[clarkevans]

> What almost always happens in these cases is that most of shares are owned by the first few worker

I've not seen this to be the common case. It depends upon the organizational structure. At one extreme, a cooperative can be seen as a limited partnership; but at the other, membership is open to those who meet reasonable criteria.

In cooperatives, there is often a difference between investor shares (if any) and voting shares. Early owners might have some investor shares (notes to cover capital investment) but, their voting shares are often on-par with new members.

In some states, cooperatives are kinds of non-profits; others, such as Colorado, have their own statutory basis that permit investor shares (rather than only allowing notes at a fixed, say, 5% interest rate). The new Illinois worker-cooperative statute permits up-to 50% investor shares, for example -- just short of controlling interest.

Also, it's a bit of semantics here: I'd call this a platform cooperative rather than a worker cooperative.