Reflecting on the Movement: Kate "Sassy" Sassoon

[Editor's note: We'll be sharing responses to our survey asking cooperators to reflect on the last 20 years of worker cooperative development. If you'd like to share your thoughts, you can complete the survey here.]

When did you first become involved with the worker cooperative movement?
I am a "co-op native" - born and raised in daycare and housing cooperatives of various flavors and levels of formality - but my first brush with the worker-co-op side of the co-op sector was my stint as a worker-owner of Nabolom Collective Bakery between 2009 - 2011. To date, I've been a "worker-owner" of 3 different flavors of worker co-op (including "one worker self directed non profit" and one conversion).

What were your hopes for the worker cooperative movement at the time that you first became involved?
That the movement would cohesify and empower the various different attempts at worker power and worker ownership - and that it would provide me and my community with quality jobs for life!

In what ways have those hopes been realized? In what ways haven't they been?
I think those hopes have been realized at the micro scale in many ways - organizations under 25ish members are growing in size and scope, and the amount of start-up organizations that are intentionally creating worker empowered spaces has definitely increased. But at the larger scale, we continue to lag - for very valid reasons - and have a lot to accomplish.

What has your experience been with national and regional worker co-op organizations? In what ways have they been beneficial for worker co-ops?
These organizations are critical to the work of gathering momentum and sharing best practices and connecting groups to reduce reinventing the wheel. Together we are truly stronger.

What would you like to see national and regional worker co-op organizations do going forward? Where do you think their focus should be?
They should continue doing what they are doing! There are so many excellent things they are focusing on, and as long as they're staying grounded in both the needs of worker co-ops on the ground and the strategic needs of the movement as a whole, they should just keep on keeping on.

Additional Notes
As a consultant who has worked both within the co-op movement (as a worker owner and supporter of worker co-ops) and outside in the adjacent social entrepreneurship spaces, I cannot understate the impact of having my career growth be basically empowered and non-toxic. As someone who is now coaching and advising mid and late stage career leaders and contributors to organizations, and seeing just how much damage (inefficiency, non productive conflict, and miscommunication alongside outright interpersonal and mission harm) having workplace related trauma does! When folks grow in their work in spaces where they are structurally disempowered, where their only agency is in how they can manipulate or go outside of the systems of their organizations, they end up doing so much more work to achieve so little results - and do so much harm along the way. The contrast with my own experience - of being empowered to speak up on anything from the brand of office toilet paper to the mission and strategic plan of the company - is increasingly stark. And it confirms for me that worker co-ops aren't just good for the workers and their immediate community - the kind of people they create are better contributors to a democratic society.