workers councils
Employee governance bodies
Workers councils are bodies of employees who collectively manage or participate in governing a workplace, factory, or industry.
The concept emerged from socialist and labor movements, representing direct worker control rather than management by owners or appointed executives.
Workers councils have appeared in revolutionary contexts—Russia in 1917, Germany in 1918—and in some modern European countries as formal structures for employee representation alongside traditional management.
Also spelled *workers' councils*.
- syndicatesOrganized groups sharing enterprise
- shop stewardsElected workplace union officials
- shop floorIndustrial production workspace
- rank and fileOrdinary members collectively
- trade unionsWorker collectives for negotiations
democracy · socialism · consensus · vote · self-management · cooperatives · general strike · sit-down strike · direct action · anarchism · communism · grassroots organizing · Marxism · anti-capitalism · collective bargaining · labor movement · revolutionary movements · ballot
workers councilsmanagement hierarchy
Ranked authority within organizations
top-down management · board of directors · executive committee · corporate hierarchy · one-man rule
workers councilscapitalism
Private profit-based economy
private enterprise · Fordism · neoliberalism · corporatism · free market economy
workers councilsunion busting
Disrupting worker organizing efforts
right-to-work · at-will employment · open shop · wage slavery
worker, workers, council, councils, work, works, worked, working, workable