Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Let’s just get a real basic definition of worker co-ops out there. It’s a business that is democratically owned and controlled by the workers. So it’s a business in which there’s one worker, one share of the business, and one worker, one vote in the business.
The success of any worker-run farms will spread because it’s easier to be a cooperative entity in places where there are a lot of other cooperative entities
In dozens of cities, worker-owner cooperatives are establishing new enterprises based on joint decision-making, dignified work conditions and fair pay. Utilizing their existing skills and harnessing new ones, these groups are leveraging their labor on their own terms, with a vision to change their industries and the economic landscape. And in this rising movement, people of color, immigrants and women are leading the way.
The “Sharing Economy” is comprised of corporations like Uber and Airbnb—that don’t actually do much sharing. But real alternatives that build community and cooperative ownership are under development…
Three years after Casco watched the streets of his neighborhood of Far Rockaway disappear under water, he was on his way to becoming a worker-owner of Peninsula Custom Prints, a screen-printing cooperative.
The particular form of prejudice masquerading as common sense that bugs me the most (probably because it is the form that has effected me most directly) is the common sense notion that manual labor deserves less monetary compensation than managerial or intellectual labor.
What it boils down to is ensuring an equal emphasis on the “worker” and “owner” of being a worker-owner.
A growing number of business owners are making the decision to turn over ownership to their employees.
Last October, the Sustainable Economies Law Center (the SELC) created an event to discuss the opportunities that our local clothing economy can create…
The worker cooperative movement has hit a new stride. Here are some of the most interesting and innovative worker cooperatives around.
In Argentina, worker ownership requires trust against all odds.
Workers at the New Era Windows Cooperative are celebrating the grand opening of their new unionized, worker-owned and -operated business. Almost a year to the day after their window factory closed, a group of former workers have launched their own window business without bosses. They successfully raised money to buy the factory collectively and run it democratically. In 2008, some of the workers were involved in a famous six-day sit-in after Republic Windows and Doors gave workers just three days’ notice before closing the factory. The sit-in drew national attention and union workers reached a settlement where they each received $6,000 each. About 65 workers occupied the factory after their jobs came under threat again in 2012. We speak to two worker-owners of the just-opened New Era Windows Cooperative and a labor organizer who helped with their fight.
