The Union Co-op Model

Union co-ops are businesses that are worker-owned and hold union contracts. By combining the benefits of worker ownership, including democratic governance and financial ownership, with the strong labor protections and institutional resources provided by union membership, union co-ops are uniquely equipped to successfully launch and sustainably support high-paying and genuinely empowering cannabis jobs.

Co-op Rhody partners closely with UFCW Local 328, which has identified union co-ops as an innovative and high-potential tool for building worker power, investing in sustainable communities, and pursuing racial justice via market participation in the cannabis industry. 

In the cannabis industry specifically, union co-ops offer communities that have been harmed by the War on Drugs not only the opportunity to participate in the cannabis market– which has constituted the definition of success for many State-implemented “social equity” policies– but to actually build equity, skills, and community-rooted wealth in this new and rapidly-growing industry. Union co-ops:

  • Build wealth for workers and their communities by providing a path to worker ownership and democratic control of the co-op.
  • Receive institutional support through incubation from unions and other partners in the labor solidarity space, increasing their chances of getting off the ground and laying strong foundations. 
  • Advocate for worker-owners as workers, allowing them to negotiate an enforceable collective bargaining agreement to protect worker rights, including the rights of workers who have not yet become worker-owners.
  • Create a more harmonious workplace through day-to-day dispute resolution through due process for both workers and management provided by a union contract and additional union resources and capacity.
  • Offer access to improved benefits, including access to health and welfare, retirement funds, and apprenticeship programs.
  • Foster a democratic work environment that empowers workers to govern the important decisions that will impact their own lives and ensures workers keep the wealth generated within their own communities.
  • Build a movement for equity and justice via solidarity and collaboration with other unionized workers and co-ops to fight for family-sustaining jobs and strong communities.
  • Create a professional, highly motivated and stable workforce that will command a competitive advantage over other cannabis businesses who try to get by paying workers as little as possible in the face of the current labor shortage.

Mondragon

The Co-op Rhody vision is informed by Mondragon, a network of worker cooperatives in the Basque country of Spain employing over 80,000 worker-owners. Like many in the cooperative movement, we’re inspired by the incredible success they have acheived over their nearly 75-year history.

To give all these workers a voice, Mondragon workers participate in “Consejos Sociales,” or social councils, to represent represent their interests as laborers to the broader corporation.

The union co-op model: Mondragon for the USA

In 2009, the Mondragon network worked together with American cooperators (including folks at the United Steelworkers and UFCW Local 75) to figure out how to strengthen worker-ownership in the United States. The result of this collaboration?

The invention of the union co-op model—in theory and in practice.

Union cooperatives combine the benefits of worker ownership– including financial profit-sharing and democratic governance– with the benefits of union membership– like access to benefits and workplace protections. In the union co-op model, unions step in not to negotiate against a hostile management party, but facilitate transparent and democratic collective bargaining among workers who are balancing both labor and management interests.

The model started to prove itself in just a few years, as some who helped develop the theory worked with community members to put it into practice.

  • They launched Our Harvest, the first union co-op in the U.S…
  • And they founded Co-op Cincy, a union cooperative incubator that has gone on to support hundreds of worker-owners.

Now, it’s Rhode Island’s time to lead the way.

In collaboration with UFCW Local 328, Co-op Rhody aims to carry forward the tradition of the union-worker cooperative partnership in the United States, building on unprecedented legislative wins right here in Rhode Island.

In cooperation with many others, we are laying the foundations for a Rhode Island network of cooperatives which, like Mondragon demonstrates, can provide unique dignity, security, and power for workers.

Interested in starting a co-op?

Founding a business is hard, but we’re here to co-operate. Let’s work together.

For more information on the history of the Union Co-op model, check out this fantastic article from our friends at Worx Printing.