Young Socialist Views on workers plight.

A piece written for Trade Union Left Forum by 14 year old Amhlaoibh Ó Síocháin Ó Beoláin a young socialist from North Cork with a keen interest in the creation of new Economic Systems which support the cause of workers in Ireland.

 

Worker-Owned Cooperatives: 

 

 

This spring, many low-paid and precarious workers are eking out a living on wages that are insufficient, and in the case of precarious workers, irregular. Meanwhile, sucessful business owners will be comfortable despite the pandemic.

This difference of standard of living between business people and the workforce is unacceptable. Most people would agree the Economy cannot function without business people and entrepeneurs. But what a great number of people overlook is that the Economy also can not function without a workforce. Without the workforce, houses would not be built, hospitals would not be staffed, the shelves in the shops would be empty, and the Postal and Courier services would malfunction completely. In other words, calamity would strike the Nation.

 

Then why must much of the workforce (21%) be employed on the minimum wage, and 30% of people be under the living wage? These are wages that cannot properly support neither the workers nor their families. Why do they and their children go to sleep hungry and cold this spring? Many politicians would argue that being a low-paid worker is only the first rung on the ladder to economic security. The reality is many low-paid workers continue to work on low wages until they reach pension age. Insecurity of employment and the business hierarchy makes it nigh upon impossible for many to secure a higher standard of living. Employers often see the low-paid worker as useful but disposable, unworthy of a pay rise or a promotion.

It is time for this to end. The way forward from this is simple: democracy in the workplace.

 

Worker-owned cooperatives would ensure that wages, promotions, pay rises and profit shares would be agreed by all workers in all positions in the business.

It would also give workers and unions greater power in negotiating for better working conditions, shorter hours and regular payment.

Workers would not attempt to raise their wages unsustainably, as their business (as it is now cooperatively owned) would become bankrupt, and they would subsequently become unemployed.

We would also see employees not only working to achieve what is best for them, but what is best for their co-workers. But above all, it would give all workers a chance to raise their standard of living, something which our current corrupt economic system does not allow. This is not a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream.

 

We have seen democratically-owned business being used sucessfully by the Mondragon Corporation, who employ over 81,000 workers, trade in more than 150 countries and made a profit of €133.7 million in 2018. Some people would say that worker-owned cooperatives would result in a lack of entrepeneurship. This is not true. Worker-owned cooperatives would result in fair wages, not universal wages, still giving entrepeneurs encouragement to start a business. I think that now is the time for the unions to organise a movement towards greater use of the worker cooperative model, to secure a fair, sustainable future for workers.