Join us for these two exciting worker co-operative conferences in beautiful and historic Quebec City. There will be empowering and engaging speakers from worker co-operative hot spots in the world – Quebec, Italy, Spain, France and more!
The Business Succession and Employee Ownership Conference will take place in Quebec City from October 11-13, 2011. The focus will be on how to convert businesses into worker co-operatives. With nearly 200,000 business owners set to retire in the next 10 years, a tremendous opportunity exists to create more democratic workplaces. We are excited to announce that worker co-op conversion experts from around the world will be in attendance to share their knowledge. In particular, Serge Kirouac (Promo-Plastik) and Luc Fournier (Federation of CDRs) from Quebec, Roy Messing (Ohio Employee Ownership Center) from the United States, Patrick Lenancker (President, CG-Scop) from France, Felice Scalvini (President, Cooperatives Europe and Vice President, ICA) from Italy are just a few of the amazing scheduled speakers.
The North American Worker Co-operative Conference, October 13-15, 2011 in Quebec City, will see worker co-operators from across North America come together to share experiences, create a North American association of worker co-ops and proclaim a joint declaration for 2012, the UN International Year of Co-ops. Presentations from Quebec will include Ronald Cusson from CETAM, a unionized ambulance worker co-op, and CJS, the Youth Worker Co-ops (see article below). Mikel Lezamiz from Spain’s Mondragon Co-op Corporation and José Orbaiceta, President, Federation of Worker Co-ops of Argentina are also scheduled speakers. The keynote speakers will be Bruno Blais, founder of Quebec City’s La Barberie worker co-op pub and Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!