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There is a growing sector of worker owned staffing agency cooperatives. For example, the Staffing Cooperative consists of two staffing agencies - the Core Staffing Cooperative and the Tribe.

When asked about The Staffing Cooperative’s long-term plans, their team hopes to continue acquiring and creating new subsidiaries with workers in different industries. This would allow for a conglomerate of industry knowledge that can be used to benefit workers and the overall health of the cooperative. In addition, the goal isn’t just to acquire for growth, but to support workers long-term and provide ways for them to move between industries. Typical worker-cooperatives are not looking at scale in the same way.

The Austin Cooperative Business Association announces a big win for cooperatives in Central Texas, as the Austin City Council passes an express directive to the Economic Development Department to pilot a worker cooperative development program in fiscal year 2020.  This program will create outreach and education materials, and provide direct technical assistance to groups seeking to form worker owned businesses as well as cooperative conversions, in which an existing business is sold to its workers.

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This article examines the emergence of cooperative cities, or municipalities creating enabling environments for worker-owned cooperatives since 2009 by adopting legislation and budget initiatives explicitly fitted for these enterprises.

In the digital economy there is a tendency towards market concentration through what is known as the “network effect”. People join Facebook because most of their friends are there, making competition difficult and driving the market towards concentration.



The network effect also drives businesses towards “blitscaling”, where losses are subsidised with investors money in order to grow the market share.

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Fifty years dedicated to studying, writing, creating, promoting and serving as an international networker have made Coyote Alberto Ruz a first-line pioneer, a veteran and an historian of the intentional communities, ecovillage and bioregionalist movements.

Earlier this week, Howard Brodsky, Co-Founder, Chairman and Co-CEO of

We are fast approaching the 4th Biennial Union Coop Symposium. Join practitioners, social entrepreneurs, labor organizers, co-op workers, and community development practitioners in learning about practical tools on how to start and run union worker cooperatives and developing connections between union coops across North America (and beyond!).

[I]n the eight years since the launch of the FFP [Fair Food Program], despite the expressed interest of smaller, local food retailers to do their part and engage with the Program, these buyers had no avenue to support the change underway on Fair Food farms.  That was because the very engine that drove the program’s unprecedented success — the market consequences for violations of the FFP’s standards established in the CIW’s agreements with some of the world’s largest purchasers of produce — relied on the participating buyers’ overwhelming purchasing pow

In a collaborative mechanism both parties — municipalities and sharing economy organisations — play active roles in the governance process. At least two city roles can be identified here: the ‘city as a negotiator’ and the ‘city as a partner.’

Co-op Hour is the USFWC’s online, interactive gathering dedicated to exploring a specific topic within the worker cooperative movement, featuring worker-owners and experts in the field. In December, we'll be focused on Worker Co-op Farms, and we'll be featuring: