Coops and workplace democracy

interests:

• transitioning a 30 year old business into a workership ownership model
• starting a new worker owned venture
• alternatives to business
• workplace unionization
• work at tech cooperatives
  • struggling to find business
  • working relationships with other groups
  • how to network
• nonprofits
• FOSSY tech coops track - https://fossy.us conference July 31-August 3rd in Portland Oregon
• has employed tech cooperatives for contract work
• tech services for nonprofits
  • assumed hierarchy in the workplace
  • how to demonstrate that the work is worker owned
  • how to recruit

reasons past places haven't been good

• inequitable pay
  • labor not well compensated
• contractors vs employees

change from worker to worker owner

• 9-12 months
  • tried shorter and that didn't work
• 1 month, 3 month, 6 month and 9 month checkin

Palante, Design Action , AlternativeTechs.coop, Sassafras.coop

New York State Cooperative

• profit structure
• structured as a C-corp, LLC or California Cooperative corporation

hedgefund and law firms are a good model of a coop

• profit sharing etc

moving from an LLC -> coop

• adding additional accountability management

what's the good size?

• how to organize as you grow?
• committees bring ideas to larger groups
  • or could give more autonomy to committees
• 8-10 might be an indicator of forming smaller, interworking cooperatives
  • prioritize size for fully collective decision making
  • instead of formally delegating
• 9 people work in a video chat :)
• there are cooperatives that aren't fully horizontal

different governance structure

• possibility to not be fully horizontal
• board of directors
• needed to build ownership culture among workers
• accountability to workers
  • managers can't be on the board and can be fired

board elected by members

• advisory council
• staff representation?
  • can staff attend board meetings
  • board instruction not to interfere with staff
    • board just holds fiduciary responsibility
  • flat but someone holds the ED title, mostly for outside organization

tensions between unionisation and having a board

• holds power while there is an unspoken agreement between workers and board

hold unionisation status for solidarity with labor movement

• transition people as workers to employees
• keeps standards for protecting from exploitation
• there aren't union protections in coop structures so having unionisation prevents some bad things

food coops have clients

• some are worker owned
• Rainbowgrocery.coop
• multistakeholder cooperative
• EastBayPermanentRealEstate coop - ebprec
  • bylaws are written as a cartoon
  • anti-gentrification nonprofit
  • tons of levels of ownership

most resilient organizations

• have multilayered levels of governance
• coops can failed but if you are a part of a network
• Resonate - streaming coop, alternative to Spotify
  • owned by listeners and artists and staff
  • governance structure giving proportional voting

Democracy At Work Institute

• regional worker ownership developent
• great resources

usworker.coop sustainable economies law center

• fiscal sponsor of coops

how to give people equity when they leave?

• land trust models
• patronage