Worker Coop Toolbox The above guide Supports Worker Co-op Formation and Expansion Developed by the North country Cooperative Foundation (Minnesota), the Worker Co-op Toolbox provides a new set of resources to assist potential worker co-op members and their partners in choosing, planning, organizing, and supporting new and existing employee-owned cooperatives. Thanks to Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund for granting permission to republish. Excerpt: In today’s dynamic marketplace, employee-owned cooperatives can provide a wide variety of workers with business-ownership opportunities offering a range of benefits that are hard to find in any other corporate structure: democratic governance, enhanced job security, and profit sharing based on labor input. Employee-owned businesses can also provide unique economic benefits to local communities by generating locally based economic activity and anchoring capital in a community. Because worker co-ops are owned by employees rather than investors, they create a situation where engaged, local ownership can flourish, rather than absentee…
Category: Resources
Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives – The Big Cheese
The Cheese Board was created in 1967 by two co-founders who had previously worked in Kibbutz’s in Israel. By providing abundant choice of European style cheeses to Berkeley (over 300), the Cheese Board has become one of the most successful worker co-operatives in North America. From the beginning the Cheese Board paid everyone the same, no matter what worker’s previous experience was or their seniority. The philosophy of the co-founders was that everyone’s time was worth the same. To this day the Cheese Board maintains this policy. When the Cheese Board was created, the Berkeley area was home to many revolutionary thinkers. Many thought that there was a revolution happening. Part of the ideology was that business and money were evil. Many initiatives were created to buck the system. Since the Cheese Board charged for their items and paid their staff, some activists called them a ‘bourgeois’ co-op. When the…
CICOPA Interview with CWCF President Alain Bridault (2010 CWCF March/April E-Newsletter)
Q: You’ve recently been elected president of the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (CWCF). Why was this important to you? A: It seemed essential to me to strengthen worker co-operatives in Quebec by joining the Quebec movement with the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation. Therefore, in 2007, I first convinced the Network of Worker Co-operatives of Quebec, of which my co-op is a member, to become a regional member of the Federation. Being the representative of the Quebec Network to the CWCF, I was elected to CWCF’s Board of Directors. I then convinced the Federation of Forestry Co-operatives in Quebec to also become a CWCF member. I believe that since the Board of the CWCF quickly elected me to be vice president in 2008 and then president in 2009, it is a mark of recognition of the worker co-ops in Quebec since they are the largest number of worker co-ops of all…
2010 CWCF Tele-learning Session #2 – Conflict Resolution Summary
Please see attachments below for the summary, PowerPoint, accountability chart procedures, accountability chart, employment contract, and job description examples. To listen to the session please view here http://www.divshare.com/download/11127983-bde. Job Description Form Co-opEmployment ContractAccountability Chart ProceduresConflict in Worker Co-opsAccountability Chart2010 CWCF Tele-learning Session – Conflict Resolution – Notes
The Growth Factors of Worker Co-operatives – Interview with Bruno Roelants (2010 CWCF March/April E-Newsletter)
Bruno Roelants is the General Secretary of CICOPA (International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers’ Co-operatives), which is the sectoral organization of the International Co-operative Alliance that promotes worker cooperatives. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, CICOPA has a membership of 57 national and regional cooperative federations in 39 countries. CWCF recently had the opportunity to interview Bruno Roelants. Q: Where are the largest worker co-op sectors? A: Italy and Spain are by far the largest. In Italy alone there are 800,000 workers in worker co-operatives, comprising tens of thousands of enterprises. France is the third highest with about 2,000 enterprises. Q: Where is there rapid growth? A: In Italy the growth is from social co-operatives, which have increased 30% in the last 5 years. Q: How do you explain the huge scale of the worker co-op movement in Italy and Spain? A: First, the worker co-op movements there have been large…
Union-Led Buy-Outs
Guides drafted in spring 2009 for union-led conversions to worker co-ops from other business forms, by the Western Labour-Worker Coop Council. 1of4 Union-Led Buy-Outs – Coop Basics2of4 Union-Led Buy-Outs – Checklist3of4 Union-Led Buy-Outs – Steps4of4 Union-Led Buy-Outs – Success
Steps in a Worker Buyout of a Company
(1) Educate the supporters of the buyout. Supporters may include all of the hourly and salaried employees as well as local management. Frequently, in situations involving an organized workforce, those employees protected by a union contract are the initial proponents. (2) Establish a buyout association. Membership in the buyout association is usually open to all the potential future employee-owners. A leadership team is usually selected to put the buyout together on behalf of the buyout association. Through its leadership, the buyout association: a) Raises funds from members and solicits matching funds from government and other potential contributors; b) Contracts with and oversees the work of legal and financial consultants, and c) Develops a management team. (3) Do a pre-feasibility assessment. This assessment is a quick study by the development consultants of the key factors needed for the buyout to succeed. (4) Conduct a feasibility study. A professionally done feasibility study…
The Co-operative Movement in the Next 100 Years: What are the Opportunities? The Challenges?
Ian MacPherson Professor Emeritus of History Co-director, the National Hub The Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships The University of Victoria cluny1@uvic.ca Speech to Worker Co-operatives and Sustainable Development Canadian Worker Co-op Federation Vancouver October 2010 Video recording When Hazel Corcoran asked me to speak at this year’s meeting of the Federation, I was particularly honoured. One of my most pleasant co-op memories is the founding convention of the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF) at Antigonish in April 1991. At that time, I was President of the Canadian Co-operative Association and I like to think that in that capacity I played a useful if modest role in helping make it possible. Most of all, though, I look back at that conference for its excitement, the kind of enthusiasm that often accompanies beginnings and formative periods within the co-operative movement. I also recall it for the depth of engagement by so many…
Immigrant Worker Co-op Strategies
Strategies Immigrant WC Dev’t Fnl-1_0