Worker Cooperatives Considered in the Georgetown Law Weekly

Jordan McLaughlin takes a brief look at worker cooperatives, including the “degeneration” problem, in the online Georgetown Law Weekly:

“Whereas in the public sphere, we cherish equality, in the private sphere, we live with incredibly unequal power relationships; whereas in the public sphere, we promote the questioning of authority, in the private sphere, we have a “culture of deference.”  If the devolution of power to states and localities might enhance participation as people become more and more collective masters of their own fates and regulations, would not devolution into one of the major components of nearly every person’s life, work, also enhance participation? At the level of the cooperative, voting groups are often small enough that one vote really does make a significant difference, and so changes the rational calculation as to whether to participate. Moreover, participation in the cooperative has a real and visible effect on one’s own fate; for example, in approval of hiring of a manager, or in the election of a board to run the company day-to-day.”

Worker Cooperatives have also been a subject in the Georgetown classroom.  Students in Sarah Stiles’ Social Entrepreneurship class, “for example, work with Washington, D.C.’s Foundry United Methodist Church and the coalition group D.C. Jobs With Justice in creating a workers’ cooperative for day laborers in the city. An alternative to seeking daylong positions, the cooperative would create steadier jobs for workers, who would also share in the profits. The arrangement, Stiles said, will help combat wage theft problems faced by many day laborers.”