How would a business like this get started? Usually the owner is the one who invests a lot of their own time and/or money into the business to get it off the ground in the first place. Would we be asking workers to pony up in those early years when failure is likely? With Central States, the story picks up AFTER all that, when the business is already large and successful, and the owner just wants to retire.
And what happens when the business struggles or fails later? In the case of Central States, the workers were asked to buy shares from the owner, probably using a portion of the salary they'd otherwise get. IOW, they're being underpaid relative to market, in exchange for ownership, expecting to get more later when they sell the shares. So far so good, but how does this look when the business has a rough patch, even one that's not their fault?