From contributor Primitive Times at the Daily Kos:

Worker co-ops, an idea as old as the Industrial Revolution (and really, civilization itself), have the potential of becoming a major front in the Occupy movement, not to mention the wider global social justice movement. Like most people, I've known about worker co-ops for a while, but it was only recently that I became conscious of their far-reaching implications. For me, this happened during a night out with a friend, enjoying fine food and drink at a fine establishment. It was the kind of night that, some might say, could only have been made possible by our capitalist system. Yet on that night, somewhere between the first and second glass of wine, it occurred to me that no one directly responsible for making my first-rate experience possible - from the waitstaff to the cooks; to the producers, packagers and shippers of the food; to the people who made the tables, chairs and silverware; to those who designed and built the building - made anything close to 7 or even 6 figures.

So what exactly are the implications of this? To start, let's define what a worker co-op is. A worker co-op is, simply put, a business whose ownership and decision making power is shared equally amongst the workers. By "workers," we don't just mean those putting hammer to nail - it also includes those fulfilling administrative, development, or managerial roles. A worker co-op does not, as is often assumed, imply equal pay to all its members. It is entirely possible that workers could collectively decide to enact an incentive structure of some kind, or grant higher salaries to certain positions, which is indeed the case with many worker co-ops. The difference is that in a worker co-op, it is the workers themselves deciding this, rather than a detached CEO halfway across the country. In short, at a worker co-op, the cherished American act of voting isn't relegated to a booth every 2 years, nor does the ideal of freedom take a siesta when one clocks in for work.

Probably the biggest concern defenders of the status quo bring up about the worker co-op concept is the question of incentive. If employees are all seen as equals, without the gross variance of compensation seen in traditional companies, what incentive would one have to do anything but the bare minimum? Humans are greedy, we are told. Thus, we must have an economic system which rewards this greed and allows us to act on this natural impulse. Of course, the justification for this view comes by way of collectivist reasoning. The reason we should accept this system, its proponents argue, is because it will lead to the greatest level of prosperity for the greatest number of people. If it didn't, surely we wouldn't accept it, right?

Via Shift Change (previously)

Very soon we'll be notifying hundreds of supporters about the new 6 minute preview for Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work, about worker owned enterprises in North America and in Mondragon, Spain. But before that happens, we'd like to invite you to be among the first to see the new preview.  It's our way of saying thanks for helping to make this project possible with your valuable ideas.   Please take a look at the preview by clicking the thumbnail below or by visiting our page on Vimeo. We welcome your comments and feedback.

At a time when many are disillusioned with big banks, big business, and growing inequity in our country, employee ownership offers a real solution for workers and communities.  Shift Change will help publicize these efforts--and encourage more--during the United Nation's-declared International Year of the Cooperative, 2012.  Already, people are contacting us, eager to screen Shift Change in their cities! 

P.S. Stay tuned for announcement of our Kickstarter campaign, which will launch soon to raise much-needed funds for the film's completion and distribution. We hope you'll forward that notice to interested friends and to organizational newsletters and websites.

Shift Change - Putting Democracy to Work - new preview from Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.

From the Mountain Xpress:

Asheville's Cooperatively-owned "Firestorm Cafe and Books announces the launch of a new partnership with fellow worker-cooperative Equal Exchange, the oldest and largest Fair Trade coffee company in the U.S. On Monday, Feb. 27, the café will celebrate the joint venture with free coffee all day and more. Here's the press release:

"We've been told for years that we serve some of the best coffee and espresso in town, so we don't take a change in beans lightly (no pun intended). Although Equal Exchange, a company firmly rooted in social movement, seemed like a natural choice for us philosophically, we spent nearly twelve months exploring the potential partnership, during which time we researched their business practices, sampled over a wide array of their roasts and twice met with representatives from their cooperative. What we found was extremely exciting.

"Founded with the goal of fostering a Fair Trade movement with teeth, Equal Exchange has been an unwavering ally of small farmer co-operatives and sustainable farming around the world. Our new cooperative partners operate a market network of over two million producers, workers, investors, merchants, activists and consumers. Over the years they have used this standing to publicly speak out against agricultural child trafficking, push back against attacks on the organic certification standard and, most recently, take a lead role in opposing the dilution of the Fair Trade standard by domestic certifier Fair Trade USA…

"Equal Exchange was recently named one of the world's "Most Democratic Workplaces" by WorldBlu and, like us, has publicly supported the Occupy movement. It seems only fitting then that we should announce this partnership in 2012, a year that is being promoted by the United Nations and major cooperative federations as the International Year of the Cooperative.  Please join us on Monday, Feb. 27 to sample our new roasts and join the conversation!

From the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives:

We've organized a cool bike tour of Berkeley worker coops to coincide with the Progressive Opportunities Conference. Bike tour on Saturday, the conference on Sunday.   Check out the details on our Facebook page rr go straight here to register for the bike tour and/or the conference. 

Be a sport and help us spread the word about the conference! NoBAWC is doing a worker coop panel and another session has the organizer of the worker coop credit union, Mike Leung, as one of the presenters. Plus, NoBAWC will be selling food and drinks at the conference to showcase our delicious food coops: Arizmendi, Cheeseboard, and Nabolom Bakery.   We also need volunteers to work the registration table and help out selling food throughout the day. Please e-mail info@nobawc.org if you can volunteer for a two-hour shift on Sunday the 26th of February at the Brower Center in Berkeley.

Related:

• NoBAWC Map of Bay Area Coops is Now Available

From WickedLocal.com

Occupy Salem Free University will host the forum “Building a Cooperative Economy: From Mondragon to Massachusetts” on Monday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. at 217 Essex St. (The Gathering).  Tony Dunn, a longtime labor activist, who is starting a worker-owned business in Lynn, will talk about his recent trip to Mondragon in Spain. He will be joined by Eric Johnson, an active member of the U.S. Federation of Cooperatives, who works at Red Sun Press, a unionized worker-owned business in Boston.

While unemployment reaches Depression-era levels, the politicians talk about cutting deficits, ignoring the needs of the 99 percent. How do we build a new economy based on the needs of the people? Mondragon is a network of worker-owned co-ops that is Spain’s seventh-largest corporation. The Mondragon cooperatives employ more than 80,000 people and virtually never lay anyone off.

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.

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.”

Related

• Gainesville, Florida's Worker-owned Restaurant: Civilization
• Florida senatorial candidate promises support for worker-owned cooperative businesses

Arizmendi Bakery in Emeryville gets the spotlight on NBC Sports Sunday's Late Night Snack segment.

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.

• Liberty Ship Café Launches in January
• Richmond, California recognizing worker-owned co-ops as a path out of poverty
• Mayor Gayle McLaughlin on Cooperatives in Richmond