The Worker Co-op Conference is the only national convening dedicated to worker ownership and workplace democracy.  This year, it will be held online on September 10th and 11th and registration is FREE. You can get more information at http://conference.coop.

Madison Cooperative Development Coalition (MCDC) has made a video version of their popular Co-ops 101 presentation. You can view it here.

Madison Worker Cooperatives (MadWorC) and the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition (MCDC) grieve the murder of George Floyd, the latest in a very long string of victims of state violence against people of color. This is also one more example of the effects of the systemic and institutional racism that have been part of this nation’s history from the very first days of European colonization. Black lives matter, and they must be safe, free, and prosperous.

We call for demilitarizing the police, along with meaningful community oversight of the police and greater personal liability (including criminal culpability) for officers who fail to provide equal protection.

MadWorC and MCDC believe that racial and economic inequalities are long-term problems that require long-term solutions, so we also seek to reduce the disparities that keep communities of color vulnerable to ongoing violations of their civil and human rights. We do not offer gifts or thoughts and prayers, but solidarity and shared purpose. The best way to dismantle structural racism is to build a new and better structure founded on equal participation.

Both MadWorC and MCDC want to see more Black-owned businesses in and around Madison, and in particular, more Black-owned worker cooperatives. There is a strong history of Black-owned cooperatives in the US, a legacy that we believe can and should continue. (For details, read Collective Courage, by Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhardt.) We are prepared to provide active and ongoing support to groups that are interested in starting them, and in the case of MCDC, can even provide grants to help cover start-up costs. We view Black business ownership as a path to community wealth-building and self-determination. 

From the earliest days, cooperatives have been a source of stability and empowerment for the marginalized. Our principles say that prosperity must be shared, not hoarded. They also tell us that democracy is fundamental to justice, both in the workplace and in society. Yet another thing they tell us is that we must always show concern for community, especially in times like these. We call on cooperators in Madison to redouble our efforts to embody these cooperative principles, to stand with all who have suffered racist violence and oppression in their grief and anger, and to lift up their voices.

http://madworc.org
http://mcdcmadison.org
https://uwcc.wisc.edu/about-co-ops/cooperative-principles/

MadWorC is hosting our a Virtual Hug & Chug – a chance to reconnect during COVID-19 and meet MadWorC’s 1st employee.

All Worker Owners and Coop Professionals are invited to the social event online on Thursday, May 14th at 7PM.
Details in the flyer posted above – please join us!

Connection info is below…

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/249658021

You can also dial in using your phone.
+1 (786) 535-3211
Access Code: 249-658-021

The RSVP link is:
https://forms.gle/s198VQv7RRjMgiuH9

MadWorC is hosting our first ever “Regional Rendezvous” – a collaboration of neighboring cooperators and organizations with similar missions and visions.

“Creating and supporting a thriving network of democratically run businesses through worker ownership.”

Along with our groups in Madison, organizations from; Chicago, Milwaukee, Stevens Point and St Paul will pull together to learn how we can support each other and make the Midwest even more successful in the Worker Cooperative movement.

All Worker Owners and Coop Professionals are invited to the social event on Wednesday night, March 11th at Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing Cooperative at 4035 Owl Creek Drive, Madison, WI 53718.

The schedule is listed in the flyer posted above – please join us!

The RSVP link is:
https://forms.gle/s198VQv7RRjMgiuH9

If you have any RSVP questions please email Esther West at:
esther.j.west@gmail.com

Please join us for a Hug & Chug to honor Anne Reynolds (inductee to the Coop Hall Of Fame)!

https://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-promotes-awareness-and-benefits-of-cooperatives-at-visits-to-local

Saturday, October 1, 2016
8:30 am – Noon
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Madison (next to the Farmers’ Market)

Join Summit and over 20 other local cooperatives for the 6th annual Co-op Connection, celebrating cooperatives and community.

Co-op Connection is a public celebration of cooperatives and all that we contribute to our communities and the local economy as well as an opportunity for us to live Cooperative Principle #6 – cooperation among cooperatives.

Free and open to the public!
Enjoy family activities, prize drawings, product samples and more!

https://www.summitcreditunion.com/about/coop-connection-2016.html

http://www.retoolingcapitalism.com/2015/05/pathbreaker-isthmus-engineering-manufacturing/

Worker co-ops—employee-owned companies operating on a one member, one vote basis—are scarce in the United States. Most tend to be in low-tech, labor-intensive businesses, such as food preparation or retailing. That should come as no surprise. How many investors or lenders would be eager to fund a co-op that required a lot of capital equipment?

But before you conclude that American worker co-ops are limited to such businesses, consider the black swan that disproves the hypothesis. Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing, based in Madison, Wisconsin, is owned entirely by its 32 employee-members. It regularly does more than $20 million in annual revenue, and it’s just coming off its third record year in a row. Its business is factory automation, which is to say that it builds custom machinery for producing everything from auto parts to baby pacifiers. Words can’t quite do justice to the complexity of IEM’s products, so here’s a promotional video that will give you an idea of what the company makes.

IEM seems like an attractive model for any modest-sized high-tech enterprise staffed largely by engineers and skilled craftspeople.

The co-op structure gives everyone a sizable stake in the business’s success. It encourages long-term thinking and, well, cooperation. It eliminates needless hierarchy—project teams pretty much manage themselves. “You don’t very often have people coming in and telling you how to do your job,” one IEM employee told researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Cooperatives.

Here’s how the company works. Every members sits on the board of directors, which generally meets twice a month. “These meetings are where we make the majority of our administrative decisions,” says Ole Olson, an engineer—“who to hire, when to build a new building, etc.” Board committees handle matters like finance or shop tools and technologies; some of these committees “serve extremely important roles in the management of the business,” according to the Wisconsin study, which was conducted in 2011. A salaried general manager and sales manager, accountable to the board, are responsible for the company’s daily operation. “On a day-to-day basis, everyone here answers or reports to one of the managers,” Olson adds.

The company also has about 30 employees who are not members. All are eligible for membership–except for the two salaried managers. “The purpose of this rule is to limit how much total power and control one position might have,” says Olson. “Both of these management positions are responsible for large amounts of information that could have a definite effect on the cooperative.”

The co-op tends to add members slowly, through a rigorous application process. But the member-employee distinction seems to disappear on the shop floor. Said one member to the Wisconsin researchers:

One of the most refreshing things about IEM is in all the self regulation going on, never ever, ever, ever huge faux pas, unspoken rule…when we’re working on a team, out on a project, there is no member-employee separation. When that’s happened, when a member has tried to put that gold star on and say, “You gotta do it because I’m a member,” they have been slapped hard. Employees, on the other hand, that say “I’m just an employee,” get slapped equally hard.

What about that financing issue? IEM started in 1980 as a partnership, so the four founders and other early partners were personally liable for borrowed money. In 1983 the group became a cooperative. Before too long, the business was sufficiently successful that it could fund much of its growth internally and attract bank financing when necessary—for a new building, say.

IEM is committed to sustainability. When the company built its latest facility, it doubled the amount of insulation in the roof, installed high-efficiency lighting, and created a runoff pond to help with groundwater. It also began buying renewable-source energy from Madison Gas & Electric’s Green Power program for a couple of cents more per kilowatt-hour.

The co-op structure necessarily involves some unusual challenges. It asks employees to take responsibility for running their own business, a responsibility that not everyone wants. People have to get along well enough to keep the democracy functioning—no small matter, as any veteran of participatory organizations can tell you. All that participation in management takes time and therefore costs money, though the costs may be offset by the absence of middle managers and supervisors. When a member leaves, the company has to buy back the member’s share. IEM does so over a five-year period, thus minimizing the cash drain in any one year.

Whatever the challenges, IEM has been around now for 35 years. It is making money and growing in a business that would daunt many conventional entrepreneurs and investors.