What's that tell you?

which is why CEOs get humongous bonuses and don't share it with the workers.





Co-ops May Increase Worker Life Expectancy


The article cited research conducted by Co-operatives UK, which documented the superior performance of Britain’s co-ops throughout the recession.

Among the organizations’ findings:

98% of UK co-operatives were still trading three years after formation compared to 65% of traditional companies
Since 2008 the UK economy shrank 1.7% while co-ops grew 23%
56% of UK coops are in disadvantaged areas
88% of UK coops seek to minimize their environmental impact compared to 44% of traditional businesses who say they have “taken no action whatsoever”
Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave an organization
85% ‘agree’ or ‘very much agree’ that being a co-operative gives them a business advantage.
85% actively use their co-operative status in marketing
Add to this, being a cooperative owner-employee may even help you live a longer life.

Boyle writes about the findings of David Erdal, author of Beyond The Corporation: Humanity Working. Erdal found that life expectancy for Italian citizens in a town with a high degree of cooperatives was 2.5 years longer than that of citizens in a nearby town without cooperatives.


http://www.popularresistance.org/co-ops-may-increase-worker-life-expectancy/

Economic Prosperity and Economic Democracy: The Worker Co-Op Solution

Workers' self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) are a response to capitalism's failure to deliver economic prosperity and socialism's failure to deliver economic democracy.

Among factors impeding formation of an organized, politically effective new left in the United States are deep frustrations among activists interested in doing that. The decline since the 1970s (and since 2008 especially) of capitalism's ability to "deliver the goods" to most citizens has opened many minds to question, criticize and challenge the capitalist system. The remarkable Pew Research Center poll of December 2011 showed large percentages of Americans favorably disposed toward socialism. Many more would agree today. Yet left activists are increasingly frustrated by their lack of a viable systemic alternative that could attract those disaffected from capitalism.

Leftists are further frustrated because the traditional socialist alternatives fail to inspire the public or even mobilize leftists themselves. The implosions of Soviet and eastern European socialisms, coupled with major shifts in China and beyond, have fueled that frustration. So too, in different ways, did western European socialist parties' embraces of neoliberalism since the 1970s and austerity policies since 2007-2008. The Greek socialist party's collapse and likewise serious declines in electoral support for the German and other socialist parties reflect frustrations with the traditional socialisms they advocate.

Traditional socialist programs of major government economic intervention (via varying mixtures of regulation of enterprises and markets, state ownership and operation of enterprises, central planning, etc.) no longer rally much support. When sometimes they seem to (e.g., France's last presidential and legislative elections), traditional socialism proves thinly rhetorical and symbolic. Because French socialists failed to define or pursue a genuine alternative to a deeply unpopular capitalism, their support melted quickly.

Audiences offered traditional socialist visions have increasingly responded with skeptical indifference translatable as "been there, done that." Many have formed the judgment that traditional socialisms, where achieved, exhibited too many shortcomings, were unsustainable, or both. Provoked by the capitalist crisis since 2008, rapidly rising public interest in alternatives to capitalism has confronted falling confidence in traditional socialism.


http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-prosperity-and-economic-democracy-worker-co-op-solution

Not in the way Richard Wolff defines the enterprise.

"WSDEs replace hierarchical, top-down capitalist enterprises run by major shareholders and the boards of directors they select with a democratic enterprise directed by all its workers. The latter, collectively and democratically, make all the key decisions of what, how and where to produce. Most importantly, they decide how to use the enterprise's net revenue."

If the workers decide everything in the enterprise, collectively, with votes, then there is no capitalist between the worker and the profits of the enterprise.

He knows of what he speaks. But, as another mentioned here, Wall St. and our media totally ignore these facts and these Democratically-run workplaces.

based in Lakeland, Florida, are employee owned.

and they are absolute leaders in bio, fair trade and GMO-free products. They kicked out Carrefour, and can stand up to Aldi and Lidl. And then there's Mondragon.

Started in Iowa, spread through the Midwest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyvee

The Wikipedia article has nothing on work environment per se, but does include this:
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Hy-Vee Inc. employs over 60,000 individuals and is the largest employer in the state of Iowa. The company has annual sales of over $7.3 billion. In 2011, Hy-Vee ranked 48th on Forbes magazine's annual list of the largest privately owned companies in the United States.[2]

Shortly after same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa, Hy-Vee expanded their spousal benefits to include gay couples. The new policy was implemented on all Hy-Vee stores, even in states such as Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Missouri that do not protect gay individuals. This action has made Hy-Vee one of the most gay-friendly companies in the Midwest.[11]

Hy-Vee opened its first LEED-certified store in Madison, on October 27, 2009.[12]
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shop there whenever I visit my kids in Dover. My son walks up to the fish counter and whoever is working knows exactly what he wants. He's been shopping there over ten years and says most of the employees are the same. They're on a first name basis.

I suspect this is true here too, but it would help to have the US statistics.