International Workers’ Day 2022

1 May 2022

CICOPA joins workers around the globe to commemorate this special day, and to pay tribute to workers’ (past and current) struggles for better working conditions and rights.

CICOPA, the International Organization of Industrial and Service Cooperatives, represents worker ownership as a sustainable and dignified type of labor organization. Therefore, on this special day, we also commemorate the millions of cooperative workers-owners who bring democracy to the workplace. Additionally, they collectively fight for more solidarity, for a more inclusive and fairer economy, and for sustainable prosperity.

In the last years, workers around the world have endured difficult times: from seeing their daily work disrupted by the pandemic and suffering from COVID-19 related health and economic concerns, to the current uncertainty of what is to come with the ongoing global supply chain crisis. Yet global cooperation is the way forward. The tens of thousands of worker and social cooperative enterprises around the globe, show us an excellent example of how the needs of workers, communities, and the planet can be respected and satisfied in a sustainable, democratic, and inclusive way.

“A better society is possible. A more democratic enterprise is possible. A better distribution of wealth is possible. Millions of cooperative jobs have already shown it. Together, we can” Says Iñigo Albizuri, CICOPA President

Lastly, we pay tribute to all the workers in cooperatives and their contributions to our current day society, as it is thanks to their sacrifices and demands of fair employment and democratic principles, that we continue achieving social progress.

Happy International Workers’ Day!