I’m interested in leftist opinions of employee-owned companies. If that’s still too broad, could you give some examples of employees buying their employer out? Or are there other ways, like with a union?
Also, what’s up with King Arthur’s and Bob’s Red Mill?
In a general sense, the difference between a regular workplace with a union and a worker co-op is that the company is, in part, managed and/or owned by the workers themselves. There’s varying degrees of this, but the best (and unfortunately least common) co-ops elect their managers. It’s my opinion that electing managers is a crucial part of a worker owned economy, but a union is still needed to represent the workers.