A workers coop is a company that is owned and managed by the workers of that company. The reason they're good is also the reason that they're rare: they don't extract value from the workers. This makes the company a nice place to work, but it also makes them less attractive to investors and money-motivated founders.

Workers coops are democratic organisations in the wild. They make far more of a difference to the lives of the people working in them than the national democratic system. Being able to choose and influence your working life is more liberating than voting every 5 years for what colour tie the head of the government wears.

I have worked inside and with worker coops for the past 8 years, and lived in a housing coop* for the 4 years prior to that. I've had a lot of good experiences and some challenging ones, but in the end I am happy to stand up and say that for the vast majority of companies, they would be much better run as coops.

*workers coop = work minus the boss, housing coop = renting minus the landlord