Worker Cooperatives In America

Worker Cooperatives ln America Worker Cooperatives ln America EDITED B Y ROBERT JACKALL AND HENRY M. LEV IN Berkeley Los Angeles London UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS ( I I University of Califomia Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, Ca!ifomia University of Califomia Press, Ltd. London, England Copyright © 1984 by The Regents of the University of Califomia Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Worker cooperatives in America. Includes index. !. Producer cooperatives-United States. 2. Producer cooperatives-United States-History. 3. Employee ownership-United Stares. 4. Employee ownership-United States-History. !. Jackall, Robert. IL Levin, Henry M. HD3134.W67 1984 334'.6'0973 84-61 ISBN 0-520-05117-3 Printed in the United States of America 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "' '•.,,_ , ('\ .. t ':c \ \ For our children Yuriko Hirota J ackall Mia, David, and Jesse Levin Joshua Levin-Soler CONTENTS Preface ix PARTI Introduction 1 ROBERT JACKALL AND HENRY M. LEVIN 1. Work in America and the Cooperative Movement 3 HENRY M. LEVIN 2. Employment and Productivity of Producer Cooperatives 16 PART II Historical Perspectives on Worker Cooperatives 33 DEREK C. JONES 3. American Producer Cooperatives and EmployeeOwned Firms: A Historical Perspective 3 7 DEREK C. JONES AND DONALD J. SCHNEIDER 4. Self-Help Production Cooperatives: Government-Administered Cooperatives During the Depression 57 PART III The Contemporary Small Cooperative Movement ROBERT JACKALL AND JOYCE CRAIN 5. The Shape of the Small Worker Cooperative Movement 88 ROBERT JACKALL 6. Paradoxes of Collective Work: A Study of the Cheeseboard, Berkeley, California 109 85 viii CONTENTS PART IV Toward Larger Cooperatives 137 CHRISTOPHER GUNN 7. Hoedads Co-op: Democracy and Cooperation at Work 141 EDWARD S. GREENBERG 8. Producer Cooperatives and Democratic Theory: The Case of the Plywood Firms 171 PARTY Special Issues for Worker Cooperatives 215 ZELDA F. GAMSON AND HENRY M. LEVIN 9. Obstacles to the Survival of Democratic Workplaces 219 HENRY M. LEVIN 10. ESOPs and the Financing of Worker-Cooperatives 245 DAVID ELLERMAN 11. Workers' Cooperatives: The Question of Legal Structure 25 7 PART VI Conclusion 275 ROBERT JACKALL AND HENRY M. LEVIN 12. The Prospects for Worker Cooperatives in the United States 2 77 Bibliography Con tribu tors Index 291 303 305 PREFACE This book had its immediate origins in earlier research on workplace democracy carried out by bath editors but in different contexts-Levin focusing on industrial democracy in Europe while Jackall was concentrating on self-management in the United States. Our earlier work had suggested that worker cooperatives, that is, businesses owned and managed by their workers, might improve employment opportunities and work productivity, as well as alleviate some of the discontents of modem work. The Center for Studies of Metropolitan Problems of the National Institute of Mental Health • agreed to support a project that focused on these issues. Our subsequent surveys, fieldwork, and analytical studies provided the basic understanding of the worker cooperative phenomenon that is the substance of this book. All of the essays in the book are original and derive from specific work commissioned as part of the overall research design. There are, therefore, common themes that run through all the essays; we have tried