Trade unions and worker cooperatives in Europe: a win-win relationship maximizing social and economic potential in worker cooperatives created by Monaco, Marina ; Pastorelli, Luca

The European Union’s ten-year growth strategy is calling on social economy enterprises, particularly cooperatives, to contribute actively to the overall aim of achieving “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” by 2020 (European Commission, 2010a and 2010b). It is because of their unique characteristics that cooperatives are seen as capable of performing on both the economic and the social fronts. This requires finding a balance between the economic and social interests of enterprises, the labour force and the whole community–a difficult exercise for economic and social actors at all levels, especially in a complex globalized context and in times of economic stress. Worker cooperative associations have often engaged with trade unions in the pursuit of mutual goals relating to employment, innovation, education, social inclusion, equality and environmental sustainability. The two movements have common historical roots and a long-standing commitment on labour-related topics, features which may facilitate joint work to ensure the success of strategies related to the abovementioned goals, as illustrated by experience in various European Union (EU) countries. This is particularly so in the areas of industrial relations and social dialogue, often involving public authorities in a tripartite process.