I’m interested in leftist opinions of employee-owned companies. If that’s still too broad, could you give some examples of employees buying their employer out? Or are there other ways, like with a union?
Also, what’s up with King Arthur’s and Bob’s Red Mill?
I’ve lived in and worked at a number of co-ops. I think they’re far better for the employee than traditional businesses when implemented in a democratic way. Having control over the workplace and direction of the business is incredibly valuable. It’s also important that the co-op members talk to and know eachother. Having lots of meetings and community building is very typical in this type of business.
Also the type of co-op I’m talking about also returns excess profits to the workers (often with a portion taken out to be put back into the business/saved for a rainy day). In this way they are way better than unions, which no matter how powerful do not fully redistribute profits.
I also think worker co-ops are functionally better than worker communes. Co-ops give much more economic freedom to the workers, and side step many of the pitfalls of live/work communes.
Feel free to ask me more about my experiences if you’re curious :)
It depends on the form of employee ownership as to whether it works out for the employees.
In trucking, the industry uses the owner-operator model as a way to push costs onto employees and skirt labor laws. On paper, the truckers are their own bosses. In reality, they are effectively employees of logistics companies where the logistics companies can pay their employees less than minimum wage and push maintenance costs onto their employees.
In this case, ownership is used as a tool of oppression.