What If Labor Owned Its Workplaces?
Worker-owned firms have less wage inequality, greater job security, higher job satisfaction, stronger community ties, and greater resilience during economic downturns. The model needs to spread.
Workers prepare to lift a new pedestrian bridge into place on August 26, 2023, in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore / Getty Images)
Jacobin’s David Moscrop recently talked with Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior economist and public finance policy analyst Alex Hemingway about his new cowritten report, Expanding Democratic Employee Ownership in Canada: Policy Options and why now might be the time for labor to finance ownership of the means of production.
Models of Worker Ownership
David Moscrop
What are we talking about when we talk about a democratically owned business?
Alex Hemingway
At its most basic, we’re talking about firms that are owned and controlled by the people who work there, rather than by a narrower set of capital owners. That can take different forms and structures. The traditional form is a worker cooperative, which is a form of collective ownership. There can be a lot of variation in how those are run.
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