Steelworkers pass resolution on workers' capital, industrial democracy and worker ownership

http://www.usw.org/convention/resolutions?id=0027



Resolution No. 27

Workers’ Capital, Industrial Democracy and Worker Ownership



WHEREAS, USW members have billions of dollars invested in multi-employer pension

plans, such as the Steelworkers’ Pension Trust, single-employer pension plans, 401(k)

plans and labour sponsored investment plans in Canada, such as the Quebec Federation

of Labour Solidarity Fund and Working Opportunities Fund; and



WHEREAS, history has proven that these investments can produce both a healthy

monetary return and a social return that sustains and creates jobs and invests in our

communities; and



WHEREAS, we have too often seen the opposite result when we do not influence those

investments, leaving Wall Street to gamble with our money in ways that threaten our

jobs and destroy our communities; and



WHEREAS, our Union has good working relationships with most of the employers who

employ our members, many of whom need better access to capital investment to sustain

and create jobs; and



WHEREAS, we know that our members’ success is inevitably tied to our employers’

success, and that the surest path to success is built on a partnership, based on mutual

trust and respect; and



WHEREAS, USW members are an unending source of innovative ideas and insightful

feedback in their workplaces; and



WHEREAS, shared success is built upon shared rewards; and



WHEREAS, worker ownership has proven to be fruitful when ownership means much

more than just the value of a share; and



WHEREAS, the USW began efforts of collaboration in 2009 with the Mondragon

Cooperatives, the world’s largest worker-owned cooperative with nearly 100,000

workerowners, to develop unionized, worker-owned cooperatives in the United States

and Canada; and



WHEREAS, the economies of both the United States and Canada continue to struggle

after the 2008 financial collapse and the need for prudent investment of workers’ capital,

industrial democracy and worker ownership is as strong as ever.



THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that:

(1) Our Union will pursue every responsible avenue to ensure that the investments of the

USW and of USW members collectively are used in a way that not only provides a

reasonable monetary return, but also provides job security, job creation and invests

in our communities.



(2) Our Union recognizes and encourages partnership with an employer as a sure path

to shared success, but only if it is a partnership of equals based on mutual respect.



(3) Collective bargaining needs to become a more continuous process that does not

simply begin and end with a contract. Markets and technology change frequently, if

our Union is not engaged in a continuous bargaining relationship, then we risk

having our employers make important decisions unilaterally.



(4) Our Union will continue to promote and develop unionized, worker-owned

cooperatives, as well as other forms of worker-ownership, as a profitable and

sustainable means to create jobs and invest in our communities.