Suara Cooperativa participated this Tuesday in the 1st Catalan Labor Congress. The president of Suara, Laia Bonastra, was part of the round table "Work in a social and solidarity economy" in which, together with other professionals from various cooperatives, they reflected and debated on the key elements that cooperatives bring to the future of work and its importance for the development of an economy for life.
Bonastra spoke about Suara's cooperative model, delving into aspects such as democratization and the participation of working people, as well as the importance of reproductive work. In this sense, Laia Bonastra explained that Suara's model "is based on its values: innovation (technology is incorporated into all of Suara's activities), proximity (the cooperative's activity revolves around professional people, employees, customers and collaborators), participation (the cooperative is managed democratically from the empowerment of people) and socially responsible (from a root in the territory and the positive contribution of its community)."
On the other hand, Bonastra has also remarked that "the key to the cooperatives' work being sustainable both socially and ecologically is to really think about the person at the center". The president of Suara has explained that one of the practices of the cooperative to maintain this idea has been the creation of Benestarum, "a global health service to offer the working people of companies to improve their well-being", among other practices.
The session was closed by debating the role that both the administrations and the cooperative movement must play to move towards the formation of a transformative plural economy and the necessary collaboration and inter-cooperation with other socio-economic agents in the country.
Under the motto "Work in a new economy for life", the 1st Catalan Work Congress has brought together around fifty speakers and more than 1,500 registered attendees to reflect on the new professional realities, or the relationship between the world of work and social transformations, among others.
