Resolution No. 27: Worker Ownership and Workers’ Capital

WHEREAS, wealth and income inequality continue to grow and accelerate in the U.S. and Canada, with the U.S. at its highest levels of inequality since the 1920s and Canada since the 1930s; and

WHEREAS, the richest 1% in the U.S. and Canada have more wealth than the bottom 90% combined; and

WHEREAS, the wealthiest 10% of people in the U.S. owned 93% of all stocks as of January 2024 and 70% of all wealth in the U.S.; and

WHEREAS, the wealthiest 20% of people in Canada owned more than 67% of all wealth in Canada as of 2024; and

WHEREAS, the wealth of the richest 12 people in the U.S. increased by over 200% in the past 5 years, while working people struggled to keep up with inflation; and

WHEREAS, USW members have billions of dollars invested in pension plans, 401(k) plans, Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and labour sponsored investment plans in Canada, such as the Quebec Federation of Labour Solidarity Fund; and

WHEREAS, history has proven that these investments of our savings 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 and Bay Street to gamble with our money in ways that threaten our jobs and destroy our communities; and

WHEREAS, Union density in the U.S. has fallen to its lowest in over 100 years; and

WHEREAS, there are well over 10,000 workers in worker-owned co-ops in the U.S. and Canada, millions more workers at member co-ops and producer co-ops, as well as 14 million workers in Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) in the U.S., the majority of which are not currently Union; and

WHEREAS, worker ownership has proven to be fruitful when ownership means much more than just the value of a share; and

WHEREAS, Ownership Works, a non-profit that partners with private equity firms, has shown in recent years that even the tiniest share of ownership given to workers can improve productivity and profitability, resulting in higher compensation; and

WHEREAS, organizations such as 1worker1vote, Co-op Cincy, and the Union Co-op Council of the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-operatives have continued to grow and develop worker ownership combined with Union membership; and

WHEREAS, USW members at worker-owned co-ops such as Sustainergy, Co-op Cincy, WorX Printing, and Action OSH continue to grow their businesses and pave the way for new USW worker-owned businesses; and

WHEREAS, USW members work at co-ops in nearly every USW District in the U.S. and Canada, including producer co-ops such Agropur in New Brunswick, and member-owned co-ops such as the Cloverland Electric Cooperative in Michigan, as well as credit unions across the U.S. and Canada; and

WHEREAS, to better support our members in co-ops, we established the USW Co-ops Council in 2024; and

WHEREAS, co-ops provide a new way to organizing working people who may not have otherwise been eligible to join a Union.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that:

1. Our Union will continue to 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, invests in our communities and builds sustainable regional economies.
2. Our Union will engage with other unions, networks, and progressive organizations, such as the Canadian Association for Shareholder Education and Research (SHARE), the Global Unions’ Committee on Workers’ Capital, and Heartland Capital Strategies, to mobilize the workers’ capital to ensure that workers’ rights, human rights, safety, health, and the environment are fully respected with such investments.
3. Our Union supports the development of labor sponsored investment plans, and will research developing our own investment funds, in order to invest in and support USW members, to build and develop worker owned businesses, and to sustain our communities.
4. Through our USW Co-ops Council, our Union will continue to promote and develop unionized, worker-owned co-ops, as well as other forms of worker-ownership, as a sustainable means to organize workers, create jobs and support our communities.
5. Our Union will continue to pursue new ways of organizing workers through co-ops, whether worker-owned, member-owned, or producer-owned.