Shift Change» coops

New From the Makers of SHIFT CHANGE – Weconomics: Italy

Moving Images — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:43:47 +0000

The Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy has one of the highest concentrations of cooperative businesses in the developed world. The capital, Bologna is an industrial powerhouse, where prosperity is widely shared, and cooperatives of teachers and social workers play a key role in the provision of government services. WEconomics: Italy is a new, 19-minute report about what a more cooperative economy and society have to offer.

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

SHIFT CHANGE to air widely on WORLD Channel in 2015: View the schedule

Moving Images — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 20:35:57 +0000

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)

Download the PDF file .

New! PBS Broadcast Schedule – Summer and Fall 2014

Moving Images — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:30:09 +0000

Beginning in July, 2014, SHIFT CHANGE will be broadcast on PBS stations around the U.S. Below is the broadcast schedule. The schedule will be updated regularly as new broadcasts are confirmed.

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)

Download the PDF file .

Small Island, Big Cooperative: Deer Isle, Maine, Workers Form State’s Largest Coop

Moving Images — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 19:32:41 +0000

[from http://community-wealth.org]

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....]

U.S. Worker Coops and Employee Ownership Information By Region

Moving Images — Fri, 02 May 2014 17:21:32 +0000

While the US economy remains sluggish, companies owned and managed by employees are faring better. They are more innovative, efficient, and profitable than the norm and are gaining attention. Encouraging worker-owned businesses can help the economy be more equitable, without new taxes and government regulations.

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

CALIFORNIA

SHIFT CHANGE includes Arizmendi Bakeries located in San Francisco, Oakland, San Rafael, Emeryville, and WAGES cooperatives of mainly Latina women who do green housecleaning all around the Bay Area. The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives helps dozens of other worker coops support one another.

The national office of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives is in San Francisco. The office of the National Center for Employee Ownership is in Oakland. The San Francisco waste management firm Recology, SF Green Cab, as well as Berrett-Koehler Publishers are employee owned. Renowned energy bar company, Clif Bar is a family and employee owned company in Emeryville. The mayor’s office in Richmond promotes worker cooperatives as an employment and community development strategy.

The California Coop Development Center is in Davis. The very successful Alvarado Street Bakery Cooperative, recently named one of “Great Places to Work,” is in Petaluma. Carl Warren and Company (insurance), Entertainment Partners, LeFiell Manufacturing Company in Los Angeles all have employee ownership.

UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Business hosted a special screening of SHIFT CHANGE together with the filmmakers last February. The Beyster Institute in La Jolla sponsors academic research on employee ownership across the country, including special programs at Rutgers University. Ata Engineering in San Diego received an “Innovations in Employee Ownership” award in 2008.

CANADA

There are numerous Canadian cooperatives and they are strongest in Quebec. The multi-billion dollar Cirque du Soleil is a cooperative. The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation reports a lot of interest in SHIFT CHANGE.

COLORADO

New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins is employee owned with a participatory culture. Namaste Solar in Boulder and Denver is a large company that converted to become an employee owned cooperative in 2011. The world class engineering firm CH2M Hill with 30,000 employees credits their success in part to their employee ownership program and entrepreneurial culture.

FLORIDA

Publix Supermarkets has grown from a single store in 1930 into the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the United States with 159,000 employees.

GEORGIA

East Point, south of Atlanta, is home to the Southern Federation of Cooperatives that has promoted African American coops in the South for 45 years.

ILLINOIS

The Center for Workplace Democracy works to develop strong local economies and grow small businesses by promoting workplace democracy, cooperatives and other models of employee ownership. Chicago will host the U.S. Federation of Worker Coop 2014 Conference. New Era Windows and Doors is a worker coop. Employee owned Amsted Industries designs and manufactures products for railroads and other heavy construction. Registered Green Supplier K & C Electric is employee owned.

MASSACHUSETTS

SHIFT CHANGE profiles Equal Exchange, based in West Bridgewater near Boston. It was founded in 1986 as a workers cooperative with a social mission, importing fair trade organic coffee, chocolate, tea, etc. Another of the many Boston area worker coops is Community Builders Cooperative, in Somerville. At MIT, the Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) encourages cooperatives at its center for planning and development within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The New Economy Coalition holds a conference in Boston in early June, especially attracting younger people. Cambridge based Ownership Associates has a long history of assisting privately held companies to become employee owned.

The region around Northampton has a strong network of worker coops with paid staff to help them support one another, and encourage new coops. U MASS Amherst hosts the Cooperative Enterprise Collaborative. In Springfield there is the newly formed Wellspring Cooperative.

MINNESOTA

Worker coops include The HUB Bike Coop, Equal Exchange, Zenith City Food Coop. The area has several housing cooperatives, and St. Paul is home to a national coop development and training group, Cooperation Works.

MISSISSIPPI

Excerpts from SHIFT CHANGE were shown at a recent mayor’s conference. Jackson is hosting a community development conference that highlights worker coops in early May, 2014.

NEW YORK CITY

Worker cooperatives are taking off. There is an active New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives offering technical assistance, and coop leadership training. The largest worker coop in the U.S. is Cooperative Home Care Associates [2200 worker-owners, also members of the Service Employees International Union] located in the Bronx, as are the Green Worker Cooperatives and the Working World. Brooklyn’s Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies develops worker coops to assist low income people. They helped organize a heavily attended City Council hearing on the promise of worker co-ops in February, 2014. Two recent articles on worker coops appeared in the New York Times: Who Needs a Boss? and A Way for Artists to Live.

NORTH CAROLINA

Firestorm Café and Books in Asheville, and Opportunity Threads in Morganton are examples of worker coops in the state.

OREGON

Portland is home to a branch of Equal Exchange and People’s Food Coop, as well as many other coops. Full Sail brewery in Hood River, as well as Woodfold Manufacturing in Forest Grove, are employee owned.

OHIO

Ailing rust belt city Cleveland hosts the innovative Evergreen Cooperatives, the opening story in SHIFT CHANGE. The city economic development office, the Cleveland Foundation, and key public institutions are working together to revitalize the local economy with 3 new worker coops and more in the works.

The leading academic center in the country for facilitating employee ownership is the 30 year old Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University. Also based in Kent is the Davey Tree Expert employee owned company of 7,400. EBO Group near Akron is a fully employee owned engineering and precision manufacturing firm with a worldwide reputation for quality rooted in its participatory work culture. Fastener Industries in Berea points to over 30 years of employee ownership as contributing to company success.

Cinncinnati is home to Our Harvest Coop, one of the very first cooperatives organized on a union coop model promoted by the United Steelworkers union and the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance is a network of the growing numbers of cooperatives in the area. In Reading the mayor’s office, in collaboration with the United Steelworkers and local leaders, has developed a community development model based around worker coops. In Pittsburgh the United Steelworkers have a unionized industrial cooperative underway.

TEXAS

There are many employee owned businesses based in Austin, including Black Star Pub and Brewery, Gaia internet hosting, Monkey Wrench Books, and a coop development organization, Cooperation Texas.

WASHINGTON DC

With hundreds of member businesses in many sectors, the National Cooperative Business Association assists with coop development, advocacy and education. The National Cooperative Bank provides comprehensive banking services to cooperatives and other member-owned organizations throughout the country.

WASHINGTON STATE

In Seattle the Massachusetts based Equal Exchange runs Ballard Espresso bar shown in SHIFT CHANGE. There is an active cooperative network, called SLICE, and a new effort called the Emerald City Cooperative Initiative that draws on the Cleveland model. PCC Natural Markets is an 11 store coop supermarket chain owned by its members. Group Health Cooperative pioneered the managed care model of health services. Recreational Equipment Inc. is the very large outdoor gear consumer coop with 100+ stores nationwide. Olympia also has several worker coops and the NW Cooperative Development Center. Bellingham has Circle of Life coop, and is the home city for the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies [BALLE] which is increasingly collaborating with coops to build more fair and sustainable local economies.

WISCONSIN

Organic Valley and many other farm cooperatives inspired by Scandinavian immigrants are headquartered in Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Madison has an active Center for Cooperatives. Madison has a network of worker coops including some of the oldest in the U.S. – some 40 years in business. The innovative engineering firm, Isthmus, also Community Pharmacy and Union Cab appear in SHIFT CHANGE.

Milwaukee has new worker coops forming and is the home of Harley-Davidson, a world renowned motorcycle company which is employee owned and managed democratically. Scot Forge, a fully employee owned company in business for over 100 years, has a major manufacturing facility in Clinton.

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

A Message from SHIFT CHANGE Producers Mark and Melissa: Visiting Co-ops in Europe

Moving Images — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 17:33:16 +0000

Rufina Coop

Hello from Italy! Mark and I saved up our airline miles, and got free tickets to Italy, in part for a vacation, which we have not had in years, and in part to investigate whether it would make sense for us to make a film about the complex coop economy that is here, in some dimensions richer than what we saw in Mondragon, and with valuable lessons for people in North America.

Coops are so widespread as to be taken for granted here. We’d tell people we’re here to learn about the coops and their response would be, “so, what’s the big deal.” They have been well established since the mid 1800′s, and were long identified with political parties – socialist/communist ones, Christian Democratic ones, etc. Now the different threads are working closely together and dismissing past political quarrels. We have done some filming, visited some coops and our heads are full of information to assimilate once we get back home. I’m afraid we have also been eating way too much absolutely wonderful food.

Enjoying a plentiful lunch in Bologna

Speaking of food, the largest supermarket chain in Italy is COOP, a system of 115 consumers’ cooperatives of various sizes (9 large, 14 medium, and 92 small), with 1,444 shops, 56,682 employees, more than 7.429.847 members, and an annual revenue of €12.9 billion. COOP illustrates something distinctive about Italian cooperatives, which build networks of coops in a given industry – retailing, construction, etc. so that each coop can remain relatively small and responsive to its members while together they achieve certain economies of scale and a national brand identity. Seems to work very well.

Another type of coop here is the social coop, an Italian invention dating from the 1980′s. While we see efforts to cut and privatize social assistance programs in the U.S., which are in some measure in response to real problems of bureaucratization and decline in quality of service, in Italy the government is addressing the same sorts of problems by collaborating with social coops to deliver services. That way the services are still socially minded, rather than driven by profit, and the coop members protect their own professional and monetary interests.

With the help of Ian Richard from the U.S. we visited Ecosphera, a social coop that does recycling, maintenance of outdoor spaces and a recently founded ecologically focused small shopping center. Some of their members are people with learning or physical disabilities, or are re-entering society after prison or drug issues. Coops are privileged in the post-WWII Italian constitution and they get special tax advantages and priority on government contracts.

Ran into an old friend on the street in Bologna, visiting Italy on a Food First tour.

We interviewed an economist who specializes in cooperative history at the University of Bologna – oldest in Europe – and visited Aster, a high tech consortium, a large networking organization called Legacoop, and Voli, a coop of radio and film producers with whom we discussed how we might collaborate if we decide to return to make a new film. As of now we certainly hope we will be able to do that.

SHIFT CHANGE featured on Moyers & Company

Moving Images — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:06:20 +0000

We are happy to report that footage from SHIFT CHANGE was recently featured on an episode of the popular PBS program, Moyers & Company. SHIFT CHANGE was featured in conjunction with Bill Moyers’ interview with economist Richard Wolff, an advocate of the worker cooperative business model.

In addition to the appearance of footage from two segments of the film during the program, Moyers & Company also posted an interview with SHIFT CHANGE filmmakers Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young on their website.

Help us spread the word by sharing this site with your friends and networks. If you learned about SHIFT CHANGE via the Moyers & Company broadcast, we hope you’ll stay in touch by following us on Facebook and Twitter, signing up for our monthly E-newsletter, and contacting us about hosting a screening in your region.

Click here to watch the Moyers & Company episode now >

Click here to read the interview with Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young >

Images & Observations from the 2012 US Federation of Worker Cooperatives Conference in Boston, MA

Moving Images — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:30:11 +0000

Producers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin took part in the national U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives conference in Boston June 22-24. They presented several short preview clips from Shift Change, about WAGES, Arizmendi, and some of the MadWorc cooperatives from Madison, Wisconsin. The clips were greeted with enthusiasm, and many coop members at the conference are now helping to plan screenings in various cities when the film is released in the fall.

People attending the conference, engaged in many active, relevant, participatory breakout sessions, including “Converting a Business into a Worker Cooperative,” “Business Law for Cooperatives,” and sessions on “Immigrant-Led Worker Cooperatives.”

In one thoughtful workshop, “Building a Cooperative Ecosystem in North America” people discussed presentations from David Smathers Moore of the TeamWorks coops in the Bay Area, Hazel Corcoran of the Canadian Worker Cooperative Federation, and Bruno Roelants, General Secretary of the international organization, CICOPA.

We hope you enjoy these images and observations from the conference! Please click on the “i” icon in the upper right corner of the gallery window to read the image caption / description.

U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives Conference

Producers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin took part in the national U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives conference in Boston June 22-24, presenting short clips from Shift Change, about WAGES, Arizmendi, some of the MadWorc cooperatives from Madison Wisconsin. The preview clips were greeted with enthusiasm, and coop members at the conference are helping plan screenings in several cities for the film when it is released this fall.

[img src=https://shiftchange.org/wp-content/flagallery/u-s-federation-of-worker-cooperatives-conference/thumbs/thumbs_usfwc-conf-2.jpg]00Chaka Fattah Delivers the Keynote
Attendance at the conference was up sharply as interest grows in cooperative businesses. Chaka Fattah, Congressman from Philadelphia delivered a keynote. Fattah is a sponsor of the National Cooperative Development Act.[img src=https://shiftchange.org/wp-content/flagallery/u-s-federation-of-worker-cooperatives-conference/thumbs/thumbs_usfwc-conf-5.jpg]10Tim Huet Presents
Tim Huet of the Arizmendi Association led an overly packed workshop called "Structuring Worker Cooperatives for Growth". Huet pointed out some of the barriers to growth of worker cooperatives, and how those might be overcome as we encourage more or larger cooperatively owned and operated businesses.[img src=https://shiftchange.org/wp-content/flagallery/u-s-federation-of-worker-cooperatives-conference/thumbs/thumbs_usfwc-conf-1.jpg]20Workshop Participants in Tim Huet's Session
Participants in Tim Huet's session, including staff from Equal Exchange (one of the cooperative businesses featured in Shift Change, listen attentively.[img src=https://shiftchange.org/wp-content/flagallery/u-s-federation-of-worker-cooperatives-conference/thumbs/thumbs_usfwc-conf-4.jpg]30Staff from Companies Featured in Shift Change Attend the Conference
Attending this workshop were people from a diversity of coops, including (left to right) Jeremy Kranz and Joshua Hatch of Isthmus Engineering in Madison, and Joseph Tuck of the Alvarado Street Bakery in California.[img src=https://shiftchange.org/wp-content/flagallery/u-s-federation-of-worker-cooperatives-conference/thumbs/thumbs_usfwc-conf-3.jpg]20Coop Workers Participate in A Breakout Session
Other participants in the same workshop include, Esteban Kelly of Mariposa Food coop in Philadelphia, Kim Pinkham of PV Squared, Clothilda Barnett of Athens, Georgia workers center, Eric Olson of Red Sun Press, Annie Winkler of Real Pickles, and Kristin Forde of Union Cab.

The Field Guide to Investing in a Resilient Economy: Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives (CSR Newswire)

Moving Images — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:38:15 +0000

[This article was originally published on CSR Newswire. Read the full story here >]

By Susan Arterian

In our last post we introduced Capital Institute’s Field Guide to Investing in a Resilient Economy series, which utilizes the power of narrative to recast the story of our financial system, chronicling the progress of transformative, scalable, real-world investment models that support the creation of a more just and resilient economy.

We also highlighted the first Field Guide study, Grasslands, LLC. This week we explore the subject of Capital Institute’s second Field Guide study, Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives.

A network of employee-owned, for-profit companies, the Evergreen Cooperatives initiative of Cleveland, Ohio, deserves high praise as an ambitious experiment in worker-ownership, anchor-institution-based “green” job creation, and wealth-building in an impoverished urban neighborhood.

But we at Capital Institute see Evergreen as that and much more….

Read the full story here >