Work, precariousness and unionism: workers and work cooperatives

Abstract

The objective of this article is to discuss the precarious employment conditions at employee ownership and the role of unions face to this new situation. Cooperatives have multiplied all over the country and the assumed self-management in cooperatives is used, in great measure, as a way of lowering costs. After a period of hesitation facing the new reality, and still oriented according to different areas, industrial sectors and political orientation, unions have been classifying cooperatives in true or false. True cooperatives have the support of unions while false cooperatives, which include greater number of workers, are combated or simply ignored.