Blue Scorcher Bakery Celebrates Transition to a Worker Cooperative

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Hipfish Monthly looks back on the history of Astoria, Oregon's Blue Scorcher Bakery and Café. 

 

In 2009 co-founders Joe Garrison and Iris Sullivan Daire (married partners) began meeting more formally with a group of the workers who were interested in developing the business as a co-op. While Joe and Iris have officially been the owners in a DBA structure, “From the beginning it was a very participatory, collective business,” says Iris.

 

Flashback 2004, many customers to Blue Scorcher will remember The Bread Collective, the more humble beginnings of the busy bakery/café — about 5 folks gathered together in the back of a former restaurant, to bake good organic bread together and tasty cookies, and make it available to desiring consumers. What seemed rather experimental at the time has since evolved into one of Astoria’s most popular community gathering places. On a recent stormy weekday afternoon, there was a substantial crowd both at the bakery takeout counter and at the restaurant tables, where patrons enjoyed a daily special of fragrant garbanzo tangine soup served of course, with a gargantuan chunk of bread hand made in the bread oven a few feet away. Unlike most restaurants, here one of numerous chef/cooks delivers your meal to you, a touch that seems especially homey. The Blue Scorcher has also long been a large part of both the social and philanthropic scene in Astoria, hosting the late summer Lughnasa Fest, celebrating local growers and sustainability practices, Full Moon monthly dinner gatherings, making the dining area available to numerous types of events and bread donations to community organizations.

 

As the Blue Scorcher has curbed some if its own community productions, the focus now has turned to the work of creating cooperative bylaws, and membership agreements as six worker members step up to the cooperative plate with earnest monies. And while a worker-cooperative model serves a practical economic approach, Iris Sullivan Daire speaks passionately to the humanistic qualities that the coop structure allows, “When you have a voice, you are more fully human. When you are separate from what you do [in your place of employment] it becomes enslavement.” The cooperative environment, as the Blue Scorcher proves too, is creating space for people to transition in life and in their relationship to work.

 

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Shot In The Dark Café Cooperative, Tucson Arizona

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"Shot In The Dark Café worker cooperative  is a collectively owned and operated coffee shop / restaurant.  We serve 100% organic, fair trade coffee and espresso.  We have a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu,  served 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even on holidays!  Coffee, espresso drinks, house made chai, fresh cookies, homemade pastries.  Great food and generous portions, options for vegetarians, vegans and carnivores, and breakfast all day!  Live music & open mic night, art gallery, plenty of comfy seating, ethernet outlets, free WiFi and well-ventilated indoor smoking patio!  We also offer a selection of cigarettes!

 

Unlike the vast majority of businesses in Tucson or elsewhere, Shot in the Dark Cafe is owned and operated by its entire staff.  What this means is that everyone who works here owns part of the business, has a share in all profits and has a say regarding all major decisions. No major changes can be made to the business, nor can anyone be hired or fired, without passing a vote of the entire staff."

 

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Florida Radio Show Talks About Cooperatives with Rodney North of Equal Exchange

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The Florida call-in show Let's Talk About It! chats with Rodney North of Equal Exchange and Gowri Krishna of the Urban Justice Center about worker cooperatives.   Appearances are also made by Michael Elsas of Cooperative Home Care Associates and Maria Ferreira, Center for Family Life.   The segment is the second half of the show, starting at 32:20.

Gainesville Business Journal Highlights Florida Cooperatives

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The Gainesville Business Report has an article on the thriving cooperative movement in the "eclectic" university town in North Central Florida, including the worker-owned restaurant Civilization. 

 

Gainesville’s eclectic culture has spawned several co-operative businesses in recent years, providing the community with access to good food and great art, creating great places to gather and giving members pride of ownership…

 

...Prosser was intent upon operating a business in which the workers were the owners when he bought Terranova Catering three years ago. He was buoyed by the availability of top-notch staff with whom he had worked at the Paramount Grill and other restaurants.  There was a catch. Most of the workers he started with didn’t get it, Prosser says. “They couldn’t get used to a different way of doing things. Democracy can be frustrating.”

 

Fortunately, Prosser and his wife, Ann Murray, have found an ample supply of workers, many of them artists, who embrace the idea of becoming part of a worker-owned cooperative as he expanded Terranova and started Civilization restaurant, Prosser says.  In addition to the 10 owners-workers, Civilization has 15 other workers, most of whom are interested in making the $1,000 commitment—which can be paid over time—to become owners, Murray says.  Among those involved is Caroline Hines, one of the few original staff who has remained with the business. Hines, who manages the catering business, says being an owner makes people like their jobs better  “It makes you responsible and aware of what needs to be done,” she says. “If I see that the plants need to be watered, I water them. If I see that the mat needs to be swept, I sweep it.”

 

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Shift Change Filmmakers Visit Madison Worker Cooperatives

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Another great article is up on the blog of Shift Change, a documentary film in progress telling the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.

 

Madison is the state capital, seat of the University of Wisconsin, and home to several worker cooperatives that have been in business for over 30 years.   Rebecca works at Union Cab, founded in 1979, which now boasts 228 worker members – drivers, mechanics, office staff, and dispatchers. Committed to environmental sustainability, they are replacing gas guzzling Crown Victorias with hybrid vehicles. And they designed their own computerized dispatch system to respond to calls for service with the nearest available vehicle, reducing mileage and improving service and efficiency.  Rebecca drove us around and pointed out other long standing Madison coops like Nature’s Bakery and Community Pharmacy. “Worker cooperatives are sustainable businesses, especially in hard times. They are more flexible with changes in the market and give the highest priority to people working in the business. In the U.S. few people are aware of worker cooperatives, but with the economic crisis we are finding lots of interest.”

 

Inspired by Mondragón’s example, Isthmus Engineering was founded 25 years ago. The cooperative designs and builds state of the art automation systems for a broad range of industries. With 50 employees, the majority worker owners, Isthmus is highly project oriented. Self-directed teams of mechanical and controls engineers, plus highly skilled electricians and machinists, collaborate to design, build, and test equipment that meets their customers’ needs.   “The core principle is one worker one vote, not each dollar one vote,” says founder John Kessler. “We’re not giving up anything by being a worker cooperative. It’s an excellent way to run a business.”

 

 

Read other articles from the Shift Change Blog:

Job Opening: Business Manager, Union Cab Cooperative, Madison WI

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Union Cab of Madison, a Worker Cooperative in Madison, WI, is hiring a Business Manager.  Excellent communication and team leadership skills are required.  If interested please visit www.unioncab.coop/businessmanager for more information.  Union Cab is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer.

Business Manager Opening

Union Cab is a worker-owned cooperative founded in 1979.  We have 240 members, and are located in Madison, Wisconsin.  We are looking for a Business Manager to fill the following job description:

Objectives:
Insure the financial sustainability of the cooperative while achieving the cooperative’s mission and maintain its core values.  Provide an overview of the different segments of the organization and ensure communication among the management teams and between the Board, management teams, and the membership.   Help plan for the cooperative’s future and develop infrastructure for the cooperative to maintain sustainability.

The Democracy at Work Network: Peer Technical Assistance for Worker Cooperatives

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"The Democracy at Work Network (DAWN) is a network of certified peer advisors, all with strong social and professional ties, who cooperate in training themselves and providing technical assistance services to worker cooperatives. Our goals are to 

  • meet the demand for technical assistance and development advice with high-quality services, and
  • increase worker cooperative technical assistance capacity from inside the movement.

Worker cooperatives, like all small businesses, require professional services to support the creation and functioning of their business. Due to the specialized nature of worker ownership, they also require specialized assistance in setting up financial, governance, operations, and decision-making structures, as well as training in democratic management. DAWN is organizing to meet these needs."

 

"Our peer technical assistants are ready to help out with your worker cooperative.  We need to know where your group is in your development, and what sort of help you're looking for. Make a request for support by filling out our short form."

 

DAWN peer advisors are past and present workers for Sligo Web Works, Grassroots Economic Organizing Collective, CooperationWorks!, Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy , Electric Embers, Western Worker Cooperative Conference, NoBAWC, Beautiful World Cooperative Development Services , Brass Tacks, Woodshanti, Rainbow Grocery, U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, Union Cab of Madison, New Orleans Food Coop, People’s Food Co-op, Cooperative Economics for Women,  Cooperative Development Institute, Worker Owned and Run Cooperative Network , Equal Exchange, Data Commons, Arizmendi Association, and Arizmendi Bakery. 

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Founders of Local Sprouts in Portland, Maine talk about their Cooperative

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"Local Sprouts' mission is to provide people in Maine with creative local and organic food and holistic learning through cooking food for our community. Local Sprouts is a new culinary and cultural organization that focuses on connecting people through sharing cooked food, mutual support, knowledge and developing local self-reliance." 

Co-owner Jonah Fertig talks to the Grassroots Activist Guild:

Co-owner Hanifa Washington and Jonah get a visit from the Green Living Project:

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Peter Watkins' Docudrama: La Commune, Paris 1871

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As a tangental nod to the emergence of the Occupy protests and their spontaneous democratic structures, here's Peter Watkins' epic (5 hour) docudrama, popular education ensemble theater, and anachronistic media critique, La Commune, Paris 1871.   The worker cooperatives begin to organize late in hour 3, though of course the excerpt is more meaningful if you've been following the tale for a while.    

Here 's a taste, where "CommuneTV" interviews Parisians behind the barricades to find out what their demands are.

"La Commune is the name given to the French revolutionary government established by the people of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). On March 17 and 18, Parisians led an uprising against the national government, which fled the capital and re-established itself in Versailles. The radicals established a proletarian government in Paris, called the Central Committee of the National Guard, and set March 26 as the date for the election of a municipal council. This council became known as the Commune of 1871, and its members as Communards. Most Communards were followers of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a revolutionary held prisoner in Versailles by the head of the National Assembly, Adolphe Thiers. Other Communards supported the school of socialism expounded by the French philosopher Pierre Joseph Proudhon and members of the International Workingmen's Association, of which Karl Marx was then a corresponding secretary.

 

For the film LA COMMUNE we travel back in time to 1871. A journalist for Versailles Television broadcasts a soothing and official view of events while a Commune television is set up to provide the perspectives of the Paris rebels. On a stage-like set, more than 200 actors interpret characters of the Commune, especially the Popincourt neighborhood in the XIth arrondissement. They voice their own thoughts and feelings concerning the social and political reforms. The telling of this story rests primarily on depicting the people of the Commune, and those who suppressed them.

 

Deliberately, this film is an attempt to challenge existing notions of documentary film, as well as the notions of 'neutrality' and 'objectivity' so beloved by the mass media today. The film is not intended as an apologia on behalf of the Paris Commune. But at the same time, it attempts to show that the Paris Commune, for all its human frailty, its internal conflicts and its blundering, was an event of major importance, not least because of the way in which its leading reformers tried to work with social process, by a direct involvement with the community and its needs."

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NoBAWC Considers Changes in Governance

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The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, the oldest regional worker cooperative federation in the U.S. since its founding in 1994, may be going through some structural changes because of difficulties getting member cooperatives to seat volunteers to governing board seats. 

 

At the 10/6/10 NoBAWC general membership meeting, it was agreed by consensus that NoBAWC would begin functioning with an Interim Board because it has had difficulty over the last couple of years getting people to run for the NoBAWC Board…. the Interim Board was charged with drafting proposal(s) for the membership to consider aimed at solving the chronic problem of not getting enough people to run for the NoBAWC Board (and any other related structural issues).   Although the Interim Board was supposed to end its service on May 31, 2011, it continues to exist because there has not yet been a decision made by the membership about how to proceed. The Interim Board has not met for several months and has transferred some of its responsibilities to the staff.

 

The following 3 proposals are submitted by the Interim Board to the general membership for consideration.

  • Proposal A (Lottery for Filling Non-staff Board Seats) keeps the basic Board structure in place, but changes the way non-staff Board seats are filled.
  • Proposal B (Indefinite Suspension of the NoBAWC Board) shifts Board responsibilities to the staff and to the general membership.
  • Proposal C (Call for a Caucus of NoBAWC Workplaces) looks outside current NoBAWC practices to have an extended meeting focusing on the current state of NoBAWC in order to determine what structural changes NoBAWC should make.

 

The Bay Area has the largest concentration of worker cooperatives in the U.S.  The network made a change from a less formal group to dues-paying organization with part-time staff in 2005 and an elected board in 2006. 

 

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Nascent Cooperative Network in Buffalo: Farmers and Builders

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A group in Buffalo is laying the groundwork for a network of worker cooperatives, housing cooperatives, and urban gardens.   

 

Their draft network chart:

 

 

The Farmer Cooperative will help us share resources, including joint equity in the land we use to grow our food.  Initially, this cooperative will hold ownership of 30 vacant lots in two clusters. Each cluster of lots will be leased to the groups of individuals who will work together to cultivate the land for their own purposes. The cooperative will also facilitate sharing equipment needed for cultivation and composting, as well as bulk purchasing.  The initial members of the cooperative include the urban farms below and the Wilson St Farm….

 

The Builder Cooperative will be a worker cooperative that will function similar to a development company and a general contractor.  The resources to complete development projects will be a combination of the sweat equity of worker-owners, investment from people who will use the property, and investment from the community. The joint equity resulting from each project will reflect the amount of labor and monetary contributions made during the development effort.

 

 

Fish, Pies, the Commons and Economic Development

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Ed Whitfield explores how we think and talk about sharing at the Fund 4 Democratic Communities blog

I’m going to talk a little about fish. Not real fish. I’m not a fisherman, although I have cleaned my share from an uncle who loved to fish and eat them, but didn’t want to scale them and remove the guts. But I’m going to talk about metaphorical fish, the kinds that keep showing up in discussions of self reliance and education.  But first a brief digression: I want to mention pies. Another important metaphor.

Why do we talk so much about pies? Slice of the pie, bigger pie, make our own pies, pie chart, etc. Why do we talk about pies and not talk about fish when it comes to sharing?

 

Pies are not natural. They are simple, easy to divide, relatively uniform whether in a circle or a box, and they make good charts and graphs. Some of the discussion about the economy and economic justice is about pies and dividing things equally. Some folks propose that the current social division of goods and services or even income and wealth, should be redone so everyone gets the same or a fair amount. This redistribution discussion quickly brings up the challenge of some people who don’t want to give up something so that other people can get something that often the folks who have to give up something think they don’t deserve. It is called a zero-sum-game where getting something means someone else losing the same amount. Those who do fairly well with the status quo are afraid of those who are disadvantaged taking something away from them. Pies get us in trouble.

 

Economic participation is more like fish than pies. It is complex and hard to divide fairly—who gets the head, who gets the fins, who gets the filets and who consistently gets only the fish guts?

 

We are much better off talking about folks catching their own fish for themselves rather than trying to divide something so complex. But, that brings me to the “great fish lie”. You have all heard it: “Give a person a fish, they eat for a day, teach a person to fish, they eat for a lifetime.” It’s vicious lie. I used to tell it myself, until I thought long and hard about it and did some research. It became clear to me that just knowing how to fish was insufficient. Knowing how to fish will not feed you at all. You have to also have access to a water hole – lake, ocean, river or stream — someplace where fish can be found – and even then, you needed access to some fishing stuff. We can hardly catch fish with our bare hands. We need a pole and line, hook, bait, sinker, float, or some such maybe even less, but still some tools and equipment suited to the fish we want to catch. The idea that knowing how to fish would feed you rang hollow and useless when we live in a world where knowing stuff is relatively easy, but gaining access to the things we need to be productive can be quite difficult. It is another way of blaming people for being poor and hungry because they won’t learn about fishing.

 

Nuts and Bolts Presentation to Occupy Wall Street Cooperatives

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Aaron Dawson and Joe Marraffino of the Democracy at Work Network spoke to members of emerging Occupy Wall Street cooperatives last weekend about the nuts and bolts of worker cooperative finance, governance and law.   The emerging cooperatives are groups that rose to meet the needs of the movement and operated democratically out of principle.  Now looking to the next phase of development, the groups were looking for some practical tips.   The groups included the Occupy Kitchen, as well as Screen printing and Printing groups, and are supported by the Worker Co-operative Working Group.  Other conversations  between the Occupy and worker cooperative communities have happened in Oakland, and a statement of support made by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives.

Following the presentation was a panel of worker-owners to talk about their experiences, including

 

More detail and resources from the event are available at the event-sponsoring SolidarityNYC website.

Aaraon and Joe's presentation:

Adam Trott's presentation on the Valley Alliance and creating meso-level organization:

Worker-owners of Quilted and Just Walk talk about their cooperatives

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Corey Reidy interviewed Ben Mauer of Quilted and Joshua Stephens from Just Walk at last July's Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy.   The full transcripts are available at Baltimore's Indypendent Reader.

 

Indyreader:  Do you want to talk about your cooperative?

 

Ben: Sure, so my cooperative is called Quilted.  We're five people. One on the East Coast in Boston and four on the West Coast in Berkeley. We do web development for social justice organizations, small businesses, and other worker cooperatives. We started in 2007 and before that we had been a sort of loose collection of freelancers for about three years, since 2005. And in 2007, we sort of decided to take the plunge and actually remove all the barriers that are … the sort of paperwork barriers around subcontracting to each other that being independent contractors has. So, we were like, let's just incorporate. That way we can work together more easily and collaborate as a default, rather than as an exception.

 

Listen to audio of the interview

 

Indyreader: Could you explain what Just Walk is?

 

Joshua: We are a worker-owned and operated collective of dog walkers and pet care professionals in: Washington D.C., Baltimore, and New York City.

 

Indyreader: For you and your business, what is the importance of worker-owned and operated businesses?

 

Joshua: I mean I could probably say that there's this broader political vision and whatnot. But even if I didn't have faith in that,  I would say... that just on an ethical level -  I don't think I would be able to look myself in the mirror, [while] extracting value from other people's labor.  I think that the only way to engage in entrepreneurial sorts of endeavors, assuming that someone doesn't want to be a wage slave somewhere as an employee, the only way to do that entrepreneurial sort of thing, is on equal footing with other people in collaboration, a spirit of mutuality, and cooperation.

 

Listen to audio of the interview

USFWC Fall 2011 Newsletter

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An archive of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives' Newsletters is available at their website. 

 

Articles from Fall 2011

  • SBA Okays Loans to Worker Cooperatives Through Cooperative Fund of New England, by Melissa Hoover
  • Cooperatives: A Unique Engine for Asset-Development, by Stu Schneider, Cooperative Home Care Associates
  • Member Spotlight: Pelham Auto Parts
  • Wisconsin: Hundreds of Thousands of People Fight Back for Months, by Ole Olson, Isthmus Engineering
  • A Mayor Friendly to Worker Cooperatives, by John McNamara, Union Cab Cooperative
  • Western Worker Cooperative Conference 2011, by Monica Cuneo
  • A Record Number of Worker-Owners Connect at the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, by Neily Jennings

 

 

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From Coast to Coast, Low-Wage Workers Counter Unemployment with Co-Ops

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From the NYU Women of Color Policy Network

 

As unemployment and joblessness soar, low-wage workers across the country are embracing and successfully developing co-operative business structures. Here are some stories of workers who are taking control and reducing their risk of exploitation, while lifting wages and gaining managerial experience.

 

In Richmond, California, Mayor Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, inspired by co-operatives in Mondragon, Spain is encouraging new worker-owned ventures. Richmond's co-operative businesses include the up and coming Liberty Ship Cafe that will cater to city employees, and Richmond Solar, which will be a solar energy cooperative. In Cleveland, Ohio Evergreen Cooperatives boasts a solar energy and weatherization business, a cooperative laundry, and in the next few months, an urban farming co-op.

 

In New York, the South Bronx's Green Worker Cooperatives counters environmental racism and joblessness by recruiting local residents for a skills training academy for green jobs. Brooklyn is home to the Park Slope Food Co-op, one of New York's best known worker-owned businesses and the country's largest co-operative of its kind. More recently, Sunset Park's Center for Family Life, a Brooklyn community development organization has incubated a number of low-wage worker-led initiatives including Sí Se Puede, a co-operative cleaning business. The women worker-owners of Sí Se Puede's have raised their hourly wages, now earning as much as $25 per hour or as much as three times what they would be making otherwise, while gaining more independence in their schedules and working hours.

 

As the Women of Color Policy Network discussed in our First to Fall, Last to Climb Policy Brief, African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to currently be represented in low-wage and service jobs. The face of worker-owned co-operatives in America is shifting to reflect more women, communities of color and multilingual populations. These innovative business structures provide an innovative path to wealth accumulation. They also often recognize the need for childcare and health benefits of their workers-- essential components of occupational support for families and many women workers. Greater emergence of co-operatives also creates a need for banking arrangements that can accommodate and support businesses with many owners. Many co-operatives turn to credit unions for their banking needs. As American cities strive to overcome the residual impacts of the recession, worker-owned co-operatives present an attractive alternative to conventional top-down models of job growth and business development. 

 

Liberty Ship Café: Filling Bellies in Richmond Food Desert

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From the California Center for Cooperative Development

 

The four members of Liberty Ship Café will launch their cooperative business in January and fulfill a self-pledge for autonomy. When sisters Gloria and Rosa Menjivar came to the Bay Area six years ago, supporting family back in their native El Salvador was top priority. Since then, their focus has shifted to raising family here and working to empower their East Bay community in volunteering at the Richmond Latina Center. For Rosa, shared ownership of the Liberty Ship Café is key: "This is not just about making money," says Rosa. "This cooperative is the chance to be empowered in our life choices and to give good food to our community." Still, as single mothers whose English is at base-level, this journey is a struggle; for them, the success of this business in which they set the rules is essential.

 

Co-op members have been preparing for business start-up for over a year by engaging in small business and food service trainings and cooperative education sessions. Members meet weekly to develop their business plan and test recipes.

 

The co-op needs your financial help! Starting the first Friday of January, members will begin sales of healthy and hearty soups, salads, sandwiches, and baked goods from a farmers' market in the food desert of downtown Richmond. Their ultimate goal is to sell out of a mobile food truck from which they can serve the Richmond community and achieve financial self-sufficiency. They hope to earn and fundraise for a down payment for a truck. But the funds needed to purchase this truck are hard to come by, so members will continue working to expand their small-scale operation to reach this goal.

 

The members of Liberty Ship Café are giving their all to developing the business that will best serve the needs of their community, but raising enough money by selling in a low-income food desert area is a challenging process. Unless the project receives outside funding, it is unlikely that the café will be able to purchase the truck in the near future. Your donation will go directly towards the down payment on the mobile food truck that will allow the members to serve their community and have sufficient income to support themselves and their families with dignity. Any amount helps! 

 

Liberty Ship Café is part of a worker co-op incubator project that CCCD is developing in Richmond. The city has an unemployment rate more than 17 percent; the incubator will develop worker cooperatives to create employment, job security, and improved livelihoods.

 

 

 

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Order Books for the Holidays: Worker Cooperative Development Models

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The trailblazing GEO 8, Worker Cooperative Development Models, which appeared as a special printing for the 2011 Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy in Baltimore, is still available as a limited edition 36-page guide.  Order it as a gift, or in quantity to distribute through your cooperative.   The content is online, but is much more handsome in printed form, and it’s a great way to support GEO, a volunteer collective than runs on a shoestring.  Articles are by organizers from across the country, including:

  • Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Michael Johnson, Jim Johnson, Len Krimerman, and Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo
  • Edward W. De Barbieri & Brian Glick
  • Joe Marraffino
  • Vanessa Bransburg
  • Mary Hoyer, Liz Ryder, Frank Adams, John Curl, and Deb Groban Olson
  • The Connecticut Cooperative Business Academy Steering Committee
  • Adam Trott
  • Roy Messing
  • Hilary Abell
  • Margaret Bau

Book Release: Worker-owned and consumer coops: made in the USA

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"In the age of unemployment, downsizing, and outsourcing, where can a poor soul find a job? Well, maybe it’s time we create our own. Self-employment is an option and can seem freeing, but it’s hard to do everything yourself and find time for a non-work life. The worker coop is an alternative to the isolation of self-employment and the exploitation of traditional jobs.

 

"Coop-made-in-USA is a pamphlet that covers the cooperative movement in the United States with examples of co-op realties and explanation of organizations and governance methods used in various co-ops.

COOP-made-in-USA is now available!"

 

Order your copy online at: http://tangoitalia.com/book/

Distribute the book through your co-op: Special discount for orders of 10 copies or more

 

 

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Call for Papers – Special Issue of Organization

Submitted by Joe on

Call for Papers – Special Issue of Organization

Deadline 28th February 2013

 

Worker' Cooperatives as an organizational alternative: Challenges, achievements and promise in organizational governance and ownership

 

Guest Editors

  • Iñaki Santa Cruz. Economics and Business Studies. Autonomous University of Barcelona. (Spain)
  • Elías Nazareno. History. Universidade Federal de Goiás. (Brazil)
  • George Cheney. Communication Studies, Kent State University (United States)

 

Within the context of the present crisis, there is great interest in experimentation with alternative organizational forms which can both respond to the challenges of today's economy and restore equilibrium through a renewed call to social values. In particular, worker ownership and governance are gaining attention in a variety of forms and regions. Worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives typically pursue both economic viability and strong forms of participation; further, they are closely tied to community economic and social development.

 

Seeing these multiple objectives as intertwined, compatible, and in fact necessary is central to the call for the 2012 United Nations' International Year of the Cooperative, which seeks to highlight the contribution of cooperatives to social and economic development through generating employment, reducing poverty, and fostering social integration.

 

Perhaps the most famous contemporary case of worker cooperative organization which achieves the multiple goals described above is the Mondragon Cooperative Group (MCG), one of the largest, long-lived, and successful examples of workers' owned organizations in the entire world. Mondragon has a remarkable record of financial success and the provision of sound and stable labour conditions. Founded in 1956, the Basque cooperatives now employ almost 100,000 members, are represented in more than a dozen countries, and are the focus of ongoing scrutiny, praise, and critique. While the well-known wage differential has grown somewhat over the years within the system, it remains quite narrow by almost any comparison, even when a number of top-level salaries that are pegged to the market are taken into account. Amidst the current economic downturn which has resulted in over 20% unemployment in Spain and approximately 13% in the Basque Country, the Mondragon co-ops have relied on their historic principles of democracy, equality, solidarity, and participation as fundamental parts of their management strategy. While 24% of Spanish companies have closed down during this severe recession, the MCG only had to close down one of the 120 cooperatives which form the group, and relocate the 35 workers into other companies. In fact, there is significant evidence of increased democratization in the FAGOR Group, the original industrial cooperatives and the heart of the system. For all these reasons, now is an important moment for attention to the distinctive characteristics of these cooperatives as well as their lessons for other socially inspired management, organizational, and market models. The MCG represents but one case; however, given its rich history, diverse characteristics, encounters with globalization, and experimentation in new forms of participation now underway, it provides an extremely important point of reference in any comprehensive examination of worker cooperatives today.

Cooperative Development in Providence's Immigrant Communities

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"The Insight Center works to improve job quality through a variety of ways including providing legal, organizational, resource-development, and other types of assistance to local communities to form community assets, such as a worker-owned cooperative - a business owned and democratically controlled by its workers. Worker-owned cooperatives are an important strategy to improve job quality, help transitional workers and limited-English-proficient speakers to enter the workforce, and help build community assets. We have provided legal, organizational, and business planning services to many cooperatives, including WAGES and EcoBay Landscaping LLC, both based in Oakland. 

 

One example of using cooperative development as a strategy to improve job quality is the assistance we provided in the formation of a worker-owned cooperative among recent immigrant families in Providence, RI. As part of Making Connections Providence's family economic success program, the Insight Center provided intensive assistance over a two-year period resulting in the formation of The Labor Co-op LLC.

 

A grassroots group of community residents, most of whom spoke only limited English, were the founders of the emerging worker cooperative. We worked with the core members in Spanish to develop a vision, a business plan, a marketing plan, and an organizational structure for the cooperative. They became incorporated as a limited liability corporation, one of the most flexible business structures and the most appropriate for a recent immigrant cooperative.  An instrumental part of our role in this work was to establish ongoing partnerships between the cooperative's core members and local Spanish-speaking technical resource providers, including a business lawyer, the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center, and the ICA Group - a Massachusetts-based organization that supports worker cooperatives and employee-owned businesses.

 

Outcomes

By May 2006 The Labor Co-op LLC secured loans from the City of Providence, the State of Rhode Island, and the LEAF fund. It also arranged for a local benefactor to serve as a loan guarantor. Finally, with all legal, licensing, structural, and finance questions settled, the cooperative opened for business during the first week of June 2006, providing temporary staffing services. The cooperative immediately signed two contracts with companies contacted during the creation of the marketing plan. By August 2006 they began to add provisional members and to sign additional contracts with companies wanting staffing services. As of September 2006, the Labor Co-op had 19 provisional members in addition to the eight founding members. Most were working full-time as part of the cooperative."

 

Related

Worker-Owners of America, Unite! Gar Alperowitz in the New York Times

Submitted by Joe on

Gar Alperowitz of the Democracy  Collaborative contributes an op-ed to the New York Times:

 

[S]omething different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.

 

Some 130 million Americans, for example, now participate in the ownership of co-op businesses and credit unions. More than 13 million Americans have become worker-owners of more than 11,000 employee-owned companies, six million more than belong to private-sector unions.

 

And worker-owned companies make a difference. In Cleveland, for instance, an integrated group of worker-owned companies, supported in part by the purchasing power of large hospitals and universities, has taken the lead in local solar-panel installation, “green” institutional laundry services and a commercial hydroponic greenhouse capable of producing more than three million heads of lettuce a year.

 

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