Worker Cooperatives

The Need to Link Climate Resilience With Economic Opportunity

Isaiah J. Poole
Governing

Enterprises featured in the Building Resiliency Through Green Infrastructure report are creating a blueprint for other cities to follow as they work to protect their communities from the effects of climate change.

Webinar: Building Community Wealth with Green Stormwater Infrastructure—Stories from the Field

April 29th, 2019

Hosted by: Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange, The Summit Foundation, and The Democracy Collaborative

Creating climate resilient cities means more than investing in infrastructure—it means tackling economic and racial inequality that leaves disinvested communities on the frontlines of climate damage. Watch as a panel of practitioners explores how building green stormwater infrastructure (harnessing nature's innate ability to manage runoff) can be a key intervention point for also building community wealth, creating a vibrant economic system where democratic ownership and control creates more equitable outcomes.

Read more about Webinar: Building Community Wealth with Green Stormwater Infrastructure—Stories from the Field...

Reducing Economic Inequality through Democratic Worker-Ownership

Shannon Rieger

Amongst developed nations, the U.S. is a leader in unequal income distribution. But according to a recent Century Foundation report on the role of worker-ownership models, this is a trend that can be changed. The author examines how a cohesive national regulatory framework, national tax incentives, a U.S. employee ownership bank, and increased support for employee-ownership technical assistance centers can bolster U.S. worker-buyout policy. In aligning regulatory, technical, and financial support for worker-cooperatives, the United States can bring scale to this key economic equalizer. 

Converting businesses to worker cooperatives—real world lessons learned

A recording of our 5/28 webinar on converting businesses to worker cooperatives, organized to highlight the lessons learned in Project Equity's new report Business Conversions to Worker Cooperatives: Insights and Readiness Factors for Owners and Employees.  Featuring: Read more about Converting businesses to worker cooperatives—real world lessons learned...

Hilary Abell talks with Laura Flanders about scaling worker cooperatives

Hilary Abell, author of the Democracy Collaborative report "Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale", talks with Grit TV's Laura Flanders about the policies and best practices that can help grow the worker cooperative sector in the United States. Read more about Hilary Abell talks with Laura Flanders about scaling worker cooperatives...

Hilary Abell and Kali Akuno talk with The Real News about scaling worker cooperatives

Hilary Abell, author of our new report Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale, talks to the Real News Network about NYC's $1.2 million investment in workplace democracy. Read more about Hilary Abell and Kali Akuno talk with The Real News about scaling worker cooperatives...

City governments building community wealth and cooperative local economies

Exciting news from Jacksonville, Florida, New York City, Austin, Texas and Richmond, Virginia

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of impressive activity at the level of city government, all around policies designed to build community wealth and encourage the growth of cooperative local economies. It's encouraging to see that the work of grassroots developers, local foundations, community activists, and field builders (like ourselves here at the Democracy Collaborative) is beginning to gain a foothold in the world of municipal policy. Read more about City governments building community wealth and cooperative local economies ...

Will Co-ops Spark a New Civil Rights Movement?

Jackson Rising conference brings together social justice and cooperative activists

While the words “co-op” and “civil rights” do not commonly appear in the same sentence, with more than 300 cooperative and social justice activists gathered in Jackson, Mississippi, last weekend, the question was hard to avoid.

Berkeley Pledges Support and Funding for Worker Co-ops

Jean Tepperman
East Bay Express

Berkeley and the greater Bay Area demonstrate growing support for worker cooperatives. 

A report by the Democracy Collaborative, a national organization promoting worker cooperatives, cites studies finding that worker-owned businesses had higher productivity and efficiency and lower worker turnover than conventional businesses, and were only one-third as likely to fail.

What if Workers Owned Their Workplaces?

Michelle Chen
The Nation

As more cooperatives crop up post-Great Recession, people are beginning to understand their viability and promise. Instead of allowing small local businesses to close their doors upon retirement of owners, organizations such as Evergreen Cooperatives are working to help these businesses convert to cooperatives. 

How co-ops can help communities guard against climate change

Anca Voinea
Co-operative News

A new report by the Democracy Collaborative looks at how community wealth building can help neighbourhoods plan for droughts and floods.

A Boost for the Worker-Owned Economy

Frank Korten
YES! Magazine

As small-business owners retire, their employees may lose their jobs. New legislation, though, encourages that retiring small-business owners sell to their employees in the form of ESOPs or cooperatives. As Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice-President and Senior Fellow at the Democracy Collaborative points out, many business owners would prefer to ensure that their employees remain secure. 

New Cleveland Fund Will Acquire Businesses and Sell Them Back to Workers

Zoe Sullivan
Next City

The Fund for Employee Ownership, funded by the Democracy Collaborative, is jumpstarting employee ownership for employees of the Evergreen Cooperative. 

Typically it can take many months, even a year or more, to train employees before they’re prepared to purchase a business from its existing owner. The Fund offers to buy-out owners when they’re ready to sell or retire, and then get to the hard work of converting to employee ownership.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to accelerate that process of developing more employee-owners,” Rose says.

 

One Of America’s Poorest Cities Has A Radical Plan To Remake Itself

Jordan Heller
HuffPost

The Evergreen Cooperative in Cleveland, OH is featured as an example of the benefits of employee ownership. The Democracy Collaborative's Jessica Bonanno Rose, also a strategy advisor for Evergreen Cooperative, discusses what the goals of the Cooperative are. 

The Public Ownership Solution

Thomas M. Hanna
Jacobin

The US has a surprisingly large amount of public ownership. But in order for it to truly serve the social good, it must be expanded — and democratized.

The Woman Aiming to Get 50 Million Americans Into the Worker-Owner Economy

Fran Korten
YES! Magazine

Marjorie Kelly is interviewed about the Fifty by Fifty Network, with the goal of reaching 50 million employee-owners by 2050. The aim of this Network is to expand democracy into the workplace in a way that will transform the economy. 

The Typical Workplace Is a Dictatorship. But It Doesn't Have To Be.

In These Times Editors
In These Times

A discussion on ideas for bringing democracy to the workplace commends the Democracy Collaborative's work in promoting comprehensive economic change.