BALTIMORE, MD — On June 24th, Baltimore’s final fiscal year 2027 budget was approved by City Council—including, for the first time, money designated to support the conversion of businesses to worker cooperatives when the owners of those businesses wish to retire or sell. The city’s $250,000 commitment will enable an expansion of the work of Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy to facilitate cooperative conversions to retain jobs, empower workers, avert commercial vacancies, and preserve locally-owned businesses.
Worker cooperatives—businesses owned and governed by their workers—are on the rise in Baltimore. Much of the growth in the sector has been driven by Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED), a nonprofit organization founded ten years ago to advance worker ownership through education, cooperative development, and non-extractive financing. Since its work starting in 2016 to help Taharka Brothers Ice Cream convert from a social enterprise to a business owned by its youth workers, BRED has invested over $5 million in worker cooperative conversions in Baltimore, preserving 149 jobs and facilitating the creation of more than 50 jobs post-conversion, in businesses like The Wine Source, Common Ground Coffee, EnviroCollab, and Appalachian Field Services.
Read the rest at Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy
Add new comment