The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives’ 2024 Top Co-op Issues Survey Report contained many of the same issues from years past in the top spots, with lack of awareness once again in the lead. Further down the list, however, was a newer issue, one that while not cited by as many people, has implications for both worker co-ops and the co-operative movement as a whole: the evolving role of federations. The report states that “the complexity of business along with increasing costs is forcing co-ops to rethink how to best invest in federations and what roles federations should, in turn, play.”
Such a finding isn’t wholly surprising. Small businesses, including most worker co-ops, are currently facing a variety of challenges that force them to question every expense, and federation membership fees aren’t spared from this scrutiny. At the same time, co-operation among co-operatives is a co-operative principle, and while not the only way it manifests, belonging to a co-operative federation is surely one way of living this out. Marty Frost, a member of worker co-op CoActive Developments and a cofounder of CWCF, believes in the importance of co-op federations, while also recognizing that the benefits they offer can be intangible.
“I think that there is a value,” he says. “And I think our challenge is always to put that out in a way that people will recognize as value, because so many people in worker co-ops, particularly in the smaller worker co-ops, which is what the bulk of our membership is made up of, they’re challenged every day just to keep their businesses going.”
It’s a reality with which Hazel Corcoran, CWCF’s Executive Director, is also familiar, and while the current context may be placing new strains on worker co-ops, difficulties in getting co-ops to engage with CWCF aren’t entirely new. She believes, however, that worker co-ops, particularly the larger ones, must look not only at what benefits they can receive from the Federation, but what they can contribute to it as well.
“I think that the larger, more established co-ops are the ones with the biggest resources to help support a federation, but tend to need the Federation less,” she says. “And the small, struggling ones are most in need of it, so our hope is to always encourage the concept of solidarity so that everyone will stay engaged.”
While federations, like their members, are often faced with scarce resources, their importance has only grown at a time when support from governments outside of Quebec has declined in recent years. For co-ops to remain on the political radar at all, they need a federation to amplify their voice, and Dan Brunette of Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada believes federations could do a better job illustrating this value to their members, even if it should be more readily apparent.
“It should come more naturally because of the whole principle of intercooperation, right?” he says. “Principle 6, and so on. That should more naturally occur, but there are so many different pressures. It’s incumbent upon us to show the value of the apex association.”
But while federations undoubtedly need to continue communicating their importance to members, Corcoran believes members will realize it themselves if they seize the opportunity.
“I feel that the members who have actively participated for example, by attending our webinars, by accessing technical assistance grants, by attending conferences, they discover what the value is of coming together in those ways, and tend to continue on more actively than one who just heard of the Federation, and joined, but then they didn’t really engage,” she says. “It’s up to us to show the value of the Federation so that members engage and can reap those benefits.”