Employee ownership for union workers: positive outcomes and negative perceptions

Abstract

Unions have a complicated history with employee ownership. Prior to the institutionalisation of collective bargaining, several nascent U.S. union movements in the late 19th century put worker ownership at the centre of their thinking and practice. Since formalised collective bargaining, unions have often resisted participating in employee ownership plans due to concerns about worker financial risk and blurring labour-management boundaries. However, more recently, some unions have experimented with employee ownership as a way to increase job security, income, and worker influence on company decisions. In this exploratory paper, we first assess the prevalence and trends in unionised workers participation in employee ownership plans using Department of Labour data on collectively bargained Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs), plus employee-level data from the 2002–2022 General Social Surveys (GSS). We then use GSS data to compare the effects of employee ownership on union and non-union employee outcomes such as job satisfaction, turnover intention, and quality of work life. The results show that the combination of employee ownership and unions is linked to higher wages, training, and job security but also to more critical views of the workplace and relationships with managers. Importantly, employee ownership does not diminish the perceived need for unions.

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