Fixing the Future: Co-operatives and Trade Unions Working Together - 23 October, Manchester

Fixing the Future: Co-operatives and Trade Unions Working Together

Quaker Meeting House/Friends' Meeting House

6 Mount street, Manchester M2 5NS 

23rd October 2025, 17:00-19:00 (GMT)

This event explores how trade unions and co-operatives can collaborate in the UK. Fragmentation of work and precariousness among workers are symptoms of a general crisis of the political system and social atomisation. 

A recent report ( Martínez Lucio ert al., 2025) examines how co-operative-based activists in a variety of contexts view the role of trade unions, and how a renewed dialogue might emerge. It is based on a series of seven interviews with consultancies dealing with co-operatives, as well as with co-operatives themselves, and attendance at various conferences concerning trade unions and co-operatives. A series of short case studies demonstrates the challenges and barriers to trade unions and co-operatives developing closer links, while also highlighting the benefits of setting up and being involved in co-operative forms of organisation and structures to build solidarity, extend workers' control and challenge inequalities.

Questions to be considered include:

• What do trade unions add to co-operatives?
• What do co-operatives add to trade unions?
• What are the benefits of collaboration for a progressive economy and decent work?

Please register for attendance: tickets for this free event are now available via eventbrite - follow the link below.

You can also read the report - follow the link below or download the PDF.