Union-Coops UK: A Manifesto for Decent Work (Revised)

What does the future of work look like? Will disruptive technologies and automation create a race to the bottom for workers’ rights? Do we have to accept the gig economy and precarity? Can we achieve democracy and fairness in the workplace and fight in-work poverty without the broader labour and union movement? The union co-op is a model whose time has come. It is a fully unionised, worker co-operative, owned and controlled by those who own and work in it. Worker’s control, democracy and equality are built into the model which offers a solution to inequality and injustice both in and outside the workplace. Co-ops and unions are social movements with shared historical roots which emerged originally out of need. We believe they have a powerful shared future. This Manifesto seeks to lay out the ideas behind union-co-operatives and show how unions and co-ops can work together.