The ILO COOP Unit was invited to present in two sessions at the Open Society Foundations (OSF) . The sessions were part of a week-long ‘labour week’ organized by the Just Future for Workers Working Group, an initiative within OSF for staff and a group of philanthropic donors.

The first session on ‘Organizing of Essential Workers in the time of Covid-19: Strategies, Challenges & Successes’ took place on Monday, 21 September. It sought to identify the strategies that are working on the ground, the underlying conditions for their success, and challenges they are facing to organize effectively.

ILO COOP Unit Manager Simel Esim participated and presented in the session along with presenters from Ghana on waste pickers, from Spain on food delivery workers, and from Jordan on domestic workers and agricultural workers. She reflected on cooperative and wider SSE responses in the post COVID-19 pandemic era, especially among informal and platform economy workers.

The second session that focused on “How Worker Ownership Is Tackling Inequality” was organized by the Economic Justice Programme at OSF and took place on Thursday September 24. It brought in key insights from three diverse initiatives that support building economies based on worker ownership.

The ILO COOP Unit Manager Simel Esim was asked to elaborate on the work of the ILO around worker ownership in the informal economy. While presenters from the Mayor’s Office in NYC, and Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in Basque country in Spain reflected on their experiences.

Among the participants to the sessions during the labour week were Funders Organized for Rights in the Global Economy (FORGE), a collabourative of philanthropic donors, working together towards a global economy that works for all people and the planet, shaped by and accountable to worker- and community-led movements.