Creating Sustainable Jobs Through Union Co-ops With Rob Witherell

The United Steelworkers (USW) and Mondragon International announced a collaboration in 2009 to develop and grow sustainable jobs in the U.S. and Canada. The seeds of this collaboration were born from a visit to Mondragon by Rob Witherell in 2008 and began to take root amid the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. After lots of questions and discussion with people around the country about how unions and co-ops could, or if they even should, work together, the USW and Mondragon International, with the support of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC), released a white paper titled, "Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model," in 2012, written by Rob Witherell (USW), Michael Peck (Mondragon International), and Chris Cooper (OEOC). In short, this model draws extensively from Mondragon, adapting Mondragon's Social Councils to be Union Bargaining Committees in the U.S. and Canada. The USW and Mondragon International collaboration led to the creation of 1worker1vote in 2015. In this webinar, Rob will discuss how and why unions and cooperatives should work together, some of the challenges and lessons learned over the years in working on Union Co-ops, where Union Co-ops have taken root in recent years, and the opportunities ahead of us.

Rob works for the United Steelworkers at its headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, and has 30 years of experience in the labor movement, including union organizing, contract negotiations, benefits, financial analysis, strategic campaigns, and research. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor's degree in business administration (1993) and a masters in labor studies (1996).

Optional prereading: Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model by Rob Witherell, Chris Cooper, and Michael Peck