It's important that members choose voluntarily, as did the bank employees, to become members. Coerced membership would be meaningless. This means, for example, that a fishing co-op can only serve fishing people. The ICA Congress also declared that cooperatives should reach out to all citizens able to benefit from the co-op enterprise. Democratic member control.
Members ultimately control their cooperatives, in a democratic manner.
When you attend your credit union's annual meeting or vote for the board of directors, you're exercising your member-owner control. And, members have equal voting rights in a cooperative, called the one member, one vote principle. Member economic participation. Cooperatives operate so that capital is the servant, not the master, of the organization. Autonomy and independence.