The first of a series about more sustainable and just economies, WEconomics: Italy is available now from Bullfrog Films.

WATCH A PREVIEW of WECONOMICS: ITALY

WEconomics – preview of a new film from the makers of SHIFT CHANGE from Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.

LEARN MORE or PURCHASE A COPY >

REVIEWS of WECONOMICS

“Fabulous! I can’t overstate the importance of this film right now! There’s a democratic form of enterprise that works because it’s aligned with the human need for connection, meaning and agency. The film beautifully captures the power of cooperatives in a world in desperate need of hope–not pie in the sky but evidence-based hope. May it be viewed worldwide, fueling the cooperative movement.”

Frances Moore Lappé, Co-Founder, Small Planet Institute, Author, Diet for a Small Planet and EcoMind

“Is this the occupy movement? No, it’s Northern Italy’s answer to corporate rapacity and state indifference-an ecologically conscious cooperative movement that provides elder and child care, manufacturing, retail sales and more and is sufficiently stable, flexible and resilient to bring prosperity and security to all. This is democracy in action. Bring it to your students with this film; practice it in your classroom. All will benefit.”

Paul Durrenberger, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, Author, The Anthropology of Labor Unions

“Advocates for a more community based economy here in the US have much to learn from Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, where decades of sophisticated cooperative development and policymaking have helped turn one of the poorest parts of the country into one of its most economically prosperous, and have produced innovative new models for aligning economic activity and social service delivery with human and communitarian values. WEconomics: Italy takes us into the democratic workplaces at the heart of this historical trajectory, illuminating the dense networks of solidarity and the deep processes of cultural change behind Emilia Romagna’s vibrant cooperative ecosystem.”

Gar Alperovitz, Co-founder, The Democracy Collaborative, Co-chair, The Next System Project

“A powerful film demonstrating that mainstream economists have gotten it wrong. WEconomics: Italy shows how Bologna’s cooperatives are producing an alternative economy that puts people, ecological issues, and the social fabric of society at the forefront, and still survive in the difficult economic times that we live in! The film is an absolute must-see for anyone, anywhere interested in alternatives that are both progressive and successful!”

Michelle Williams, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand

“WEconomics: Italy shows vividly how cooperatives can be woven into the fabric of an entire region–in this case Emilia-Romagna in Italy. The film offers living examples of how social entrepreneurship, cross-sector partnerships, and, above all, democratic workplaces can strengthen communities and transform how we do business. This short documentary gives us a glimpse into how we can move cooperatives from the relative margins of our economy here in the U.S. to the central place they deserve.”

George Cheney, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, Author, Values at Work

“WEconomics: Italy expands the discussion of cooperatives as a structure for producing and distributing goods to a model for providing needed, desperately needed, social services…This film is positive, upbeat, and offers ample opportunity to introduce cooperatives to students.”

Karen McCormack, Associate Professor and Chair, Dept. of Sociology, Wheaton College

About WORLD Channel 

WORLD℠ delivers the best of public television’s nonfiction, news and documentary programing to US audiences through local public television stations, and online at worldchannel.org. WORLD is programmed by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with the American Public Television and National Educational Telecommunications Association.

Worker-owned Arizmendi Bakery (San Francisco). Photo by Myleen Hollero.

Thanks to the WORLD Channel, there will be an extensive new round of television broadcasts in 2015!

SHIFT CHANGE will air on stations in regions where it has not yet aired [Boston and Springfield, MA; Maine; Montana, and more], and will also be re-broadcast in cities where it has already aired. Most of these broadcasts will occur in early Jan, with many on Jan. 5. See the complete schedule below.

Learn more about the WORLD℠ broadcasts and get station information here >

About WORLD Channel 

WORLD℠ delivers the best of public television’s nonfiction, news and documentary programing to US audiences through local public television stations, and online at worldchannel.org. WORLD is programmed by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with the American Public Television and National Educational Telecommunications Association.

SHIFT CHANGE on World Channel 2015 – Schedule  (PDF)

Please note that dates are subject to change, please check your local listings to confirm. If SHIFT CHANGE has already aired on your local station, please check the station’s website, as broadcasts are often available online for up to two weeks.

Would you like to help get SHIFT CHANGE on your local PBS station? Contact your PBS affiliate via their viewer comment lines and social media networks to let them know! Find your station’s contact information here >

PBS broadcast schedule 10-6-14 (PDF)

Beloved for its charming landscapes and fresh lobster, the rural community of Deer Isle, Maine is now gaining attention in the cooperative world. When Verne and Sandra Seile, proprietors of Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley, decided to retire last year, they sold their businesses to their employees. With 62 new worker-owners, Island Employee Cooperative, Inc. (IEC) is now the twelfth largest worker cooperative in the nation.

In a small community of just more than 2,500, with a workforce of 1,300, the loss of 62 jobs would have been felt intimately. Where family-owned businesses are significant, communities face additional challenges. Only30 percent of family-owned businesses, like the Seile’s, survive to the next generation. When these businesses are closed or sold to outside investors, communities lose wealth. For example, an Institute for Local Self Reliance study analyzing thelocal multiplier effect in Maine, found that for every $100 spent at a big box retailer, $14 in local spending is generated compared to $45 when the money is spent at a locally-owned business. Additionally, communities sacrifice social benefits fostered by ownership of local business, such as good health and a politically engaged community. Hoping to keep wealth rooted in their home of over 40 years, the Seiles began working with the Maine- based Cooperative Development Institute(CDI) and the Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative to convert their businesses to a worker-owned cooperative.

[read the complete article....]

The worker coops and employee owned businesses listed in the regional categories below provide decent jobs in workplaces where employees have a stake. These businesses are less likely to move away from their local communities – contributing to a more sustainable economy.

**Please note that the information below is just a starting point, and is not exhaustive. New cooperative businesses are popping up all over, with lots of young people getting involved. And retiring baby boomers are selling their businesses to employees, so these businesses can continue. The movement is growing every day.

Would you like to suggest an addition to one or more of the regional bullets below? Highlight employee owned businesses in another state? Please contact us.

US Coops and Worker Owned Businesses By Region

To download a PDF of the information below, click here:

SHIFT CHANGE_US Coops and Worker Ownership By Region

*Map of United States of America (on homepage) by FreeVectorMaps.com

BY DIANNA MACLEOD, Whidbey Life Magazine contributor, March 27, 2014

When Mark Dworkin sat in the projectionist’s booth of The Clyde Theatre in the 1970s making sure the images on the screen kept moving, he didn’t know his own movies would one day be projected on that screen. He knew only that he enjoyed filming amateur theatricals and local events all over Whidbey Island.

When carpenter Melissa Young traveled to Central America to build schools in the 1980s, she couldn’t foresee that her excellent Spanish and rapport with villagers would lead her to help edit a short film about the effect of the war on the peoples of Nicaragua. In fact, as she was leading the building brigade, she considered the film—shot on location—a distraction from the real work of reconstruction.

But when they found each other in the course of making that film, Dworkin and Young each found a life path, one dedicated to telling the stories of ordinary people—determined and sometimes visionary—living extraordinary lives. They also found the perfect name to describe their new venture.

Moving Images.

“When I saw the power of witnessing, the power of storytelling, the power of film, I traded my woodworking tools for a camera,” commented Young.

“There’s a disconnect between media coverage and human testimony,” said Dworkin. “It’s important to remedy that, to connect media with our success stories as human beings.”

If their films—many award-winning—follow a similar trajectory, it is to identify a conflict, problem or injustice and present individuals resisting the status quo, finding alternatives, struggling to remake the world. You might say that Young and Dworkin put a human face on the dynamics of change—individual as well as institutional.

Although every one of their 22 films made since 1986 explores how change happens, the who, what, and why is unique in each case. Among their subjects: The plight of post-industrial Detroit (“We are not Ghosts,” 2012). Threats posed by farmed salmon (“Net Loss,” 2003). The impacts of genetic engineering on agriculture (“Risky Business,” 1996). The lives of 19th-century women in Central Washington and British Columbia (How Can I Keep on Singing?” 2001).

Their latest film, “Shift Change,” examines employee-owned workplaces inside and outside the U.S.

“At a time of disillusionment with big banks, big corporations and growing inequality, our film presents some alternatives to people looking for models,” observed Young. “All too often, work is degrading. But in the worker-owned cooperatives we filmed, work has dignity.”

Through on-camera interviews and visits to the factory floor, Dworkin and Young capture the spirit of these cooperatives: bakeries, fair-trade coffee and chocolate wholesalers, solar-power ventures and engineering firms—including one enterprise located in Seattle. “We don’t advocate a particular answer,” Dworkin added. “We look at positive models that people can build on.”

“Shift Change” has screened in hundreds of festivals, theatres, universities and community settings in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Austria, Australia and Taiwan. More than 25,000 people have watched the preview online. The filmmakers have appeared on several national talk shows. “The response to ‘Shift Change’ has been greater than any of our previous films,” commented Young. “We’ve been contacted by university business schools, community groups, new economists, organized labor, entrepreneurs.” Dworkin attributes the response to widespread concern over the scarcity of jobs, increasing inequality and corporate control.

The filmmakers choose their subjects carefully before investing the several years needed from conception to finished product. Research and preparation is usually followed by travel to selected locations and interviews with selected individuals. All along the way, the team invites collaboration and solicits advice to help them understand the realities and nuances of their chosen subject. To keep overhead costs down, Young and Dworkin return to their Whidbey Island home to edit the film.

“Funding for independent documentary filmmakers is hard to come by,” commented Dworkin. “But we’ve had a lot of generous support. Seventy people here on the Island donated to our Kickstarter campaign.”

Those 70 people, and many more besides, were thrilled to be occupying the seats of The Clyde in late December, 2012 when “Shift Change” made its local debut. During a subsequent conversation with the audience, the filmmakers expressed their deep gratitude for the faith and support of their friends and neighbors.

The response to the film and the filmmakers was the kind you’d expect from an audience that had watched their duo of documentarians “bring it on home”—time after time, film after film. It was the kind of response you’d expect from folks who had witnessed two ordinary people doing extraordinary things: Mark Dworkin, part-time projectionist, community archivist, filmmaker (most Sundays you can still find him in the projection booth at The Clyde) and Melissa Young, carpenter, filmmaker, and builder of new structures to house our hopes and dreams.

Because KCTS-9 also broadcasts via KYVE-47 and various cable and satellite channels, SHIFT CHANGE will be seen throughout the Northwest and in many parts of Canada.

Please spread the word by sharing the SHIFT CHANGE broadcast information with your friends and social networks. This summer, SHIFT CHANGE will air nationally on PBS. Your efforts to spread the word about the April 6 broadcast will help ensure great viewership and build momentum for the national screening!

WHERE TO WATCH!

SHIFT CHANGE will air on KCTS-9, KYVE-47, and various cable and satellite channels. Check your local listings.

KCTS-9 is seen throughout Western Washington (including Olympia and Tacoma) and throughout southwestern British Columbia, as well as across Canada.

Click here to view a map of the KCTS broadcast range >

KYVE-47 serves Central Washington (including Yakima and Ellensburg).

Click here to view a map of the KYVE broadcast range >

On Feb. 24, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) proposed a list of recommendations the New York City Council could implement to cope with poverty, long-term joblessness, growing isolation of low-wage workers and unprecedented levels of income inequality.

The hearing began with testimony from New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS). Their recommendations to the City Council included reforming current underutilized business programs to fit the worker cooperative model and introducing the worker cooperative model into SBS basic business curriculum. In response one Council Member stated that she would like to see the NYCEDC allocated specific funding for worker cooperatives. Overall, both representatives from NYCEDC and SBS appeared supportive of the worker cooperative movement. Make sure to take a look at how Lora Leigh Drammis take care of her business ventures.

During the following testimonies the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, worker-owners, members of worker cooperative incubators and other supporters highlighted the benefits of worker cooperatives and the obstacles hindering their development in NYC.  The City Council responded positively; commenting on the reevaluation of loan requirements to provide assistance to worker cooperatives, the possibility of a revolving loan program and called upon FPWA to determine exactly what legislation could be implemented to strengthen the progress of worker cooperatives.

Click here to read the FPWA Worker Coop Hearing Testimony

FPWA is eager to take the next step by determining the legislative changes necessary for the development of worker cooperatives.  FPWA looks forward to working with government policy makers, workforce development organizations, academics from leading New York City institutions, union representatives, and community-level and grassroots organizations to discuss the worker cooperative model and how workplace democracy can address the continuing economic crisis, income disparity and poverty in New York City.

As the Dean of the Business School at Mondragon University explains , “Cooperatives are not isolated. They share suppliers, they share markets, and they share in the general economic climate.” Sales of home appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers fell by 75% in just three years. Fagor’s competitors in Europe were producing in low wage countries and importing those products to Europe. Over the past few years, the other cooperatives in the Mondragon network had pumped in over $300 million euros in emergency funds to try to keep Fagor Home Appliances afloat, but with the greater Spanish economy stagnating this was not enough. However, unlike what happened in the US when the home appliance industry moved to Mexico and beyond, Fagor workers are not thrown into the street with no options. Nearly all will find positions in other Mondragon cooperatives, some will take early retirement, and all are eligible for extended unemployment benefits.

We discussed the situation extensively with Mondragon leadership, worker/owners of several coops, and faculty at Mondragon University. Despite the extraordinary measures of assistance from other Mondragon coops, the bankruptcy at Fagor is causing real hardships. Worker owners will lose their investment in the company. Other companies in the region that have been suppliers to Fagor are losing their principal customer. And as Fagor members transition to other Mondragon coops, those coops will need to lay off probationary workers, those who had not yet become members but were expecting to do so.

Worker/owners across the Mondragon cooperatives are discussing the Fagor bankruptcy and how to avoid anything like this happening again. We talked with Alaitz, a second generation member of Fagor Automation [which is still going strong] one of whose sisters is a worker owner at Fagor Home Appliances. Alaitz has the last word in SHIFT CHANGE, where she talks with pride about the Mondragon Cooperatives and vows to keep working to make them stronger for her children. She said that she had been thinking about what she says in SHIFT CHANGE and about whether she would say the same thing again after what has happened. “Yes,” she said, “I certainly would.”