The deadline is approaching to apply for this year’s Worker Coop Academy (WCA)!

The Academy is an intensive 14 week course that provides entrepreneurs, business owners, and economic development organizations the tools they need to build, strengthen, or convert to a worker owned business. The Academy also provides participants one-on-one business and legal consultations. You can find more information at theselc.org/wca_apply and watch our recorded info session here.

We are accepting applications through June 14th, which is less than a week away! Applications are submitted through an online form and it is free to apply.

Would the Worker Coop Academy be a good fit for your business? Look here to learn more and hear what last year’s participants gained from the experience!

Pedal Express is looking for a new worker-owner to start training in December, 2014.  This position is part time, 24 hours to 32 hours per week plus a bimonthly 2 hour meeting.  Must be available to work Wednesdays and Fridays - the rest of the schedule is otherwise flexible. Work hours are 9am-5pm.

This is a full time position. We offer health benefits, and the potential to work toward becoming a worker-owner. 

Mariposa Gardening & Design is an award-winning landscaping design build company dedicated to building beautiful ecologically sound gardens. Our gardens are designed and built using Permaculture methods. We are looking for the right person to manage the installation of our gardens. We seek someone with the ability to manage a small crew, who can communicate with several entities regarding a job site, and stay organized. Someone with a background in Permaculture is a plus.

Oakland Local's Eric Anderson wrote an article describing the turn toward business incubation centers building a new and just economy. Read the article below!

BASTA! Nuestras vidas! Nuestros trabajos! Aprenda cómo iniciar un negocio cooperativa! Este sábado en Richmond, aprender cómo las empresas propiedad de los trabajadores construyen la riqueza de la comunidad y la salud individual.

Recently, SELC hosted Mike Leung of Abolish Human Rentals, to give a talk about how employees of a business with publicly traded securities can convert it to a worker cooperative. Unlike other conversions methods this only requires action on the part of the workers, and does not require the consent of the owners. Watch the video of that discussion below!

By Abby Scher, Truthout | News Analysis

"A quiet revolution is rumbling through New York's municipal offices as they retool to support the creation of worker cooperatives as a way to fight poverty.

Spurred by the powerful example of immigrant-owned cleaning cooperatives and the longstanding example of Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx - the largest worker cooperative in the country - progressive city council members are allying with a new network of worker cooperatives, community based organizations that incubated immigrant-owned coops and the influential Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies to figure out how the city can encourage this still-tiny economic sector. Once fully in place, New York City will be a national leader in providing municipal support for these democratic enterprises."

Read the full article on Truthout

From May 2^nd – 4^th, I was a guest at one of the most inspirational and motivating conferences I’ve ever attended, the Jackson Rising New Economies Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. The primary objective of the conference was “to educate and mobilize the people of Jackson to meet the economic and sustainability needs” of their community. The conference did much more than that.

That's right! NoBAWC is still going strong! This is a definitive moment for the future direction of NoBAWC. Come participate, share your ideas, and join us in making NoBAWC and our individual cooperatives all grow to our fullest potential.

By SHAILA DEWAN

New York Times Magazine

If you happen to be looking for your morning coffee near Golden Gate Park and the bright red storefront of the Arizmendi Bakery attracts your attention, congratulations. You have found what the readers of The San Francisco Bay Guardian, a local alt-weekly, deem the city’s best bakery. But it has another, less obvious, distinction...

Read the entire article on the New York Times website here.

© 2014 The New York Times Company

GritTV's Laura Flanders discusses with New York City Council's Community Development Committee Chair, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, on how local government can create an opportunities to support and encourage the development of worker coops and strengthen the ones that already exist.

Assemblymembers Bonta and Levine Introduce Limited Liability Worker Cooperative Act to Facilitate Worker-Owned Business Development

AB 2525 would eliminate cumbersome requirements of existing law so that local worker-owned and managed businesses can thrive

The Worker Cooperative Policy Coalition was successful in getting our bill, AB 2525, the Limited Liability Worker Cooperative Act, into the California State legislature. We need your feedback more than ever!