The Labour Party will make private companies employing more than 250 people set up “ownership funds” to give workers financial stakes in their firms if the party comes to power. John McDonnell said in an interview published on Sunday that he would introduce such legislation in the first year of a Labour government - part of the opposition party’s drive to “shift wealth and power in favour of working people. What this will ensure is that in large companies, in addition to rewarding workers with wages, they will reward them with shares that will go into a pool that will allow them to have an ownership role,” McDonnell said.
The news that the John Lewis & Partners, a recent name-change to emphasise the shared ownership has made 1,800 redundancies in the past year must have passed him by. The group is also cutting costs at its head office, stopping investment in new stores, reviewing its pension arrangements and reining in marketing spending.
Chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield said he expects the number of staff will “continue to decline” and as for future bonuses, he stressed that the company would not shy away from taking that figure down to zero if necessary. It seems the so-called partner workers at the John Lewis and Waitrose Stores will be ''asked'' to cut their fellow-workers jobs and conditions again just recently in the interests of modernisation and the commercial interests of the firm.
This blog very recently reported that the department store chain was forced to slash its annual bonus to levels not seen since 1954 following a 77% drop in profits. It marks the fifth straight year of bonus cuts.
We shouldn't make the mistake of seeing cooperatives as providing a vehicle for social change and that they are not immune from the capitalist society they exist within as John McDonnell seemingly does. Let’s not forget that it was only a few years ago that the Tory David Cameron was praising business models like John Lewis.
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