Elon Law Professor Eric Fink discussed worker-ownership and self-management in public services at a UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law symposium on February 25.
The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at Boyd organized the symposium on contemporary issues in labor and employment law, titled, “Democracy and the Workplace.”
Fink presented, “Sewer Syndicalism: Worker Self-Management in Public Services,” examining the distinction between government and private management of public services within a historical-sociological context. Fink’s research questions the reality and significance of the distinction between government and private management of services, and instead views these as variant forms of bureaucratic control.
His article proposes a model of worker self-managed service provision as an alternative to both government control and privatization.
“This proposal is motivated by an apparent resurgence of interest in worker-ownership and self-management, as reflected in such recent trends as the U.N. designation of 2012 as the International Year of the Cooperative, and the implementation of a worker-ownership model of public service administration in Great Britain,” Fink writes.
Click here for information about Elon Law Professor Eric Fink.