Employee-owned is very different from employee-managed.

I recall VW put a single member of labor on their board; it broke the company as other members courted the vote of the uninformed labor rep, giving up perks until labor costs were bankrupting the place.

Companies operating in a competitive environment have to be pretty efficient. Optimizing a company for employee benefits is pretty much at odds with that. I know, they will all be more loyal etc. But that's different from lowering product cost and controlling profit margins. You fail to make payroll even one week, the game's over.

An anecdotal characterization of the members of a board catering to a single representative of labor on that board isn't a model for what employee managed companies look like.

Of course, since labor representation on boards is widespread in Germany, most medium to large German businesses are a good example. I assume the German economy is in tatters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codetermination_in_Germany

Forgive me for my ignorance. Lets consider what happens when the workers run the company, not when they have some small input. Experienced management is crucial to correct operation. They folks in the mail room, the factory floor, the loading dock are perhaps not going to have the same motivations as someone trained and charged with deciding the future direction of the business?

If we presuppose educated and trained labor members who are used in management, well then I guess we have that now? In every company everywhere.