Ownership America Releases Inaugural Publication “Turning Employees into Owners: Rebuilding the American Dream”.

Ownership America, a new non-profit organization founded to turn Americans into owners, released its inaugural policy publication Turning Employees into Owners: Rebuilding the American Dream. Authored by experts in the employee ownership field, the report examines federal policy opportunities to significantly expand the number of Americans with an ownership stake in the company they work for through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

Continua la lettura

“Unions for all”: così rinasce il sindacato americano (in stile europeo).

Se c’è una cosa per cui gli Stati Uniti non sono famosi, sono i sindacati. E in effetti un motivo c’è. Se a metà degli anni ’50 un terzo degli americani era iscritto a un sindacato, oggi questa quota si è ridotta al 10,5%, di cui il 6,4% sono lavoratori del settore privato. Un declino preoccupante, peggiorato dalla recente abolizione, da parte della Corte suprema statunitense, delle spese di iscrizione a queste associazioni da parte dei lavoratori: secondo la giustizia americana, infatti, l’idea di far pagare una imposta a quelli che, di fatto, sono riconosciuti come degli attori politici, sarebbe contraria alla Costituzione.

Continua la lettura

Scotty Hendricks – Codetermination: a way to rebalance the economy?

We are living in an age where the questioning of major institutions occurs regularly. Large numbers of Americans support changing to a new economic system, and even many who recommend keeping capitalism think it needs a bit of an overhaul. One idea, common in Europe but less so in America, that does the latter is called codetermination and maintains capitalism and the private ownership of property while giving workers a say in how their workplaces are managed. We’ll look at what it is, how it works, and the proposal to bring it to America.

Continua la lettura

The superiority of codetermination.

The United States should learn from the better performance of European companies which have worker representation on boards.

In comparison with the United States, the economies of northern Europe do a superior job of fulfilling Adam Smith’s hopes for capitalism as a mechanism to diffuse prosperity. Their success in displacing the US as the economic land of opportunity is a consequence of American corporations prioritising shareholder returns. In contrast, northern European companies with a codetermination system—where employees sit on company boards—prioritise strengthening domestic labour markets. Continua la lettura

Eillie Anzilotti – The business of the future is ethical, sustainable, and employee-owned

You may not know it, but when you’re buying clothes from Eileen Fisher, you’re buying from an employee-owned company. Fisher founded the company in the early 1980s, but instead of going public, she sold 30% of the company to her own employees in 2006 (they now own 40%). That’s helped her keep the brand’s principles aligned: Eileen Fisher was one of the first clothing companies to offset 100% of its carbon footprint, and it’s become a pioneer in advancing localized, sustainable production, setting itself on a path to use 100% organic cotton and linen by 2020.

Continua la lettura

Imprenditori e dipendenti, il confine è sempre più labile.

Sempre più labile il confine tra lavoratori e datori di lavoro. Mai come ora, infatti, è stata sentita l’esigenza da parte dei lavoratori di essere parte integrante dell’azienda per cui lavorano. E se questo vuol dire scommettere anche parte dei propri guadagni, ben venga. Una ricerca condotta dall’Economist mostra, infatti, come ben 32 milioni di lavoratori americani negli ultimi anni abbiano deciso di partecipare all’economia dell’azienda.

Continua la lettura