American Worker Ownership: Empowering Labor and Building Democracy

• In Event: 20881 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Rebuilding Labor from the Ground Up

Abstract

This paper addresses economic strategies in the USA to help rebuild the economy after years of struggle in coping with politics and the COVID-19 crisis. It will focus not only on “Re-imagining the Future of Work,” but argue for more innovative ways to successfully implement and strengthen worker power by accelerating the rise of shared ownership. My action research will report and analyze increasing efforts to build worker power, jobs, and a better quality of life. The country has seen a massive struggle recently, and today people suffer from both unemployment and/or underemployment.
Drawing on my years of field work, I argue for an expanded role that Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) can and should play in order to remedy these problems and rebuild the economy. While not a panacea, worker owned enterprises can help offer a better future. A key element of this recovery should be new policy initiatives for increasing ownership by labor which will provide shares of corporate stock to workers by their owning a piece of the societal pie.

I briefly highlight the rise of the ownership movement over decades and explore how new Biden Administration policies, backed by organized labor, have accelerated the process. My recent research draws on such ESOP firms across the USA as Suntec, Publix Super Markets, FirstBank, Sundt Construction, W.L. Gore, Amsted Industries, Rosendin Electric, and Parsons Engineering. Producing greater productivity and higher profits than traditional businesses, when combined with 100 percent ownership and democracy in the workplace, makes the promise of increased worker power quite significant. The ultimate goal may be a revitalized, highly participative union movement that pushes for participative ownership in building a stronger American economy. Of course, the long-term struggle of workers now faces the threat of a new Trump administration. The future may not be bright.

Author

• Warner P. Woodworth, University of Utah