LEARN
Providing resources and education on the benefits of the union cooperative model is one of our core values at the Union Cooperative Initiative.
The UCI will be launching a new training program in the Spring of 2024 with monthly online and in-person intro sessions to the union cooperative organizing model.
HOW COOPERATIVES ARE FORMED
In British Columbia, cooperatives are registered through the provincial Cooperative Association Act. Co-ops may be for-profit or non-profit, and generally fall into the following categories:
- Community Service Co-op
- Consumer Co-op
- Financial Co-op
- Housing Co-op
- Multi-Stakeholder Co-op
- Platform Co-op
- Worker Co-op
- Producer Co-op
For more information on co-ops in British Columbia and other great educational resources, please visit the BC Cooperative Association website.
COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES
Throughout history people have come together and operated under shared principles through both formal and informal cooperatives. The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) outlines the seven following principles as a framework for co-ops around the world to move their values into action.
There has also been growing movements to expand on these principles to include additional values surrounding racial and environmental justice.
SEVEN COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES:
1. VOLUNTARY AND OPEN MEMBERSHIP
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.
2. DEMOCRATIC MEMBER CONTROL
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Individuals serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.
3. MEMBER ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership.
Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
4. AUTONOMY & INDEPENDENCE
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.
5. EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND INFORMATION
Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public – particularly young people and opinion leaders – about the nature and benefits of co-operation.
6. COOPERATION AMONG COOPERATIVES
Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.
7. CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY
Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.
UNION COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES
At the intersection of the cooperative and labour union movements, there is also growing support for the ten union co-op crinciples. These principles from 1worker1vote, are inspired by the Mondragon Cooperative principles with graphics from our friends at Worx Union Cooperative in the United States.
10 Union-Co-op Principles:
1. OPEN ADMISSION
The co-op will not discriminate in the admission of new worker-owners. Anyone who can do the work and supports these 10 principles can become a worker-owner. There will be no discrimination.
2. DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION
The principle of “one worker, one vote” shall prevail throughout the co-op, including the annual General Assembly and the election of the Board of Directors. Every worker-owner owns an equal share and has an equal vote through “one class” ownership.
3. SOVEREIGNTY OF LABOUR
The co-op is centered around labour, around the people doing the work. Created wealth is distributed in terms of the labour provided and there is a firm commitment to new family and community sustaining jobs. Worker-owners receive competitive and just salaries and dividends based on the profitability of the cooperative.
4. INSTRUMENTAL & SUBORDINATE NATURE OF CAPITAL
Only profitable enterprises provide the workplace freedom for Mondragon cooperatives to align principles with practice. Generally, a corporation sells shares of ownership and management to raise capital and then hires labour. The Mondragon cooperatives do not sell shares to raise capital. Instead, the workers own their cooperative enterprises, choose their management and rent sustaining capital. Within the Mondragon ecosystem, capital is labour’s instrument, not its master.
5. PARTICIPATION IN MANAGEMENT
The practice goal is for “Ownership” to become more than just the value of a share. Workers undertake the responsibilities of ownership in their co-op by participating in management positions and as members of the co-op’s board of directors, by striving for inter-cooperation and competitive excellence, and by ensuring that the co-op remains accountable to its worker-owners.
6. WAGE SOLIDARITY
Wage solidarity means there is less disparity among workers and the communities in which they live, reinforcing the equality and quality of ownership. In most cases, the highest paid worker in the Mondragon co-operatives makes no more than 5 times the lowest paid worker. The Mondragon Cooperative Experience declares sufficient payment based on solidarity to be a basic principle of its management. Solidarity is manifest both internally and externally, as well as at the corporate level.
7. INTER-COOPERATION
Just as workers benefit from working cooperatively in a business, so too can co-ops benefit from working cooperatively with other co-ops. Such an interdependent system of co-ops allows each co-op to create and share common resources such as financing, research and development, and training, to support each other through cross-training, job placement, and capital infusions during down-turns and up-turns in local and global markets.
8. SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
A key part of the co-op’s mission is to support and invest in the economic, social, and cultural development of its hosting, local-living community. Creating jobs, funding development projects, pursuing education, and providing opportunities cooperatively brings about a freer, fairer, and more caring society.
Mondragon co-ops’ reinvest a high proportion of their profits, including regular investments, in community funds for job creation:
- 10% of the net profit of the Cooperatives is donated to non-profit organizations;
- Mondragon’s Lagun Aro Mutual cooperative (owned by other cooperatives) provides social security,
unemployment, and health insurance benefits (as a cooperative owned by the other cooperatives), and - Mondragon cooperative members serve as committed community activists.
9. UNIVERSALITY
The co-op supports all efforts to promote workplace democracy, the cooperative model and cooperative culture to achieve social and economic justice, individual freedom and self-fulfillment through ownership, and higher, broader and deeper levels of civic equity.
10. EDUCATION
Continuous and relevant education and training have played a decisive role in the creation sixty years ago and sustained unfolding of the Mondragon Cooperative Experience. Mondragon’s founder and pioneering driving force, the Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta, was clear that education, understanding complex ideas and concepts adopted by humanity, is the key to the development and progress of a people and that ‘knowledge has to be socialized to democratize power.’ Education and lifelong learning provide the tools for worker-owners to adapt and improve the cooperative so that it endures and inspires.
UCI x BCFED Organizing Institute
In 2022, the UCI partnered with the BC Federation of Labour to grow the Organizing Institute training program for a 2-year pilot project. Founded in 1996, the Organizing Institute has a tradition of highlighting the importance of organizing within the labour movement by recruiting and training new organizers, examining and disseminating successful organizing approaches, encouraging and testing new organizing techniques, and supporting organizing efforts and strategic campaigning.
The UCI launched the first online Organizing Institute course in February 2022 and has expanded training with advanced courses on topics including Organizing and the Law in BC. The pilot concluded in the Fall of 2023 and has set the foundation for an expanded UCI training program with the support of the BC Cooperative Association and BC Federation of Labour.
Illustration by WEAVER Cooperative