For a lot of people, The Co-op supermarket is their main reference point for co-operatives. And while The Co-op has a radical, pioneering heritage that played a big role in the development of the modern European co-operative movement, it’s very different to our kind of co-op.
We are a workers’ co-operative. That means our business is democratically controlled and collectively owned by us, its workers.
Worker co-ops around the world run enterprises large and small. From the outside, a worker co-op can look like any other business. Goods or services are provided in exchange for payment, whether that’s groceries or accountancy, bicycles or web design. But for the workers, they’re worlds apart.
Worker co-ops are owned and controlled democratically by their staff. Workplace democracy can take many forms, but lots of worker co-ops, including Unicorn, operate with flat pay and aim for a flat management structure. This means that all 50 or so worker-members have direct control over strategy, pay and working conditions.
The profit generated by this kind of co-op is collectively controlled by workers as they think best, whether that’s sharing it out between the workforce, giving it away, investing in like-minded ventures, or putting it back into the business. Worker co-ops also make us, as workers, responsible for the services and goods we provide, so that we can meet genuine community needs.
But ownership is different in a worker co-op. We don’t buy our way in, and we don’t have anything to sell when we leave. We’ve been handed this beautiful business by previous generations of co-operators, and we have a responsibility to keep it thriving for the next one. It’s ours, but not to do what we like with! We are more like stewards; appreciating the decades of hard graft, skill and accumulated knowledge that have come before us, and making decisions that are best for the co-op, both now and in the future.
And in return? We receive an unequivocal level of empowerment in our working lives, a deep sense of care for our work, an unusual sense of comradeship, equity and trust between colleagues, an incentive to take initiative and use our skills to develop the business, and an enormous amount of pride.
Like the sound of it? Learn more at workers.coop
