How are co-ops surviving the recession?
‘…Just under half of the ‘respondents’ were feeling the pinch, much the same as businesses as a whole. But the interesting difference was their (co-op businesses) responses - no worker co-ops were looking to make redundancies at that time. Those that had to make difficult decisions opted for pay freezes and/or pay cuts…. (in one case up to 30%). As the majority of workers are company members the decisions on pay are usually made collectively. This gives worker co-operatives the ability to make difficult decisions quickly and with employee buy-in. The priority of the business is on keeping all of its employees employed and not about the enrichment of a select few. This increases the chance that businesses survive and are able to quickly bounce back once the economic situation has improved.’
