General discussion questions about employee ownership are presented as well as individual questions on New Belgium Brewing, Namaste Solar and DPR Construction. The Discussion Guide can be used in classroom or other group settings. View “We the Owners” here: https://smlr.rutgers.edu/we-the-owners.
We the Owners: Employees Expanding the American Dream, is a 2012 documentary film about three American businesses that have embraced various forms of employee ownership. This case study offers a closer look at Namaste Solar, one of the three featured companies, and was published in January 2025 by the Rutgers Institute for the Study of … Read More
Union‐cooperative collaborations, which first emerged in the 18th century, have witnessed a resurgence in recent years. Across the world, they have created new jobs, safeguarded worker‐owners facing exploitation, and reinvigorated community and labor movements. By combining cooperatives’ democratizing ideals of self‐reliance and social security with union ideals of empowerment and mass organization, union‐cooperative collaborations hold … Read More
Democratic member control is cooperatives’ superpower and Achilles heel. Research shows that strong governance is essential for cooperatives to thrive, yet cooperatives have lacked the data that is needed to benchmark their governance practices. UWCC launched the Cooperative Governance Research Initiative (CGRI) in response to this unmet need. Its purpose is to generate robust, longitudinal … Read More
This report is based on a study conducted during 2023 and 2024 as part of the POWER (Promote Ownership by Workers for Economic Recovery) Act. The study mandate was to consider how an Association of Cooperative Labor Contractors (ACLC), a federated worker co-op system, might “promote equitable economic development, reduce inequality, and increase access to … Read More
What would be the contribution of cooperatives to work and employment? What is the achievement of cooperatives in developing decent work so far and what will be the challenges in the changing world of work? How can cooperatives provide the younger generation with workplaces and tools for realizing their dreams and ambitions with decent work … Read More
The Democracy at Work Institute and the National League of Cities have developed this playbook to assist with integrating employee ownership into municipal economic and workforce development strategies. It offers three approaches that address specific pain points faced by many municipalities: Support legacy businesses in transitioning to employee ownership, Create quality jobs for people who … Read More
This course offers a survey of topics that every worker cooperative developer should know. Each chapter has a short video on key ideas, case studies from the field, and tools to use in your own development work.
Through this course you will learn how to engage cooperative members in conversations about the business’s financial performance. The Money Story is designed to help cooperative business managers transform every member from confused to informed and empowered through financial storytelling.
This short brief provides updated statistics and analysis regarding workers’ participation in employee ownership plans, and the wealth and job quality benefits those workers realize from their participation. The brief was presented as part of the 2023 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum cosponsored by Aspen Institute and the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and … Read More
Despite the enormity of the racial wealth gap in our country, the current conversation around Black wealth is healthy. Across every sector, and within every stakeholder group, many extraordinary Black business and economic leaders are convening and engaging in productive conversations about the state of Black America and the future of Black economic prosperity. We … Read More
This study looks at the potential of employee ownership transitioning Black workers from employees to cooperative owners in their place of work as one possible route to asset building that has growing interest. Low inheritance of assets leads to poverty as a driver of the racial wealth gap. With a focus on the nexus of … Read More
A collective labor of vision and determination by 38 contributors in six countries, three continents, this volume shows how solidarity, innovation, and conviction forge sustaining local and global social economy practices on behalf of the greater common good; recipient of Honorable Mention from 2024 Joyce Rothschild Book Prize.
Liberal democracy is in crisis around the world, unable to address pressing problems such as climate change. There is, however, another path–cooperation democracy. From consumer co-ops to credit unions, worker cooperatives to insurance mutuals, nonprofits to mutual aid, countless examples prove that people working together can extend the ideals of participatory democracy and sustainability into … Read More
What if taxi drivers in New York City or rickshaw operators in Bangalore could start a worker-owned and-operated alternative to Uber with stable hourly wages? Platform cooperatives reimagine a world where domestic workers can double their income by establishing their own platform—an internet where platforms such as Twitch, Twitter, and Roblox were owned by their … Read More
For too long, cooperatives have been considered marginal players in the global economy, and as unrealistic venues for the aspirations of new and experienced members of the labour force. This marginalization shows in business, municipal and legal discussions, and curricula, where cooperative structures are rarely mentioned, let alone presented as viable options. Cooperatives at Work … Read More
This paper, presented at the Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium in 2023 held at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, discusses the current state of employee ownership research and where it needs to go. The paper is written in an informal manner where the authors write in the first person.
The field of broad-based employee ownership within corporations is a specific application of the foundational topic of property ownership. It is situated at the intersection of a broad range of scholarly disciplines including economics, law, finance and management. Each discipline contributes vocabulary and distinctions describing this field. That broad spectrum of disciplinary inquiry is a … Read More
How we structure ownership and work in healthcare matters. As a society, we underpay and under-support—under-care-for—the very workers we rely on to provide health and care services to others. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly spotlighted this fact as health workers braved risks to care for the vulnerable. The worst of that crisis has passed—but the extractive … Read More
Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) holds a significant place within the U.S. worker cooperative and long-term care landscape. For decades, it has been the largest worker cooperative in the country by some distance. CHCA workers are also members of the largest union in the country, 1199Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU). Through its … Read More
Founded in 2012, Golden Steps is a Brooklyn-based worker cooperative of immigrant women of color, all of whom have roots in Central and South America. Providing services to those who do not qualify for Medicare or need more than what Medicare will pay for, Golden Steps operates in a part of the market where home … Read More
Obran is a cooperatively owned holding company with a related financing arm. It recently acquired a 50-person home health care business based in Los Angeles and the cooperative is under letter of intent (LOI) for a 100-person home health business serving the Bay Area. With this unique model, the cooperative’s leadership seeks to create quality … Read More
The Evergreen Cooperative Laundry’s partnership with Cleveland Clinic is perhaps the best-known example of an “anchor institution” approach to economic development in the United States. The worker-owned business is the primary laundry vendor for the Cleveland Clinic’s entire northeast Ohio area. Their experience to date suggests that it is indeed possible for a health system … Read More
This case study examines Five Point Holistic Health, the Chicago health center organized as a worker cooperative. The center offers acupuncture, psychotherapy, and bodywork treatments and services. From its earliest days, the worker-owners of Five Point have prioritized making its services affordable and accessible to the community. After years of hard work, they have achieved … Read More
No other state has as many individual home care cooperatives in operation as Washington. Although small and limited to date to serving the private pay market, Washington’s home care cooperatives suggest that “another way is possible” for organizing home care provision in the state. The business model they are piloting breaks with dominant, extractive, models … Read More