the Co-operative College – P2P Foundation https://blog.p2pfoundation.net Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:09:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.15 62076519 The Solidarity Economy has a champion in the global co-op movement – Bruno Roelants appointed DG of the ICA https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-solidarity-economy-has-a-champion-in-the-global-co-op-movement-bruno-roelants-appointed-dg-of-the-ica/2018/01/26 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-solidarity-economy-has-a-champion-in-the-global-co-op-movement-bruno-roelants-appointed-dg-of-the-ica/2018/01/26#respond Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:00:00 +0000 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=69477 Bruno Roelants, a longstanding champion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), has been appointed Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). The ICA is the global umbrella body for the international co-operative movement and represents more than 300 co-operative federations across 105 countries. From 2002 Roelants has been secretary general of CECOP-CICOPA Europe, the... Continue reading

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Bruno Roelants, a longstanding champion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), has been appointed Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). The ICA is the global umbrella body for the international co-operative movement and represents more than 300 co-operative federations across 105 countries. From 2002 Roelants has been secretary general of CECOP-CICOPA Europe, the European representative body of worker and social co-operatives across the continent.

Roelants’ appointment is good news as he has led work to help reform laws in Europe to expand workplace economic democracy and he has also promoted efforts to develop specific social and solidarity economy laws in European countries.

The work of CICOPA internationally has been important as low paid precarious work globally has expanded since 2000, while over this period inequality has escalated. In 2013 Roelants and Claudia Sanchez Bajo co-authored the book Capital and the Debt Trap – Learning from Co-operatives in the Global Crisis. Their analysis showed that co-operatives have been effective in creating new jobs since 2008. Moreover, their impact helps reduce inequality while providing more secure and stable employment. However, they show that supportive public policy is crucial to the scope for co-operatives to be given adequate development space. For example, thanks to support legislation passed some 30 years ago, Italy has over 20,000 worker and social co-operatives and in the non-public care sector, social co-operatives are the largest provider. This contrasts with the UK where 8 in 10 jobs in care services are provided by the private sector.

Roelants has been a champion of the International Labour Organisation’s Recommendation 193, that the Co-operative College played a key role in researching and evidencing. Passed in 2002, this Recommendation promotes co-operatives as best practice and demonstrates that they are a highly effective way to move precarious workers from informal to formal employment, where they offer secure decent work, workers’ rights, legal protection and solutions to poverty.

In research and policy reports since 2002 for CECOP and for CICOPA internationally Roelants has championed the SSE which has become an integral part of the UN local development agenda since 2013. A recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) report on inclusive growth has shown that the development of the social economy is crucial to tackling inequality, the housing crisis, climate change and the needs of marginalised groups. Employment in the social economy accounts for 6.5% of European jobs. In the UK employment level is below this average at 5.6%. Sweden, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have much higher ratios ranging from 9% to 11.2% and have benefited from supportive public policy.

The JRF findings shows that the SSE is a key provider of affordable childcare, housing and transport and enables local people to take part in economic decision-making. The social economy also builds social capital and generates community well-being. However the JRF research also show that in the UK the social economy is not being championed by influential actors, is poorly understood and inadequately supported by local government. The social economy is also wrongly perceived as primarily an answer for market failure and thus not supported well by procurement policies and other pillars for growth. Moreover as JRF shows, the expansion of the social economy is restricted in the UK by inadequate infrastructure. JRF highlights this by showing that where these weaknesses have been overcome in cities like Barcelona, Montreal, Lille and Gothenburg, the social and solidarity economy is much stronger, is growing and gaining in self-confidence and public awareness. The appointment of Roelants augurs well and should help advance co-operative development by deepening solidarity economy understanding.


Originally Published in SolidarityEconomy.coop

Photo by BockoPix

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Trade Union and Cooperative Strategies for Organising Precarious Workers https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/trade-union-and-cooperative-strategies-for-organising-precarious-workers/2018/01/03 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/trade-union-and-cooperative-strategies-for-organising-precarious-workers/2018/01/03#respond Wed, 03 Jan 2018 08:00:00 +0000 https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=69144 The three main types of insecure work, casual, zero‐hours and self‐employment, are all on the increase.  Ongoing labour market deregulation, the impact of information technology and the new gig economy means income, hours, days or even work locations can no longer be guaranteed as employment rights are eroded. More and more workers are becoming socially... Continue reading

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The three main types of insecure work, casual, zero‐hours and self‐employment, are all on the increase.  Ongoing labour market deregulation, the impact of information technology and the new gig economy means income, hours, days or even work locations can no longer be guaranteed as employment rights are eroded. More and more workers are becoming socially isolated. This and flexible working raises barriers for organising the rapidly growing precarious workforce.

Our aim in this report is to explore how trade unions and co‐operatives can work together to challenge precarity and secure decent work.

The world of work in the 21st century has a markedly different pattern from that of the 20th century. The two‐tiered structure that has emerged since 2007 out of austerity and automation has been well described as an hour‐glass.

In the top half there is a shrinking traditional workforce with standard 40 hour contracts, residual pensions and full employment rights and below, lies what Martin Smith of the GMB described as:

….a second growing group where technology creates an on demand working culture dominated by their smart phone of precarious work, low paid, zero hours, tiny hours, agency, self‐employed jobs.

The aim of this report is to describe more clearly the plight of the growing precariat and to identify and capture examples of best practice where unions and co‐ operatives are working together to challenge the erosion of political, social, economic and cultural rights.

Guy Standing and his work on A Precariat Charter describes why a loss of ‘social income’ won by trade union struggles over decades characterises most clearly the plight of the precariat in the 21st century: their conversion from full citizens into denizens with curtailed rights.

The precariat lacks access to non‐wage perks such as paid vacations, medical leave, company pensions and so on. It also lacks rights‐based state benefits, linked to legal entitlements, leaving it dependent on discretionary insecure benefits, if any. And it lacks access to community benefits, in the form of a strong commons (public services and amenities).

GMB commissioned research that interviewed precarious workers and found:

 Unions remain deeply supported and identified as being on their side.

 Traditional forms of collective bargaining are largely seen as inaccessible within a realistic timeframe of an organising campaign.

 Union approaches are best focused around meeting their needs.

 Union messaging that works best include: ‘Britain needs a pay rise’, ’Work you can build a life on’, and ‘Fair treatment at work.’

For this report we have surveyed and interviewed numerous officers and members of UK and other trade unions abroad as well as those working in co‐operatives. A consultation day was held in Manchester and four case studies have been put together in the next four sections to highlight innovative practices.  Though it is early days, these organising strategies are either emerging in the UK or, with focused support from the trade union or co‐operative movements, could emerge and be embedded.

The report illustrates each organising strategy and draws together broader and crosscutting findings and recommendations.

Read the report here

Photo by jon crel

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