A North Carolina Textile Co-Op Gives Immigrant Workers a Stake in the Business
By the example that Opportunity Threads sets, other working people learn new possibilities about how they might end their exploitation and rebuild their lives.
worker-owned co-operatives
Hot and Crusty film featured in the New York Times
After years of working in unsafe conditions, without overtime or benefits and with paychecks regularly withheld, more than a dozen workers decided enough was enough.
A march, a concert, a cooperative
Last Monday five thousand people poured into Ivanofio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, for a concert headlined by Thanassis Papakonstantinou, one of Greece’s foremost folk musicians. The stadium was packed, sold out, and more than a thousand people were left outside, unable to enter and hear the concert. On any other Monday, such a show would be unremarkable, just another event in Greece’s vibrant cultural and educational capital. But on Monday, February 11, these thousands were not just there for the music, they were there in solidarity with the workers of Vio.Me.
A new era: From occupation to workers’ control
This week, Strike Debt tweeted out triumphantly: “It’s a new era. First machine fired up at worker owned factory. #NewEraWindowsandDoors”. For those of us who’ve been following news about the Chicago factory formerly known as Republic Windows and Doors, this was the culmination of years of struggle. It’s an exciting moment, and a victory which hopefully can inspire other factories across the country.