Worker Cooperatives

Cooperatives (Co-ops)

Alvarado Street Bakery

Founded in 1981, this worker cooperative, with 67 employee-owners, produces natural wheat bread that is now sold at groceries across the United States. Read more about Alvarado Street Bakery...

Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives

Named after the Catholic priest who helped start the Mondragon network of worker cooperatives, the Arizmendi Association is a framework for mutual aid and support comprising six separate worker cooperative bakery cafes across the Bay Area. Read more about Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives...

Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative

The Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative (CUCI) emerged in the wake of a historic agreement signed in October, 2009 between Mondragon and the United Steelworkers, North America’s largest industrial union, to launch union-cooperatives in the United States.

Equal Exchange

Founded in 1986 and owned and governed by 85 worker-owners, this for-profit Fair Trade coffee, tea and chocolate company is a worker-co-operative dedicated to partnering with farmer and consumer co-operatives as much as possible. It currently works with 40 small-scale farmer co-ops in 20 countries. A major portion of its $30 million in annual sales (2007) flow through hundreds of consumed-owned food co-operatives and non-profit Fair Trade shops nationwide. Read more about Equal Exchange...

Evergreen Cooperatives

Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the Evergreen Cooperatives are pioneering models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability. Their companies are employee-owned and for profit and are proud to say they are based locally and hire locally. The create green jobs that are meaningful to the Cleveland community and keep important financial resources within the Greater University Circle Neighborhoods. Worker-owners at Evergreen earn a living wage and are able to build equity in the firms as owners of the business. 

  Read more about Evergreen Cooperatives...

Fifth Season Cooperative

 Founded by the Vernon Economic Development Association (VEDA on a Buy Local Buy Wisconsin grant from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture (DATCP), Fifth Season Cooperative is a multi-stakeholder organization that focuses on producing, processing, and selling healthy local foods. Read more about Fifth Season Cooperative...

Inkworks Press Collective

Inkworks formed in 1974 as a worker owned and managed union print shop. The worker cooperative specializes in providing high quality offset printing and offers discounts for peace and social justice organizations. Read more about Inkworks Press Collective...

Isthmus Engineering

Owned as a worker cooperative by its 29 employees, Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing provides advanced solutions in industrial automation, with the cooperative structure providing an oasis of stability and steady growth since 1980, an exception in a manufacturing sector all too prone to disruption and job loss. Read more about Isthmus Engineering...

Namasté Solar

Namasté Solar is a sustainable energy installation firm which has installed over 25MW of photovoltaics in Colorado and elsewhere since 2005. Read more about Namasté Solar...

Opportunity Threads

Blending a commitment to ecological stewardship in textile production along with empowering, stable, and non-exploitative labor for its largely immigrant worker-owners, Opportunity Threads is a cooperatively operated cut and sew plant in Southern Appalachia. Read more about Opportunity Threads...

Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (Manhattan)

ROC-NY aims to develop worker-owned cooperative restaurants dedicated to food quality, service excellence and employee welfare. Its first restaurant, COLORS, opened for business in January 2006 and has approximately 50 employee-owners. The group ultimately hopes to extend the model of employee ownership to other restaurant ventures within the United States, integrating support for sustainable agriculture and local producers as key business principles. Read more about Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (Manhattan)...

Team Works

Founded in 2004, TeamWorks is a worker-owned cooperative business. Every permanent worker in the company is an owner-member with a financial stake in the business' success and its decision-making. TeamWorks consists of two business, one of which provides house cleaning and concierge services on the San Francisco peninsula while the other provides business support services and is involved in starting new TeamWorks sites. Read more about Team Works...

Wellspring Collaborative

Wellspring Collaborative is a community-based cooperative development organization with a mission to create a network of worker-owned firms in inner-city Springfield, Massachusetts, which will provide on-the-job training, employment and wealth creation opportunities for low income and unemployed residents of the city. Wellspring’s approach is to generate businesses that meet the demand for goods and services from local nonprofit universities and hospitals. Read more about Wellspring Collaborative...

Social Enterprise

Colors

Located in lower Manhattan and started by former workers of a World Trade Center restaurant in 2006, COLORS is a nonprofit-owned social enterprise, run by the Restaurant Opportunities Center which provides living wage jobs and professional development training for workers, while serving customers healthy gluten-free food. Read more about Colors...

Worker Cooperatives

Cooperative Home Care Associates

Founded 25 years ago as an employee-owned home care agency in the South Bronx, Cooperative Home Care Associates is now the largest worker cooperative in the United States, employing roughly 2,000 African American and Latina workers in the poorest urban county in the United States. CHCA’s nonprofit training arm, Paraprofessional Health Institute, annually trains more than 450 inner-city women to become home health aides. Read more about Cooperative Home Care Associates...

Design Action Collective

The Design Action Collective is a spin-off of Berkeley-based Inkworks Press collective. Throughout the 1990s, Inkworks Press offered graphic design services to non-profit, grassroots and activist organizations under the same roof as its offset print shop. In 2003, Inkworks decided that both its print and design services would benefit from the creation of a new collective. Like Inkwood, Design Action Collective is an independent, collectively run, union shop.  As of 2014, Design Action had 11 worker-owners aiming to offer their design skills to the progressive movement.
Read more about Design Action Collective...

New Era Windows Cooperative

Formed by the workers who occupied their Chicago factory in 2008 and again in 2012, the New Era Windows Cooperative was formed with the support of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers Union (UE) and the Working World, an organization that formerly helped finance worker-run businesses in Argentina.  Buying out the equipment from their former employer, 24 worker-owners started production of energy efficient windows in the new factory in 2013. Read more about New Era Windows Cooperative...

NYC NoWC: New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives

The New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives was established by a coalition of local worker-owners, developers, lawyers, and academics in 2009.  The organization attempts to be a comprehensive network for a variety of cooperative sectors throughout New York City. They strive to promote and develop the educational, financial, and methodological resources of its member cooperatives.  The network shares its knowledge and resources at its monthly meetings, held in both Spanish and English, and open to the public. Read more about NYC NoWC: New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives...

Prospera (formerly WAGES)

WAGES

Founded in 1995, Prospera (which was formerly known as WAGES) is a nonprofit organization that raises start-up capital and provides technical assistance to promote the economic and social well being of low-income women through cooperative business ownership. Read more about Prospera (formerly WAGES)...

Cooperatives (Co-ops)

Alvarado Street Bakery

Founded in 1981, this worker cooperative, with 67 employee-owners, produces natural wheat bread that is now sold at groceries across the United States. Read more about Alvarado Street Bakery...

Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives

Named after the Catholic priest who helped start the Mondragon network of worker cooperatives, the Arizmendi Association is a framework for mutual aid and support comprising six separate worker cooperative bakery cafes across the Bay Area. Read more about Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives...

Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative

The Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative (CUCI) emerged in the wake of a historic agreement signed in October, 2009 between Mondragon and the United Steelworkers, North America’s largest industrial union, to launch union-cooperatives in the United States.

Equal Exchange

Founded in 1986 and owned and governed by 85 worker-owners, this for-profit Fair Trade coffee, tea and chocolate company is a worker-co-operative dedicated to partnering with farmer and consumer co-operatives as much as possible. It currently works with 40 small-scale farmer co-ops in 20 countries. A major portion of its $30 million in annual sales (2007) flow through hundreds of consumed-owned food co-operatives and non-profit Fair Trade shops nationwide. Read more about Equal Exchange...

Evergreen Cooperatives

Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the Evergreen Cooperatives are pioneering models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability. Their companies are employee-owned and for profit and are proud to say they are based locally and hire locally. The create green jobs that are meaningful to the Cleveland community and keep important financial resources within the Greater University Circle Neighborhoods. Worker-owners at Evergreen earn a living wage and are able to build equity in the firms as owners of the business. 

  Read more about Evergreen Cooperatives...

Fifth Season Cooperative

 Founded by the Vernon Economic Development Association (VEDA on a Buy Local Buy Wisconsin grant from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture (DATCP), Fifth Season Cooperative is a multi-stakeholder organization that focuses on producing, processing, and selling healthy local foods. Read more about Fifth Season Cooperative...

Inkworks Press Collective

Inkworks formed in 1974 as a worker owned and managed union print shop. The worker cooperative specializes in providing high quality offset printing and offers discounts for peace and social justice organizations. Read more about Inkworks Press Collective...

Isthmus Engineering

Owned as a worker cooperative by its 29 employees, Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing provides advanced solutions in industrial automation, with the cooperative structure providing an oasis of stability and steady growth since 1980, an exception in a manufacturing sector all too prone to disruption and job loss. Read more about Isthmus Engineering...

Namasté Solar

Namasté Solar is a sustainable energy installation firm which has installed over 25MW of photovoltaics in Colorado and elsewhere since 2005. Read more about Namasté Solar...

Opportunity Threads

Blending a commitment to ecological stewardship in textile production along with empowering, stable, and non-exploitative labor for its largely immigrant worker-owners, Opportunity Threads is a cooperatively operated cut and sew plant in Southern Appalachia. Read more about Opportunity Threads...

Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (Manhattan)

ROC-NY aims to develop worker-owned cooperative restaurants dedicated to food quality, service excellence and employee welfare. Its first restaurant, COLORS, opened for business in January 2006 and has approximately 50 employee-owners. The group ultimately hopes to extend the model of employee ownership to other restaurant ventures within the United States, integrating support for sustainable agriculture and local producers as key business principles. Read more about Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (Manhattan)...

Team Works

Founded in 2004, TeamWorks is a worker-owned cooperative business. Every permanent worker in the company is an owner-member with a financial stake in the business' success and its decision-making. TeamWorks consists of two business, one of which provides house cleaning and concierge services on the San Francisco peninsula while the other provides business support services and is involved in starting new TeamWorks sites. Read more about Team Works...

Wellspring Collaborative

Wellspring Collaborative is a community-based cooperative development organization with a mission to create a network of worker-owned firms in inner-city Springfield, Massachusetts, which will provide on-the-job training, employment and wealth creation opportunities for low income and unemployed residents of the city. Wellspring’s approach is to generate businesses that meet the demand for goods and services from local nonprofit universities and hospitals. Read more about Wellspring Collaborative...

Social Enterprise

Colors

Located in lower Manhattan and started by former workers of a World Trade Center restaurant in 2006, COLORS is a nonprofit-owned social enterprise, run by the Restaurant Opportunities Center which provides living wage jobs and professional development training for workers, while serving customers healthy gluten-free food. Read more about Colors...

Worker Cooperatives

Cooperative Home Care Associates

Founded 25 years ago as an employee-owned home care agency in the South Bronx, Cooperative Home Care Associates is now the largest worker cooperative in the United States, employing roughly 2,000 African American and Latina workers in the poorest urban county in the United States. CHCA’s nonprofit training arm, Paraprofessional Health Institute, annually trains more than 450 inner-city women to become home health aides. Read more about Cooperative Home Care Associates...

Design Action Collective

The Design Action Collective is a spin-off of Berkeley-based Inkworks Press collective. Throughout the 1990s, Inkworks Press offered graphic design services to non-profit, grassroots and activist organizations under the same roof as its offset print shop. In 2003, Inkworks decided that both its print and design services would benefit from the creation of a new collective. Like Inkwood, Design Action Collective is an independent, collectively run, union shop.  As of 2014, Design Action had 11 worker-owners aiming to offer their design skills to the progressive movement.
Read more about Design Action Collective...

New Era Windows Cooperative

Formed by the workers who occupied their Chicago factory in 2008 and again in 2012, the New Era Windows Cooperative was formed with the support of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers Union (UE) and the Working World, an organization that formerly helped finance worker-run businesses in Argentina.  Buying out the equipment from their former employer, 24 worker-owners started production of energy efficient windows in the new factory in 2013. Read more about New Era Windows Cooperative...

NYC NoWC: New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives

The New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives was established by a coalition of local worker-owners, developers, lawyers, and academics in 2009.  The organization attempts to be a comprehensive network for a variety of cooperative sectors throughout New York City. They strive to promote and develop the educational, financial, and methodological resources of its member cooperatives.  The network shares its knowledge and resources at its monthly meetings, held in both Spanish and English, and open to the public. Read more about NYC NoWC: New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives...

Prospera (formerly WAGES)

WAGES

Founded in 1995, Prospera (which was formerly known as WAGES) is a nonprofit organization that raises start-up capital and provides technical assistance to promote the economic and social well being of low-income women through cooperative business ownership. Read more about Prospera (formerly WAGES)...