I’m interested in leftist opinions of employee-owned companies. If that’s still too broad, could you give some examples of employees buying their employer out? Or are there other ways, like with a union?
Also, what’s up with King Arthur’s and Bob’s Red Mill?
It depends on the form of employee ownership as to whether it works out for the employees.
In trucking, the industry uses the owner-operator model as a way to push costs onto employees and skirt labor laws. On paper, the truckers are their own bosses. In reality, they are effectively employees of logistics companies where the logistics companies can pay their employees less than minimum wage and push maintenance costs onto their employees.
In this case, ownership is used as a tool of oppression.
Yup, don’t be sole owner if you can’t afford a lawyer to make sure you get a good deal