Evergreen Collectives, a Cleveland-based umbrella organization has created worker owned companies doing solar installations, green commercial laundry for hospitals, and a large scale urban farm…and is being replicated elsewhere in the US.
Worker-Owned Collaboratives in Cleveland & Rochester: A Model of Small Business Development
Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperative is located in Greater University Circle, a neighborhood with a median household income below $18,500. Evergreen teamed with several nearby anchor institutions — The Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals — to boost entrepreneurship for locals. The effort led to the creation of worker-owned businesses such as a laundry service for medical bed linens, a solar energy installation company and a large-scale urban farm, as well as growth in the healthcare industry and development in the neighborhood itself. Click here for more on this worker-owned business model.
Rochester: Inspired by Cleveland’s Evergreen Collectives, Rochester sent a delegation to Cleveland, obtained a $100K grant from Cleveland and developed a worker collective model for Rochester. From Next City: “It’s about being able to give employees an opportunity to have ownership and to build wealth within their own communities,” says Warren. The plan consists of supporting the creation or growth of cooperatively owned businesses located primarily in the city’s most distressed neighborhoods, collectively known as the Northern Crescent. Click here to read more about something that worked in Cleveland, is working in Rochester, and could be replicated here.
A National Initiative for Economic Justice
The Nation Magazine just published a report on a new initiative sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that would guarantee every American a job with funding for the initiative coming from a 5% increase in income taxes on those earning over $200,000 a year. Modelled after programs in South Korea, India and Venezuela, Hildebrand comments, the concept has broad support in the US (left). “Guaranteed jobs programs, creating floors for wages and benefits, and expanding the right to collectively bargain are exactly the type of roles that government must take to shift power back to workers and our communities,” she said. “Corporate interests have controlled the agenda in Washington for decades so we can’t tinker at the margins and expect to rebuild the middle class and stamp out inequality. We need to get back to an economy that rewards workers, not just shareholder value and CEO pay.” Click here for more.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Our pal, MaryAnn Shaening questioned whether I could discipline myself to stick to 1000 words: Today = 998 😉
Categories: Economic Justice, Community & Economic Development, Local-State Government & Legislation, Uncategorized
I am convinced that cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises are key to escaping the increasingly dystopian form of capitalist society we inhabit. I would like to see Retake give this issue the focus it deserves. Would it not be possible to develop a political and legislative agenda around the idea of worker ownership? I believe worker ownership can form the basis for a powerful form of economic populism. The legislative agenda would create favorable tax and financial structures to promote the growth of worker ownership in recognition of its important social benefits.
FYI–there is a group of us in Albuquerque working with the Cleveland model creators to create worker-owned coops and perhaps affordable housing cooperatives here in NM. We will be announcing some specific initiatives in the next month or so. One of the persons spearheading this is Eric Griego.
There is also an ongoing effort in forming local cooperative businesses in northern NM spearheaded by Arturo Sandoval.
I am very glad to hear this. I will get in touch with Eric to follow up and get more details. I think there could be a group of us who would want to find out more about what is going on and perhaps visit those organizing this. Great stuff.
Regarding Kirsten Gillibrand’s proposal: There may be some merit to these ideas, but she should probably have chosen some other countries to use as models. It is hard to imagine two countries with less desirable economic models than India or Venezuela. In spite of tremendous human capital (as demonstrated by the almost universal success of Indian ex-pats around the world) India’s economy has has failed in seventy years of social engineering experiments since independence to bring more than a tiny minority of its citizens out of poverty. See
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21734454-should-worry-both-government-and-companies-india-has-hole-where-its-middle-class-should-be
And Venezuela under Chavez then Maduro as an economic model – seriously??? A country from which a mass exodus of its desperate citizens is threatening to overwhelm its neighbors??? See
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/03/02/feature/i-cant-go-back-venezuelans-are-fleeing-their-crisis-torn-country-en-masse/?utm_term=.a0fab3e788e6
Finally, the South Korean program proposed by Moon Jae-in has yet to be implemented. As such, whether it will produce overall positive outcomes remains to be seen.