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.

Bills that would revamp the community college accreditation process and permit worker cooperatives are among the nearly two dozen proposed so far by Alameda Assemblyman Rob Bonta during the second half of the 2013-14 legislative session.

By Michele Ellson at the Alamedan

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!

In The Year 2525, If Man Is Still Alive, If Woman Can Survive, They May Find Limited Liability Worker Cooperatives

The Berkeley Student Cooperative is proud to announce our 3rd annual $10,000 Cooperative Development Grant! Applications due March 14th!

Co-op 101: An introduction to the cooperative economy

NoBAWC Event

In 2014, Sustainable Economies Law Center partnered with Project Equity, the Green Collar Communities Clinic (GC3), and Laney College to create the San Francisco Bay Area's first ever entrepreneurship bootcamp for democratically run, worker-controlled enterprises! Below you can find information on the Worker Coop Academy, including course information, how to apply, resources for others to replicate the Academy in their areas, and more!

Info about the Worker Coop Academy

Currently, we are seeking funding for the Bay Area Worker Coop Academy.

If you'd like to hear more about the Worker Coop Academy, we held a webinar on May 13th, 2015, to provide an overview of the curriculum, participants, lessons learned from our first year (2014), and fielded questions from viewers. Watch it here:

A few important details about the Academy

Focus on equity: Our Academy is focused on building equity in low- to moderate-income communities and for low- to moderate-income community members. Priority will be given to businesses and organizations that are creating worker-owned job opportunities for, with, or in these communities.

It's a team Academy: We have only accepted teams (meaning two or more people) to the Academy. We do not matchmake or attempt to connect individuals interested in joining existing or start-up cooperatives. The Law Center hosts happy hours, legal advice cafes, workshops, and other public events where you can come and have a conversation with us if you are interested in finding co-founders or joining existing cooperatives. There is also a vibrant worker cooperative community in the Bay Area, rooted in the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, that provides networking opportunities to meet worker cooperative entrepreneurs!

There are four types of teams we typically accept:

• Startups: Founders of new worker cooperatives that are in their start up phase or plan to open in the near future.
• Expanders: Members of existing worker coops that are seeking to strengthen their business for growth and scale.
• Converters: Owners and/or employees looking to transition an existing business to democratically governed, worker-owned business.
• Developers: Nonprofits or other small business development organizations that are developing a worker cooperative that is already operational or opening in in the near future. Developers must have at least two workers of their incubating coop as participants in the Worker Coop Academy and at least one staff member from the development organization.

Why the Worker Coop Academy?

The East Bay lacks training programs and job opportunities for low and moderate income workers to create their own stable, career-path employment. The East Bay needs jobs and businesses that provide more stability and mobility for low and moderate income workers. Worker-owned coops are an innovative and powerful business model that can provide high quality jobs and shared entrepreneurship opportunities to low and moderate income workers, as well as benefits to the broader economy. Coop businesses increase job quality, invest locally, and have demonstrable positive impact on job creation and on business retention. Job stability is also dramatically higher in worker coops. 

To increase our impact, we are working with Laney College to accredit and institutionalize portions of the Academy curriculum into existing and/or a new course and, hopefully, a certificate program, so it may be offered at community colleges across California!

Coop Academy Curriculum

The Worker Coop Academy is an intensive multi-month training course for teams of two or more who want to operate democratically-run, worker-owned enterprises. There are six modules the Academy covers:

• Cooperativism
• People and Culture
• Business Development
• Cooperative Development 
• Cooperative and Business Law
• Governance, Management, and Leadership

How did the Coop Academy get started?

The Worker Coop Academy was started in 2014 as part of a larger project called "A Blueprint for Creating Pathways to Ownership for Low and Moderate Income Workers in the SF Bay Area: The Inner East Bay as a Case Study." The Blueprint, primarily funded through a US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant, was equal parts research and action, implementing three complimentary strategies to increase worker ownership among low and moderate income communities.

1. Piloting a Worker Coop Academy for cooperative entrepreneurs and organizations looking to become cooperative incubators,
2. Creating an Opportunity Roadmap to identify industry and business opportunities for creating scalable worker-owned businesses, and
3. Developing an Opportunity Roadmap for cooperative conversions in Oakland. 

For more information on how the Academy got started and the role it plays in the larger Blueprint for a cooperative economy, please visit Project Equity's website at www.project-equity.org/bay-area-blueprint

Resources for Academy Replication

SELC will be publishing our curriculum, including facilitator guides, powerpoint presentations, participant handouts, and more in the near future. These resources will be under SELC's Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license and available for use, replication, and adaptation.

If you are interested in speaking about starting a training program developing worker-owned businesses, please contact Ricardo, SELC's Director of Economic Democracy, at [email protected].

Here are some other helpful resources:

• SELC's online legal resource website on cooperatives and cooperative development, Co-opLaw.org: co-oplaw.org/special-topics/cooperative-development

• The Democracy at Work Institute's Tools for Developers and Resource pages: institute.coop/tools/for-developers and institute.coop/resources

• Prospera's Resources page: prosperacoops.org/resources

• Academy.coop, an online portal with information from around the country on worker cooperative academies, including curriculum, videos, and more: academy.coop
• Cultivate.coop's wiki page for worker coop academies: cultivate.coop/wiki/Academy

Other Worker Coop Academies and Worker Cooperative Business Programs

• Green Worker Coop Academy (Bronx, New York)

"Green Worker Cooperatives is a South-Bronx based organization dedicated to incubating worker-owned green businesses in order to build a strong local economy rooted in democracy and environmental justice. We train and develop worker cooperatives that have a positive  environmental impact and enable the transformation of their members and  community. We value the principles of solidarity and decision-making by those  affected by decisions. And we are committed to contributing to worker  cooperative and environmental justice movements around the globe."

• Rocky Mountain Farmers Union (Denver, Colorado)

"RMFU is a progressive, grassroots organization founded in 1907. Formed in 1996, the RMFU Cooperative Development Center has worked with and helped grow more than 100 cooperatives, LLC’s and other businesses and organizations, with a focus on areas and professions suffering from economic stress, high unemployment or high poverty." For more information, contact the Director of the Urban Co-op Program Amy Beres (as of December 2015).

• Cooperation Texas (Austin, Texas)

"Founded in October 2009 in response to growing economic inequality, Cooperation Texas is a worker cooperative development center based in Austin, Texas. Our mission is to create sustainable jobs through the development, support and promotion of worker-owned cooperatives in Texas. We believe everyone deserves equal access to dignified jobs, which is why we place those most directly affected by social and economic inequality at the center of our work."

• Worcester Roots (Worcester, Massachusetts)

"Founded in 2001 and incorporated in 2003, Worcester Roots Project is a collective of youth and adult organizers on a mission to create opportunities for economic, social and environmental justice. We send these roots of opportunity into the community, sprouting up co-operatively run and green projects and initiatives that build toward our vision of neighborhoods that are safe for living, working and playing."

• Center for Family Life (Brooklyn, New York)

"The work of Center for Family Life is grounded in the daily, lived experience of the Sunset Park community and guided by a vision of neighborhood families and social institutions evolving over time and contributing to each other’s ongoing development. The Center has partnered with community residents to organize cooperative businesses to create living wage jobs in a safe environment, and provide social supports and educational opportunities for their members." 

• Prospera (Oakland, California)

"Inequality and a lack of economic mobility define today’s economy, putting the American Dream out of reach for the vast majority of low-wage workers. This is particularly true for the many immigrants employed in the U.S. service sector, who, despite their determination and tenacity, often struggle to make ends meet. Some of the hardest hit are the women and mothers striving to not only earn a livelihood, but also to support their families and ensure a quality education and bright future for their children."

• Pinchot University (Seattle, Washington)

"Pinchot University's Certificate in Cooperative Management program offers a deep dive into the world of cooperative management, exploring the unique characteristics, opportunities and challenges of the cooperative sector. The Cooperative Management program may be taken as a stand-alone Certificate or, starting in Fall 2016, as part of one of our MBA programs."

• Project Equity (Oakland, California)

"Project Equity is launching a Cooperative Business Incubator for worker-owned enterprises! The primary purpose of the Incubator is to support successful businesses that are transitioning to worker ownership from another form of ownership. We aim to provide the tools, advising, training and connection to resources that will support a successful transition, and support a sustainable future for your business and its mission. By participating in the Incubator, you have the opportunity to interact with other businesses that are going through a similar transition, to learn from them, share what’s working, and create a network of support." 

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The Law Center develops and spearheads targeted legislative and local campaigns that support the creation of cooperative economies.

Advocacy Campaigns

2015 - Present (2017) Oakland City Ordinance for the Promotion of Worker Cooperatives

Local governments can be instrumental in fostering the development of worker cooperatives by enacting policies that create incentives and remove key barriers to the growth of a thriving cooperative economy. But how do advocates for resilient, cooperative economies put their ideas into practice? Find updates on our current Oakland and Berkeley City campaigns, our ordinance language for both campaigns, and resources you can use to jump start local policy initiatives that promote worker coops as a grassroots, economic development strategy.

2017: California State Workers Comp Legislation

In 2016, the California Legislature passed AB 2883, making changes to the workers compensation law that failed to take into account and will have an adverse impact on cooperatives. In some industries, such as in food businesses, the cost of workers comp insurance will reduce workers’ take-home pay by as much as 11%. One worker-owned cafe has reported that AB 2883 will cost the business as much as $200,000 in 2017. A handful of cooperatives have convened to form a campaign group to change the law. Right now, we are gathering support from other cooperatives and organizations impacted by AB 2883. Find out more and get involved here!

2015: AB 816: Worker Cooperative Act - WE WON!

The Sustainable Economies Law Center is proud to be a member of the California Worker Cooperative Policy Coalition and excited about paving new paths to increase democratic, worker-ownership in California. In the 2015 legislative cycle, we worked successfully with Assembly member Rob Bonta to pass AB 816! The bill created a legal entity for worker cooperatives in California, incorporating some exciting provisions regarding membership, capital raising, and default systems for democratically governed, worker-owned businesses! For more information, please visit our California Worker Cooperative Act campaign page here or find our updated bylaws for the new worker cooperative corporation on our online resource library, Co-oplaw.org.

City Policy for the Promotion of Worker Cooperatives

Local governments can be instrumental in fostering development of worker cooperatives by enacting policies that remove key barriers and incentivize a thriving cooperative economy. By clicking the link, you will find a working draft of a sample city ordinance for the promotion of worker cooperatives. 

California Worker Cooperative Policy Initiative

Sustainable Economies Law Center is currently working with a coalition of partners to create California's first ever legal entity specifically for worker cooperatives. We are looking for your feedback on SELC's ongoing efforts. Please click here to be taken to our page that describes SELC and the Worker Cooperative Policy Coalition's efforts in drafting this statute.

UPDATE: Our coalition was successful in finding a legislative author and this policy recommendation has become a full out campaign! Find out more by visiting SELC's Cooperatives Advocacy page.

Policies for Shareable Cities: A Sharing Economy Policy Primer for Urban Leaders

This is the first of its kind policy handbook for sharing economy city policies. It includes 32 recommended policies enabling cities to benefit from the sharing economy in food, jobs, housing, and transportation.

Read it below or download it by clicking here.