Partnering with unions
This job quality intervention outlines how to use unions as critical partners in advancing shared job quality and equity goals.
Voice and Representation
Valuing and acting upon employee input and engagement through surveys, stay interviews, employee resource groups and meaningful task forces or improvement teams. This may also include open-book management, broad employee ownership (e.g., through employee stock ownership plans [ESOPs]), participatory management (co-operative), opportunities for workers to participate in collective action and productive relationships with organized labor.
How others put this principle into practice
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A practice of using a board of low-income essential workers charged with advising the county on protecting essential workers’ rights, purchasing and contracting policies, workforce development programs, tax abatement and incentive policies, community benefits agreements, distribution of federal COVID-19 relief and recovery funds, disaster preparedness and recovery programs, OSHA trainings, independent monitoring of local, state and federal public health and labor laws and inclusive economic development planning.
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Tucson, Arizona used American Rescue Plan funds for a study on small business retention risks and offered technical assistance to assess feasibility and implement employee ownership transitions.
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A program using free cooperative feasibility training and technical assistance for businesses considering conversion to cooperative ownership models.
Ways you can get started
Employee ownership
This job quality initiative outlines how workforce and economic development agencies can leverage employee ownership to raise wages and increase assets for companies and organizations, as well as decrease job turnover.