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Your Call

Your Call: Worker Cooperatives, a strategy to combat inequality and create quality jobs

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung used under CC
/
flickr
Left to right, collective member Shauntrice Martin at counter; volunteer Tony Green, Fiifi Andoh and Judy Davis, pose for a group photo at the Glut, their worker-owner cooperative store that serves Mount Rainier, Maryland, on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.

On the January 20th edition of Your Call, we’ll discuss cities investing in worker cooperatives to fight inequality and create quality jobs.

Worker cooperatives are typically governed by employees and the decision making is democratic. As a model for economic growth targeting low-income communities and people of color, New York has invested $1.2 million in coops and is set to nearly double that this year. In California, Oakland is exploring ways it can cultivate more co-ops. How are worker cooperatives combating inequality?

Guests:

Melissa Hoover, the Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute, the think-and-do-tank that expands worker ownership as a tool to address economic inequality

Nayeli Maxson, Council Aide, Policy Analyst & Community Liaison in the Oakland Office of Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington

Loren Rodgers, the executive director of the National Center for Employee Ownership

Web Resources:

Democracy at Work Institute

Sustainable Economies Law Center: CA Worker Cooperative Act

National Center for Employee Ownership

U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives: What is a worker cooperatives?

Next City: NYC Set to Triple Number of Worker Cooperatives

The Atlantic: Getting Rid of Bosses

NYC Worker Cooperative Network

Community Wealth: Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale

New York City Small Business Services: Working Together, a report on the first year of the Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative

Forbes: If Apple were a Worker Cooperative, Each Employee Would Earn at Least $403k