out the choices in this essay and exploring whether these would be desired by cooperative members.  If so, governance is important, which is highlighted here

Aerospace firms can shift to cooperativism or start that way - and such firms should be increased for space exploration and away from munitions.  Some of these cooperatives will be in orbit or on Mars, so money is not an option. They can also provide an example of how cooperatives can best be used. 

The way to get most of the economy into cooperativism is Social Security reform, which we published in Labor and Corporate Governance in January 2003. Throwing money into Wall Street is not the answer to our demographic problems, as we illustrate. 

Our ownership options dovetail with the tax reform options advanced for the past 21 years by the Center for Fiscal Equity. Once this sector is ready for prime time, there are many avenues for expansion beyond the current boutique model. Here is how to do so in the age of SARS.

To see how some of these proposals were made to Chrysler for the 2009 bailout, Had the fix not been in, great progress could have been made.

Cooperativism can also be used to replace governmental functions, so instead of paying taxes for education and mental health care services, they can be provided - either directly or through a secular or religious partner. 

Taken together, these proposals that you can employ can maximize freedom and well being and minimize government.  Who doesn't want that?

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