From working on values to transforming social activities : how to update the principle of "by and for all"?

Résumé En

Problems relating to the collective organisation of work and the occupational lives of employees working at firms in what has come to be known as “the social and solidarity-based economy” are nothing new. It is necessary for these firms to adopt a specific legal status to be able to function on “participative democracy” lines, but it is not sufficient. The following general question will be taken here as a starting-point: “How is it possible to involve employees in planning, organising and managing their own work to enable them to work differently?”To address this question, it is proposed to present a case study on a trade union establishment of a special kind, at which many social innovations have been introduced in terms of the conditions of work and the employees’ membership of the wage-earners’ community. As we will see, when employees are invited to participate in designing changes, standard methods of staff consultation do not suffice to incite them to express themselves: it is necessary to create a space where they can think about and discuss their problems and learn to voice their personal opinions.