Labour-Sponsored Solidarity Funds are Generating Jobs

By Fernand Daoust

The Solidarity Fund is a financial innovation in North America, and is one of the few similar institutions in the world.

Created in 1983 by the Quebec Federation of Labour, the Fund was born into a period of deep recession in Quebec and Canada. A new investment fund, sponsored by workers themselves, with attractive tax rates for investors was one solution.

The Fund seeks profitability but is founded on the social logic of the creation and maintenance of jobs. In 2003 it had half a million shareholders. From active assets of $4.6 billion, $2.6 billion were invested in 2104 companies, to create, maintain and safeguard over 90,000 jobs in Quebec. It has four guiding principles:

· to invest in suitable companies and provide them with services to create, maintain and safeguard jobs

· to support the training of workers to allow them to increase their influence on the economic development of Quebec

· to stimulate Quebec's economy through strategic investments

· to foster awareness and encourage workers to save for their retirement and contribute to the development of the economy by purchasing Fund shares

It also directs two projects on the African continent, one in Senegal and one in Algeria. By acting with transparency, the Solidarity Fund proposes a new way of managing a sector of the economy, by founding a participative economy where all members are important actors.

(ILO World of Work. no 50, March 2004)