The theme of this year’s International Day of Co-operatives, on 6 July, is “co-ops for decent work”.
Celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July, the United Nations International Day of Co-operatives aims to raise awareness of the movement. At global level co-ops employ more than 279 million people, almost 10% of humanity’s total working population.
Every year the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Co-operatives (COPAC) chooses a theme and slogan for the day. The group includes the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Farmers’ Organization (WFO).
The theme also feeds into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goal 8 – Securing decent work and economic growth.
“Co-operatives help to preserve employment and promote decent work in all sectors of the economy. Through participation, members have a motivation to change their lives, their communities and the world,” said ICA president Ariel Guarco.
The ICA is encouraging co-ops to use the day as an opportunity to highlight that they are people-centred enterprises run democratically by members. The alliance has released a logo (in English, French and Spanish) for co-ops to promote the day and will be launching a Coopsday interactive map and a co-operators’ guide to the day itself.
More information on the day is available at www.coopsday.coop.
Here’s some Co-op News stories on how co-ops are striving for a better future of work:
Freelancers co-op joins forces with Community union to boost self-employment rights
Helping workers find employment in a world of automation
Cincinnati experiments with co-op/union hybrid
Future of Work Report highlights role of co-operatives in empowering workers
Trade unions and co-ops partnering to protect precarious workers
New app to offer worker-friendly rival to Deliveroo
