Celebrating Education in Worker Co-ops

“Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.” With these words, Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire summarized a key feature of transformative education—one that has been embraced by worker cooperatives practicing the 5th Cooperative Principle: Education, Training, and Information. In the U.S., these efforts have been supported by the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF).

Worker co-ops—today’s fastest-growing type of cooperative—were less well known 50 years ago. While the natural foods consumer co-ops of the 1970s were a rebirth of American retail food co-ops that had existed for over a century, the idea of workers owning the shop—while akin to the much older example of the guild—was less common in the U.S.

The rise of corporate culture, the decline of employee dignity, and the aftermath of deindustrialization in the 1970s and 80s spurred workers across the country to consider a new way to structure their places of employment. Inspired by the example of the Mondragon Corporation in the Basque Country of Spain, researchers and business developers started to take a close look at worker co-ops. The late John Logue founded the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University, which helped thousands of employees gain ownership of their companies through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and worker cooperatives.

In an effort to convene local and regional organizing across the country, the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) was formed in 1994 as the national membership organization for worker cooperatives. Beginning in 2012, USFWC received a Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG), noted by USDA Cooperative Development Specialist Margaret Bau as “one of the earliest uses of federal funding in support of worker co-op development.”

The Democracy at Work Institute, created by the USFWC to focus on worker co-op development, has continued these efforts since then. The presence of worker co-ops has expanded again in recent years as a new generation seeks meaningful employment and more responsible, community-minded businesses.

CDF has supported the rise of worker cooperatives with a special focus on cooperative education materials that help co-ops and prospective member-owners “think outside the boss,” supporting these cooperatives as they build a more inclusive economy.

Several worker co-ops and related organizations have been featured in earlier grantee spotlights this year: Collective REMAKE and L.A. Co-op Lab (whose work includes education for returning citizens and incarcerated folks), CooperationWorks!, The Drivers Co-op (which just held its soft launch in Denver last month), and the home care cooperative sector.

A number of others have created, or will soon be releasing, excellent materials and programs in support of worker cooperatives:

• The Guide to Navigate Conflict / Cartografias del conflicto: Relaciones de Ida y Vuelta, a multimedia guide on how to address conflict in worker cooperatives and other democratic workplaces, will soon be available for free in English and Spanish from Colmenar Cooperative Consulting

• The Cooperative Academy Self Study is a take-home curriculum being developed by Co-op Buffalo that will support people who are member-owners in worker cooperatives.

• Cooperación Santa Ana‘s marketing curriculum for cooperatives will be made public at the end of 2024. The curriculum will be offered in English and Spanish and will cover content creation through Canva, live photos and videos, marketing strategy and algorithms.

• MadWorC has developed a 12-week curriculum about worker cooperatives, including how to start one. Geared toward trade school students at Madison College in Wisconsin and relevant to anyone, the curriculum is practicum-based with participants working in small groups to assemble all of the materials needed to start their own cooperative in their trade or industry, now or in the future.

• Prospera’s bilingual (English and Spanish) train-the-trainer curriculum supports Latina, immigrant fellows to become trainers of Prospera’s core program, making it possible to offer training to hundreds of Latina immigrant women in the Bay Area and ultimately across the U.S.

In the words of Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, one of the founders of the Mondragon system of worker cooperatives and a consummate educator, “It has been said that cooperativism is an economic movement that uses education; we can also alter the definition, affirming that it is an educational movement that uses economic action.”

The biennial Worker Co-op Conference taking place this week in Chicago (September 12-15) provides a great opportunity to celebrate workers, worker cooperatives and the commitment to education that creates and sustains them. CDF is proud of its work to incubate, replicate and elevate the worker cooperative model.