Headlamp Pictures

Worker Coop Links & Resources

Below is an informal list of links and resources collated
over the several years researching our film:

BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE: American Worker Cooperatives

Note: Some links may have expired.  Please inform us
and we will post the corrections. Please inform us of other
or newer cooperatives that are not included and we will post them as well.
Our  most used pages with links to hundreds of great resources:

http://www.cooperative.org/ National Cooperative Business Association

http://www.cccd.coop/ California Center for Cooperative Development

http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/index.html/ University of Wisconsin, Center for Cooperatives

http://www.geonewsletter.org/ A great online & print resource

 http://usworker.coop/ US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

http://www.american.coop/ Resource rich site dedicated to the latest info and links

 

A moderated discussion group for those actively working in or actively starting a worker coop:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/workercoop/

 

Individual Coop Home Pages (by no means comprehensive):

http://unioncab.com/ Union Cab Cooperative, Madison WI. Cab company

http://www.bponline.com/ Bookpeople, Berkeley, CA book distributor, democratic worker owned (doesn’t call itself a coop)

http://www.isthmuseng.com/ Isthmus Engineering Co., Madison, WI

http://www.goodvibes.com/ Good Vibrations, San Fran. CA, retailer of sex toys, books, videos. 80-100 workers, CONVERTED TO PRIVATE CO!

http://www.rainbowgrocery.org/ Rainbow Grocery, 250 member worker cooperative (not a ’food coop’, extremely successful, provides working class jobs representing a cross section of SF’s communities.

http://www.cliq.com/ Website administrator/progammers coop, San Fran

http://www.restif.com  Restif Cleaning – a residential and commercial cleaning service in Arcata, CA.

http://www.equalexchange.com/ Free Trade coffee worker coop that also purchases from and helps found producer coops in source countries.

http://www.alvaradostreetbakery.com/ Commercial bakery with natl. distribution, Santa Rosa, CA 80 workers $12 M worker coop

http://www.breitenbush.com/ Breitenbush Hot Springs, worker owned resort in north central Oregon

http://www.missinglink.org/ Missing Link Bicycles, Berkely CA, 25 person, 32 year old bicycle shop, worker coop, $2-3M year

http://www.belugasoftware.com/ Olympia WA software/programming coop, 20 workers, 6 years old

http://www.circlepinescenter.org/ Michigan member owned summer camp

http://www.akpress.org/ Oakland, CA small publishing worker cooperative

http://www.proarte.org/ Boston, MA, musician owned orchestra

http://inkworks.igc.org/ Inkworks, Berkeley, CA printing collective,  28 yrs old

http://www.ifbikes.com/ Sommerville (Boston) MA based high end bicycle manufacturer, worker coop

http://www.ispfh.org/ Chicago based web hosting coop

http://www.hoedads.com/ Historic worker coop (Hoedads) now defunct

http://www.burley.com/Burley Design Cooperative, Eugene, OR manufacturer of bicycles, bicycle trailers, clothing. NO LONGER A COOP – PRIVATELY OWNED

http://www.chroma.com/ Brattleboro VT, manufacturer of microscope filters for scientific use, democratic hybrid coop/esop, 12 yrs old, 70 workers

http://www.bigtimberworks.com/intro.html Bozeman, MT timber frame home maker, great story of sole proprietor selling his business to long standing employees

http://www.hobbamock.com/ Graphics/design company

http://www.pedalexpress.com/ Pedeller’s Express, worker owned courier company with branches in California, Oregon and NC.

http://www.casanueva.com/ Worker owned restaurant & cantina, Athens, OH

http://www.mfii.com/ Market Forge Industries, Boston, MA, democratic ESOP, worker buyout of commercial cooking machinery factory,

http://www.wagescooperatives.org/ San Francisco Bay Area network of small coops & support organization, training low income, mostly immigrant women to start & run small businesses.

http://www.mypid.com/ptshipwright/ Port Townsend Shipwrights Coop WA, small boat building & repair coop

http://www.newseattlemassage.com/ New Seattle Massage, a coop of “self-employed” professionals, a slight twist on typical worker coops. Each member is an independent business entity who shares in collective space, reception staff, facilities, etc. 45 members

http://www.collectivecopies.com/ Amherst MA,  photocopy & printing business, 2 locations, 20-25 workers?

http://www.pvsquared.coop Western MA, photovoltaic supplier,

http://www.sunshinepropane.com/ Port Townsend, WA propane supply and service company, 20 workers,

http://www.lpomusic.com/ Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, bankrupt orchestra “saved” itself by going entirely worker owned.

http://www.somoco.com/ Martha’s Vineyard Design/Build firm

http://www.redsunpress.com Boston, MA graphic design/print shop

http://www.lustyladysf.com/  The worlds only unionized worker owned peep show co-op.

 

Regional Cooperative Organizations

http://east.usworker.coop/ Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy

http://nobawc.org/ Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives

http://sgeproject.org/ Southern Grassroots Economies Project

http://www.philadelphia.coop/ Philadelphia

http://www.nycworker.coop/ New York City

http://wiki.valleyworker.org/  Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives (Western MA & Southern VT)

http://cooperationtexas.coop/  Cooperation Texas

 

Food from the Hood in LA
http://www.foodfromthehood.com/

http://www.breakaway.org/webraising/food_hood/Index.htm

 

Home page & articles about Team X/Sweat X cooperative garment business in Los Angeles:

http://www.sweatx.net/

http://www.laweekly.com/printme.php3?&eid=33859

http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la000025260apr09.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dpe%2Dbusiness

http://www.uniteunion.org/

 

The movement toward cooperative schools (teacher-owned) is spearheaded here:

http://www.edvisions.coop/

http://www.mncs.k12.mn.us/ This was the original coop school

 

Home pages and articles about Cooperative Home Care Associates (probably the biggest 1 member, 1 vote worker coop in the country) :

http://www.paraprofessional.org/Sections/CHCA.htm

http://www.nedlc.org/nnsp/practitioners/chca.html

http://www.pbs.org/capital/stories/hca.html

http://cog.kent.edu/PapersSept2000/SubNational.htm

http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/info/i_pages/health.html

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/prod_detail.asp?992019

 

Canadian Coop Home Pages and Organizations

http://www.glinx.com/~jcline/Centre.htm

http://coop-studies.usask.ca/

http://temagami.carleton.ca/cstier/cedtap/Directory/cwcf.htm

http://www.risingtidecoop.com/

http://www.workercoop.ca/

http://www.coopcca.com/

 

Coops 101 – An Introduction to Cooperatives http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/cir55/cir55rpt.htm

A great list of coop resources in a progressive web-zine http://www.newvillage.net/2rescoop.html

A few Progressive and/or Democratic ESOP home pages http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

http://www.mfii.com/

http://www.jc.com/

http://www.stone-equip.com/

http://www.marlandmold.com./

http://www.the-esop-emplowner.org/media/marland.html (article about Marland)

http://www.sunandearth.com/

http://equityproject.org/ (parent organization for previous,  incubator for worker-owned businesses)

 

ESOP resource pages

http://www.nceo.org/

http://www.workerownership.org/

http://www.esops.com/

http://www.workerownership.org/

 

Books and Articles on ESOPs/Buyouts
http://dept.kent.edu/oeoc/Sum1999/OlmstedSum1999.html

http://www.american-capital.com/bookstore/ownershipbooks.html

 

Some cooperative development consultants (more listed at the NCBA website athttp://www.ncba.coop/econcenters.cfm

http://www.ica-group.org/ long established cooperative development consultants

www.ownershipassociates.com These folks have some great documents regarding creating and maintaining ownership culture

http://www.clcr.org/ Center for Labor & Community Research in Chicago

 

International Cooperative Organizations:

http://www.coop.org/welcome.htm

http://www.copacgva.org/index.html

http://www.co-opstudies.org/

http://www.mondragon.mcc.es/

 

Some miscellaneous Coop Links:

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/cooprpts.htm   (This is a boatload of downloadable articles on Coops)

http://www.jps.net/redcoral/WorkCoops.html    John Curl’s History of Work Cooperation in America

http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/info/dawson.html   Article on Dawson Textile Coop

http://dynamics.org/~altenber/PAPERS/BCLSFV/   Leland Stanford’s Cooperative History

http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/working.html   A number of articles on Coops

http://www.awish.net/AWISHPages/rockymtn.html   Rocky Mountain Center for Economic Democracy

 

Coop Taxation and Subchapter T Articles, etc:

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/plain/bus_info/tax_pro/irm-part/part07/36079.html

http://www.caplindrysdale.com/

http://www.dsbcpas.com/faqtechnical/0001_subt.html

 

Federation of Southern Cooperatives: (Farm coop serving minority farmers)

http://www.federation.coop/

http://www.farmworkers.org/fscpage.html

http://www.grass-roots.org/usa/fedsoco.shtml

http://www.supermarketcoop.com/fscpage.html

 

Close but not quite a worker owned coop:

http://www.frontiercoop.com/ a natural foods business owned by producers and clients, I think.

 

Other Resources
Anyone interested in starting their own worker coop should start with these invaluable print references:
“Putting Democracy to Work” by Frank T. Adams and Gary B. Hansen (1992) This is a step-by-step guide that discusses the merits and disadvantages of ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) as well.
“Steps to Starting A Worker Coop” by Gary B. Hansen, E. Kim Coontz, and

Audrey Malan (1997). This summarizes some of the information in the above book, adds additional info and features short case studies.
“We Own It: Starting and Managing Co-ops, Collectives and Employee-Owned Ventures” by Honingsberg, Kamoroff, and Beatty, CPA I have only read the first edition (1982), but there is a subsequent (1991) one available. This is more technical than the above & includes some discussion of state & federal cooperative law as well as tax law pertaining to cooperatives.

 “This Way Out” is a 2 DVD set published in 2012 that offers “Over four hours of workshop-ready subjects” on starting and running a worker coop. We have not reviewed this film.

Most of the above are available through:

“The Coop Catalog”:

Rayve Fulfillment,

P.O. Box 726,

Windsor, CA 95492

e-mail: rayvepro@aol.com

phone: 800-852-4890

fax: 707-838-2220
or via the NCBA website listed above (http://www.ncba.org/)

“Steps to Starting…” is available through the California Center for Cooperative Development website (http://www.cccd.coop/)