User:Toussaint/Worker-consumer cooperative

A worker-consumer cooperative is a hybrid of the  consumers' cooperative and worker cooperative concepts, although  it can be interpreted in two ways:
 * a cooperative in which a lower minimum of labor is defined as a prerequisite for membership and, hence, equal ownership of the profits  and proceeds
 * a cooperative which simply allows for both workers and consumers to achieve member-ownership.

In the former case, a major goal is to maximize a cooperative's workforce from a select group of experienced, hired and  regularly-attendant workers to a much larger pool of erstwhile customers  who contribute a required minimum of work (in some cases, at least once  a month ) in order to retain stock in the company, gain proceeds and  possess a basic income. It theoretically retains the potential demographic breadth and democracy of the consumer cooperative, but also  provides the benefits of employment/job security and an insurance safety net that would come with membership in a worker cooperative; furthermore, possessing the status of workers, they would also be eligible for organizing labor unions which campaign for workers' rights, privileges and interests inside the cooperative, and as equal worker-owners, they would not be able to vote for the redundancy of other worker-owners.