Worker and community cooperatives: A multi-criterion model

We envision an enterprise owned by an association of its employees. The enterprise may employ nonmember as well as member labor. All are paid the same wage, but member-employees also accrue credit toward a pension as a benefit of their employment. Nonmember employees do not receive this benefit. Nonmember employees may be allowed to “buy in” as members for a share value that does not dilute the retirement fund, but only at the discretion of the existing members. As a consequence, the workers’ association is not strictly a cooperative, since membership is not “open.” One of the purposes of this inquiry, however, will be to determine under what circumstances the workers’ association will recruit new members.