Unions And Cooperatives: How Workers Can Survive And Thrive
Union Cab of Madison, a worker-owned cooperative, takes part in the 2011 pro-worker Wisconsin protests. (Photo: CindyH Photography / Flickr)
United States – The year 2008 was when the big banks were bailed out, but it was also the year that catalyzed one group of window makers into democratically running their own factory.
On the former industrial hub of Goose Island in Chicago, the employees of Republic Windows and Doors made headlines after they were locked out of their jobs just before Christmas without the back pay or severance they were owed. Organized by the United Electrical Workers Union, these displaced workers did exactly what the ownership hoped they wouldn’t do. They refused to quietly accept the layoffs. Instead, the workers engaged in a sitdown strike at their factory, garnering local and national media attention. Eventually, the employees won the occupation, forcing Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (Republic’s primary creditors) to create a fund to give the workers their back pay, benefits, and health insurance. This became viewed as a much-needed victory for workers and unions in a desperate economic time.
And this January, more than seven years after their initial takeover, the workers finally received their last payment won from their struggle. According to the Chicago Tribune, “The National Labor Relations Board announced Wednesday that it will distribute to 270 union workers $295,000 in back pay stemming from labor law violations.”
While many people know about the takeover of Republic Windows and Doors, the story of what happened next has flown under the radar. In early 2009, not too long after the workers’ sit in, a company by the name of Serious Materials chose to partially re-open the factory, and many of the worker’s jobs and livelihoods were restored. That is, until Serious surprised everyone by shuttering the factory again. The country was still in the height of the great recession that put the housing market in ruins, which had devastating consequences for the window industry. And, according to the workers, Serious never made their Chicago factory a priority in its business plan. This meant that in only a few short years, these same workers had to face the prospect of job loss once more, and they had to go through the hardship of another sitdown strike.
This time, however, after the factory permanently closed, some of the workers were fed up with business as usual. In 2012, they re-started operations under new management: their own. With the help of their union, as well as organizations like the Center for Workplace Democracy and The Working World, these employees formed a cooperative, calling themselves New Era Windows, where workers were given one equal share in the business and one vote in its governance.
Workers that had to twice occupy their factory form the New Era Windows Cooperative. (Photo: peoplesworld / Flickr)
The best part? This co-op factory has survived in an industry where two previous non-democratic ownerships couldn’t, and it’s only growing. New Era had revenue of $750,000 in 2015, an increase from its first year’s revenue of $205,000, and all of that wealth is democratically controlled by the people that created it, going to directly benefit the workers and their families.
This co-op factory has survived in an industry where two previous non-democratic ownerships couldn’t, and it’s only growing.
Yet none of these achievements would have been possible if it weren’t for the workers’ union, which fought to get the employees what they were owed in the first place way back in 2008, and then helped them to form their worker co-op in 2012.
I’m also a member of a worker-owned cooperative, the TESA Collective, that has been educating and organizing for worker co-ops since 2010. We’ve traveled the country promoting the cooperative movement with tools like our board game Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives. Over the past six years, we’ve seen a steady rise in interest in worker cooperatives from unions. This is a promising development, because when we use the power of collective bargaining to build collective ownership, workers win.
Centuries of Working Together
Unions and worker cooperatives have had a storied history - sometimes allies, sometimes antagonists. Still, since the late 19th century, the two movements have found ways to aid one another. As far back as 1877, the Knights of Labor (KOL) were helping to organizeUnions And Coops: How Workers Can Survive And Thrive | PopularResistance.Org: