Shift Change» worker ownership

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

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 .

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

Report From our November Visit to Mondragon

Moving Images — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 20:08:46 +0000

We arrived in Mondragon at a challenging time. Fagor Home Appliances, the first and largest Mondragon industrial cooperative was preparing to declare bankruptcy following the collapse of the housing boom in Europe. Two years ago when we filmed at Fagor for SHIFT CHANGE, we knew that production was down and some Fagor workers were transferring to other coops, but until our recent trip we didn’t realize how difficult things had become.

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.”

Announcing TWO upcoming screenings in Washington, D.C.

Moving Images — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:45:47 +0000

Announcing two December 17th screenings of SHIFT CHANGE in Washington, D.C. More information about the film and links to RSVP for the daytime event and to purchase tickets to the evening screening can be found here >

Special Daytime Screening of SHIFT CHANGE

Monday, December 17, 2012, 11:00 AM

Gompers Room, AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street, N.W.

FREE and open to the public.

Prescreening panel discussion on worker cooperatives & job creation with:

Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers
Gar Alperovitz, Democracy Collaborative
Liz Bailey, Cooperative Development Foundation
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
David Madland, Center for American Progress
Michael Peck, Mondragon

More info can be found here >

Evening Premiere of SHIFT CHANGE & Fundraiser

Monday, December 17, 2012, 7:30 PM

Landmark E Street Cinema, 555 11th Street, N.W.

Introduction by Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives

Q&A with Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young, filmmakers, to follow the screening

NOTE: $10 suggested donation to benefit cooperatives recovering from Hurricane Sandy

More info can be found here >

Co-sponsors for the DC premiere include: American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), Coop DC, Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF), DC Labor FilmFest, Democracy Collaborative, Institute for Policy Studies, Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, Mondragon USA, National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), NCB Financial Group, New Economy Working Group, ONE DC, Taylored Communications and United Steelworkers (USW).

Capitalism Has Failed: 5 Bold Ways to Build a New World (Alternet)

Moving Images — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:08:37 +0000

Gar Alperovitz and the Democracy Collaborative which he founded are working with us to set up screenings of Shift Change in the fall and helping to prepare discussion materials to accompany the film. This article is the first in a 5 part series published on Alternet.

May 16, 2012: As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In New Economic Visions, a special five-part AlterNet series edited by economics editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back… [read the full article]

A Message from Shift Change Producer Melissa Young

Moving Images — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:28:34 +0000

Shift Change Producer Melissa Young

Dear friends, cooperators, and supporters,

Maybe you, like me, have felt discouraged about the state of our economy, and the imbalance of political and economic power in the U.S. today. It was this feeling of discouragement and frustration that initially set me on a path to look for concrete, accessible alternatives.

A friend suggested that my partner Mark Dworkin and I learn more about the Mondragon cooperatives, in the Basque country of Spain; when we did, we were moved and inspired. We knew we wanted to do something to spread the word about this successful model of worker-ownership and its potential to change the culture of work—not just in Spain but around the world. We learned that there are hundreds of thriving cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises right here in North America, but that their stories are seldom told. Because Mark and I are filmmakers by profession, we felt that we could help tell those stories, and in doing so help others envision and implement a new economic democracy. We decided to make a film about it.

We are now in the final phases of completing that film, Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work. It is a project that has been equally grueling and exhilarating; sobering and uplifting; exhausting and encouraging. I’ve been very impressed by the examples I’ve seen of democratically run enterprises in Mondragon and in the U.S. These organizations operate in all sectors—engineering, baking, green house-cleaning, fair-trade food, home healthcare, pharmacies, cab companies, breweries…. They paint a new picture of “work,” creatively and equitably re-imagined.

I know that these stories will change the way that many people think. I believe that the visions of success we are presenting in Shift Change will mobilize people to seek new possibilities in their own workplaces, businesses, communities, and lives.

Like so many of the stories featured in the film, Shift Change itself is a cooperative effort. With your help, we’ll finish the project and show that it is possible to have a successful business where employees have a stake and a say; where decisions are made in a way that benefits local communities and without huge hierarchies and disparities of salary. Employee owned and managed enterprises are not the only solution to many of the difficulties we face, but they demonstrate that it is possible to make a difference, and to contribute toward a society with more equality and fairness—a society of which I will be proud to be a part.

We hope you will let us know about your work and your dreams, and that you’ll help us bring this film to light. Please take a look at our online funding campaign on the website Kickstarter to learn more, leave a comment, and make a contribution: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287935035/shift-change-putting-democracy-to-work.

Thanks for your help,

Melissa Young

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 >

Al Jazeera TV report – Spanish co-op weathers financial storm

Moving Images — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:00:03 +0000

The world’s largest worker-owned co-operative remains strong despite Spain’s financial woes.