Worker Cooperatives
Worker cooperatives are businesses and organizations that are owned and democratically controlled by their workers. Structured in many different ways, they are united by the principle of worker control via collective ownership and a democratic “one member, one vote” or consensus decision-making structure. Both risks and the profits are shared among worker-owners.There are an estimated 500+ worker cooperatives in the U.S., as well as a national organization that links them called the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatiives.
Some worker coops such as Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco are “hybrid coops” and include consumers as well as workers in their ownership and management structure. “Solidarity cooperatives” in Quebec are multi-stakeholder coops, bringing togther all parties involved in a particular endeavor―workers, consumers, producers and members of the larger community―in a democratic structure of ownership and control.
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Consumer Cooperatives are structures through which consumers are democratically organized to purchase and distribute goods and services among each other. Though cooperatively-owned natural food stores are the most well-known example of a consumer cooperative, housing coops, buying clubs, mutual insurance cooperatives and health care coops are all examples of cooperative consumer self-organization.
Some consumer cooperatives, such as Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and People's Co-op in Portland, OR are owned and run jointly by both the consumers and the workers. These co-ops seek to build democratic participation into every level of their operation, from the membership meeting to the stock room.
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