The Economy: Under New Ownership
To make an economy that serves us, we need to own the jobs and the businesses—together. How cooperatives are leading the way to empowered workers and healthy communities…
Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work
This film tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces. The film highlights examples including Mondragon in the Basque Country in Spain and the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as smaller businesses including coffee shops and bakeries.
Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution
Looking around at the wreckage left in the wake of the world economy’s latest crisis, veteran business journalist Marjorie Kelly noticed that some institutions were left relatively unscathed. What did they have in common? The key, Kelly realized, is seemingly obscure: ownership. Prominent among the survivors were organizations that combined the flexibility of traditional private ownership with a focus on the common good…
Can There Be “Good” Corporations?
When companies are owned by workers and the community—instead of Wall Street financiers—everything changes.
Worker Ownership for the 99% Press Conference
The United Steelworkers, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center Announce a New Union Cooperative Model to Reinsert Worker Equity Back into the U.S. Economy. View the published model within CLEO.
Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-op Model
The United Steelworkers, Mondragon International USA, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center created this detailed model for developing sustainable jobs through a combination of worker ownership and unionization. This model, or template, for unionized cooperatives seeks to implement principles and values of the Mondragon model in combination with collective bargaining. The model is intended to … Read More
Democratic Enterprise: Ethical Business for the 21st Century
Designed for undergraduate students, Democratic Enterprise provides an open access, introductory-level analysis of democratic models of enterprise, namely co-operatives and employee-owned businesses.
Employee Ownership and International Diplomacy: Meeting with a Representative of a Thai Worker Cooperative
Jittra Cotshadet coordinates the Try Arm Worker Collective in Thailand which manufactures ladies’ lower undergarments. She described the trials her collective faces in the current Thai political climate…
Worker Cooperative Case Study: Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing
While the U.S. manufacturing sector has shrunk over the past 30 years, the fully worker-owned Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing (IEM) cooperative has thrived in the automated manufacturing industry.
Mid-Missouri Energy: Ethanol from Corn
Mid-Missouri Energy is a farmer-owned cooperative created to take advantage of the growing interest in ethanol as an automotive fuel.
Agricultural Cooperatives: Origins, Structure, Financing and Partnerships
This technical note explains how agricultural cooperatives are structured and financed, as well as how they form partnerships with one another and other elements of the food system.
How to Level the Compensation Playing Field: Employee Ownership
Outrage over pay differentials between company workers and directors is making political waves in Britain. One solution? Employee ownership.
Finland’s S Group: Competing with a Cooperative Approach to Retail
The case looks at the two dominant Finnish retailers: S Group and Kesko. The case requires that students consider sources of competitive advantage that arise from the companies’ markedly different business models.
Mondragon Corp. Cooperativa (MCC)
Can Mondragon Corp. Cooperativa (MCC) effectively become a global player while being truthful to the principles on which its past successes have been built?
The Employee Ownership Effect: A Review of the Evidence
The report is a rigorous study of the available international evidence into how companies with significant employee ownership perform, on a range of key business indicators.
Building a System of Trust: Ten Hidden Secrets of Success in Employee-Owned Companies
The great potential of employee ownership to improve business performance lies in its capacity to bring people together to work as a team toward shared success.
Breaking The Mold
What is workplace democracy? Workplace democracy is generally understood as the application of democratic practices, such as voting, debate and participatory decision-making systems, to the workplace.
A Comparative Analysis of Co-operative Sectors in Scotland, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland
This study compares co-operative sectors in Scotland with those of three similar sized countries: Switzerland, Sweden and Finland. The economic contribution of co-operatives in Scotland has historically been below that of these comparable European countries. The study asks why the comparator countries are so much more successful, what we can learn about how to do co-operative development, and which of the success factors are replicable in Scotland. It aims to help Co-operative Development Scotland to understand the determinants of success, make informed decisions on how to promote the co-operative sector, and advise policymakers about what works.
When Workers Take Charge
It’s a unique model – the worker-owned business. Some say it sounds like socialism, but these six companies say it’s helped them tough out the recession.
NHS Mutual: Engaging Staff and Aligning Incentives to Achieve Higher Levels of Performance
The report, on which EOA advised, concludes that employee ownership of the kind pioneered by Central Surrey Health has a valuable role to play but needs support from policy makers.
Innovation Included: Why Co-Owned Businesses Are Good for Public Services
Written by internationally acclaimed business writer Charlie Leadbeater, Innovation Included makes the case for more public services to be provided by co-owned companies.
Employee Ownership Video Collection Teaching Addendum
The Employee Ownership Video Collection Teaching Addendum presented by the Foundation for Enterprise Development is divided into four sections, Teaching in Entrepreneurship Programs, the History of Broad-Based Ownership, Innovation and High-Tech, and Money and People. This video outline is designed to explore the ways to incorporate employee ownership in your class curriculum, learn about the early beginnings of employee ownership and how it has evolved especially in the high-tech fields, and to discover the culture of participation embraced by employee-owned businesses.
A Cooperative Solution
Four times a year, as many as a thousand clients of each local branch of Rabobank, a leading Dutch institution and one of the world’s 25 largest banks, assemble to discuss business.
Ohio’s Oldest ESOP: Alloy Engineering’s Success Story
Extending ownership to all employees, involving all in managing the business and tying the compensation to profits brought a renaissance to Alloy Engineering twenty years ago.
New Social Investing Option: In Equal Exchange
Fair trade and beverage pioneer, Equal Exchange, has teamed up with socially progressive bank, Wainwright Bank, to raise capital, protect its independence, and create a new financial product for investors.