Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy
For Joyce Clark, a research program coordinator living in Boston, her initial inquiries at her bank about investing in stocks were “uncomfortable.”
“Right away,” she said, “they were putting up barriers without knowing who I am or what I have.”
As a newcomer to investing, she was full of questions, but she said her bank’s representative only cared about how much money she could bring to the table.
There are a range of “platform co-ops” in Canada already—web and mobile app-based services that are worker-owned. Some are in the early stages of development, while others have proven track records going back more than a decade. Like traditional co-ops, they aim to sustain a business with decent working conditions and democratic oversight. Upholding these principles in a profit-driven capitalist economy is no easy task. Platform co-ops have the additional challenge—or opportunity—of delivering the convenience promised by new forms of technology.
One of the benefits of worker-owned businesses is that they tend to pay people more equally; the lowest wages and the highest wages in a typical worker-owned business are nearer to each other than the lowest and highest wages in a typical capitalist firm.
When you’re creating a social space in which trust is so important, how do you think about engineering that?
I like to think of gardening metaphors, like growing trust. You have to water it—not too much, not too little. And things will always grow in different directions and with different outcomes than you’re expecting, but that’s okay.
The term Homo economicus, or economic man, is a core principle in mainstream economic thinking. It’s a portrayal of humans as being inherently rational, greedy, and self-interested.
One of the founding principles of Game Workers Unite was that game workers should support game workers. Many GWU members have already formed or transitioned their studios into a worker cooperative model, and we want to collect their knowledge, experience, and lessons learned so that the process may be easier for those following in their footsteps. For many game workers in small and midsize studios, they realize that having a boss can be inefficient, unnecessarily hierarchical, and undemocratic in a way that hurts an otherwise tight-nit creative team, for those
“I’m a worker/owner of Equal Exchange, so I own stock in the co-op – and I’m also an employee,” Pondolph said.
“In some ways, we operate like a typical business, we have a strong management structure, so I have a boss who works on my team.”
There are also vice presidents and founders, but one of the co-op’s core values is democracy, she said.
“We vote on bigger decisions,” she said.
Decisions are made by a two thirds majority of worker-owners.
Last fall, when restaurants were working desperately to keep their doors open amid coronavirus restrictions, A Slice of New York pizza shops in Sunnyvale and San Jose voluntarily closed for an entire week to give employees a paid, mandatory break.
The decision came after one brutal Friday night shift — following six months of brutal shifts — during which co-owner Kirk Vartan watched employees physically and emotionally break down around him. The next day, he called a board meeting.
When Colorado lawmakers recently turned their attention to mobile home parks for the first time in decades, one particular bill inspired some residents to start thinking big — beyond the chronic battles with park owners over rising rents and questionable evictions.
Home care cooperatives in urban areas can now apply for grants to support training and technical assistance thanks to support from the CDF Development Fund. The grant program is intended to provide support to cooperatives ineligible for help through CDF's USDA Rural Cooperative Development and Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grants. The development and growth of worker-owned home care cooperatives is the focus of the CDF supported National Home Care Cooperative Initiative.
Commemorative celebrations offer opportunities to highlight narratives that include cooperators of color. This workshop, presented by LaDonna Sanders Redmond, will discuss the legacy of Dr. King and the roots of the food justice movement. Attendees will also receive a calendar of events to consider commemoration activities for their co-op.
Cost: Pay-what-you-can (minimum $15)
When Andrew Loveland started working for Planet Bean in Guelph, Ontario, three years ago, he didn’t know much about worker co-ops. But he had a passion for coffee and an interest in ensuring it was Fairtrade Certified. If those were the things that got him to join Planet Bean, however, it was the worker co-op model that convinced him to stay.
