Worker Democracy

An overview of the evidence surrounding worker democracy. In summary: it's good, but far from perfect. Hope you enjoy the video and the new animations.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:21 What is Worker Democracy?
8:45 Myths and Realities
17:37 A Critical Appraisal
29:08 Good for Workers
38:56 Defending Worker Democracy
51:18 Conclusion

Those beautiful voices you are hearing are @Saint Andrewism , @Zoe Bee , and @JohntheDuncan

Produced by Hobbie Stuart
Animations by Grim Friberg
Artwork by Jacob Cob
© 2021 Unlearning Economics

I am an academic economist from the UK who has long been critical of the economics profession and how economics is used in public policy. Mostly the channel will cover economics with a critical perspective but I aim to educate people about economics in the process, so I'll try to explain key concepts and ideas along the way. That way, even if you disagree with aspects of the videos you will hopefully learn something from them. Subscribe for more!

References (in rough order of appearance):
Productivity in cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises, Logue & Yates
Equality Under Threat by The Talented: Evidence From Worker-Managed Firms, Burdín
Do Broad-based Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and Stock Options Help the Best Firms Do Even Better?, Blasi et al
The empirical performance of orthodox models of the firm: Conventional firms and worker cooperatives, Pencavel & Craig
Wages, Employment, And Capital in Capitalist and Worker-Owned Firms, Pencavel et al
New evidence on wages and employment in worker cooperatives compared with capitalist firms, Burdín & Dean
Employee Vs. Conventionally Owned and Controlled Firms: An Experimental Analysis, Frohlich et al
Workplace Democracy in the Lab, Mellizo et al
Do cooperative enterprises create social trust?, Sabatini et al
Survival Rate of Co-operatives in Québec, OCA
Co-op Survival Rates in Alberta, Stringham & Lee
Co-op Survival Rates in British Columbia, Murray
The Relative Survival of Worker Cooperatives and Barriers to Their Creation, Olsen
Scale, Scope and Survival: A Comparison of Cooperative and Capitalist Modes of Production, Monteiro & Stewart
Productivity, Capital and Labor in Labor-Managed and Conventional Firms, FakhFakh et al
Are Cooperatives More Productive Than Investor-Owned Firms? Cross-Industry Evidence From Portugal, Monteiro & Straume
Shadow price of capital and the Furubotn–Pejovich effect: Some empirical evidence for Italian wine cooperatives, Maietta & Sena
Trust, Inequality and The Size of The Co-Operative Sector: Cross-Country Evidence, Jones & Kalmi
Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options, Kruse et al
The Use of Knowledge in Society, Hayek
Seeing Like a State, Scott
Worker Cooperatives: Good, Sustainable Jobs in the Community, Pérotin
Lonerbox’s video:
Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale, Abell
Employee ownership and firm performance: a meta-analysis, Boyle et al
Employee Stock Ownership, Involvement, And Productivity: An Interaction-Based Approach, Pendleton & Robinson
What do we really know about worker co-operatives?, Pérotin
Evaluating Workplace Democracy in Mondragon, Christiansen
Board-level employee representation rights in Europe: Facts and trends, Conchon
Labor in the Boardroom, Jäger et al
Voice at Work, Harju et al
From Illyria towards Capitalism: Did Labour-Management Theory Teach Us Anything about Yugoslavia and Transition in Its Successor States?, Estrin & Uvalic
Market Entry of Firms with Different Legal Forms, Arando et al

[brandonshelp]

I love that all the hypothetical dangers can be summed up as "workers might act like capitalists".

[ericfranklin]

Kinda hilarious that mainstream economists apply the free rider hypothesis to workers but neglect to turn than inside and apply that to the CEO’s and managers who have more incentive to do those things since they would be much less financially impacted if the company fails, whereas a avg worker would be put into a much more dicey situation if the company failed and they lost their job.

[gustavchambert]

The freeloader "problem" has always been so bizarre to me.

Why would anyone assume that a coop worker with a say in how the business is run, and a stake in the results would be likely to shirk because profits are shared, but a worker in a capitalist firm, with no say and no stake at all, will just happily make a diligent effort to enrich his boss as much as possible?

The argument is so clearly bollocks, especially if one assumes man is rationally self-interested. Which is why it's so weird that it is almost always propmoted by people who believe in "economic man"

[MasterOfBaiter]

Btw I have personal experience with this. After being promoted to production manager my first action was to restructure organisation to make it more accessible to every worker. I then made mandatory meetings every morning (15minutes max) where we discuss difficulties. Third whenever I give workloads to workers I make sure they have plenty different tasks which they can change between whenever as long as the work is done when it has to be. I reduced my own workload by sharing managerial load and increased worker well being to a point where efficiency and quality went up. All it cost was me sitting down a couple hours more to make some easy to read graphics

[PeakedInterest]

Criticism of worker democracy -
1. Workers will line their pockets
2. People will be free riders


Yeah....neither of these happen in current capitalist companies at all...

[DragoonBoom]

If workers could vote to not throw out entire warehouses full of food, clothing, electronics etc then that's a giant boon for worker coops. Or the increasing evidence that working 20-30 hour work weeks produces the same level of productivity as 40-50 hour work weeks. Like I deadass think the biggest benefit to worker coops over hierarchical companies is being able to vote against stupid and inefficient stuff done for the sake of profit or conservatism.

[ShazyShaze]

I tend to advocate for worker cooperatives on an ethical level, but it's really nice to see them argued for economically as well. Personally I'd be willing to take a decrease in productivity if it meant having an empowered, happy workforce.

[philippcrain]

Im glad youve taken such a realistic angle to it, rather than parroting "sounds good doesnt work" or proclaiming that it is the best thing since sliced bread

[Incred_Canemian]

"But to understand all this a bit better we're going to need to look at some more serious economic theory. You may have heard of the reality TV show Undercover Boss."

This killed me lmao

[josephjarosch]

Another thing about the free rider problem: If one person is obviously slacking, his co-workers will notice, and potentially kick him out. 'Free riders'- people who either slack off or are just inept- are pretty rampant in traditional workplaces because of the boss not paying attention.

[fargoflagrant]

being french-uruguayan i wasnt ready for this level of representation

[Durandurandal]

8:50
"more prone to failure...as workers line their own pockets"
Because as we know, in a conventional firm, absolutely no one in leadership considers running the firm as a way to line their own pockets

[NoDerpingAllowed]

0:00 intro
2:21 what is worker democracy
8:45 myths and realities
17:37 a critical appraisal
29:08 good for workers
38:56 defending worker democracy
51:18 conclusion
52:05 policy bag

[ricks]

Worker co-ops are more productive because they solve the "not my job" problem that capitalist owners can't. "Why should I do that, it's not my job?" If it's also partly your company the answer to that is obvious.

[DahVoozel]

The difference between me being employed by a factory that goes bankrupt and me owning a share in a factory that goes bankrupt is who gets the money when the factory is sold for parts.

[sleepinbelle]

I really appreciate you talking about non-workers. As a disabled person, I feel like we're almost always an afterthought. I'm still 100% in support of worker democracy and socialism more broadly, but my problems don't really get solved by that. It's good hearing leftists talking about the limitations of leftist ideas. Also it's nice hearing voices I recognise in different videos, it's a good reminder that leftists do actually work together.

[guy-slkr]

I feel like every study is limited by examining co-ops within a capitalist economy. Most of the failings of these co-ops can be explained by their need to compete against other companies to maximize profits for themselves. Cooperatives aren't gonna end capitalism but if I'm gonna have my labor exploited, I'd rather it be done by a company that I at least have some marginal control over.

[cameronmclennan]

Been a member of a supermarket co-op in Montpellier, France for a while now. Mixture of a few full-time and part-time employees and the rest of members/customers volunteer 3hours a month pecking shelves, working the registers and cleaning. It's also only open to members, not the public. It's called La Cagette. Interesting model.

[brandon]

CEO after working on the line: "I'm surprised it's still so... MANUAL"

The robots are coming my friends.

[gustavchambert]

On the generalizeability of worker coops Id just like to point out something you missed.

While coops only overperform in certain sectors, as you said, they don't underperform in the rest. Thus it seems unlikely that wide-spread adoption would have detrimental effects. And I also just dont buy that people would not understand or not care about such a system. Almost everyone benefits in some way from having a say, even if the company itaelf does not do any better.