Videos on sustainable employment

"Qualcosa in più" (Something Extra) tells the story of Bruno, Alessandro, Salvatore, Guido, etc., their professional experience in a social cooperative and the fact that this work means “being, learning and doing something extra” according to these protagonists. The B-type cooperatives were created to offer work opportunities and social integration in various entrepreneurial sectors. The documentary approaches work in the sector of green zones, maintenance and services linked to environment in social cooperatives from the Mantova region (Italy) affiliated to the Sol.Co. Mantova consortium. Thanks to the integration in the cooperative, a person is accompanied by a tutor and experiences the inclusion into the labour world within a sheltered environment and the creation of a personalized project which is a fulfilling experience from the personal and professional point of view. Beyond the significant value of the human being, the insertion through work has a clearly lower cost compared to what would be necessary for a social assistance of socially weakened or marginalized people. "Qualcosa in più" has been done in the framework of the “Senza Sbarre” Project (Without Barriers) which promoted experiences of integration through various communication means, social cohesion or social inclusion through work, including disadvantaged people.

In the context of the “2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion”, the European Commission released a series of video clips highlighting facts and figures relating to poverty as well as good practices from 29 countries, putting them in a European perspective. The video about Italy shows the story of Europe Consulting, a social cooperative based in the Roma Termini station that aims to improve the situation of homeless people that live or look for shelter in the station. Indeed, not only social cooperatives but also worker cooperatives helps to improve people’s conditions around the world since they generate sustainable jobs on one hand but they also contribute to safeguard employment on the other hand.

The French and German television channel ARTE is presenting a documentary on worker cooperatives. The program focuses on « Stone Industry », an enterprise composed by 27 employees located between Lyon and Grenoble in France, where Jean-Louis Koch has been the manager for 3 years. The cooperative manufactures chains of bottle-stopperswhich go to the vineyards. The peculiarity here is that the boss is also a technician, and the workers are in charge too.

This extract comes from a documentary on Macoretz-Macobois, a french worker cooperative in the building sector.

This extract shows the decision making process in the worker cooperative CEPAM, an industrial woodworker’s factory in Poitou-charentes that has been reopened as a worker cooperative at the end of 2008 by its workers.

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What is a cooperative

Cooperatives a sustainable employment solution!

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

Enterprises represented by CECOP are enterprises in which workers unite to satisfy their needs in terms of creation of sustainable jobs. They can be industrial enterprises or services rooted in the territories and having a long-term strategy. They are a genuine solution for sustainable jobs in Europe: they are broken down into workers’ cooperatives, social cooperatives and other types of enterprises owned by their workers.

Workers’ cooperatives: Workers’ cooperatives are enterprises subject to the same restrictions of competition, management and profitability as other companies. Their originality lies in the fact that their workers hold the majority of the shares, at least 51%. In doing so, the workers decide jointly on the major guidelines of their enterprises and appoint their leaders (managers, boards of directors, etc.). They also decide on how to share the profit with a twofold aim: to give the preference to the workers of the enterprises, in the form of refunds based on the work done and to consolidate the enterprises with a view to handing it over onto the future generations, i.e. creating reserves to reinforce the equity and ensuring thereby the sustainability of their enterprises. In all cooperatives, the internal democratic control is based on the principle of “one man, one vote” whatever the capital share held by the respective workers. Finally, the cooperative spirit promotes its employees information and training, a prerequisite to develop the autonomy, the motivation and responsibility, accountability required in an economic world which has become insecure. (Source: www.scop.coop)

Social cooperatives: Social cooperatives are specialised in the provision of social services or reintegration of disadvantaged and marginalised workers (disabled, long-term unemployed, former detainees, addicts, etc.). A large number of such cooperatives have been set up in Italy but also in other EU countries. Most of them are owned by their workers while offering the possibility or providing for the obligation (according to the national laws) to involve other types of members (users, voluntary workers, etc.).

Other types of enterprises owned by their workers: There are other types of enterprises owned by their workers such as for example the “Sociedades Laborales” in Spain which are real driving forces of economic and social activities which have contributed to lower the unemployment level and to revamp a sustained growth in Spain.