Welcome to the Remix, as we take our latest spin around the economy. Today’s column, “Pathways to Democratic Business: What Two Co-op Networks Can Teach Us” examines a couple of case studies featured in a new book, Assets in Common. These cases are Industrial Commons, a textile manufacturing network that is based in North Carolina; and Obran, a worker co-op holding company that is based in Baltimore but operating nationally.
As authors Charity May (who wrote about Industrial Commons) and Jay Standish (who wrote about Obran) reveal, both networks offer innovative ways that worker co-ops are seeking to extend worker ownership to benefit more people. In the experiences of these networks, we see both the potential of their approaches, as well as some of the complexities and challenges.
In North Carolina, what began in 2008 as a standalone, cut-and-sew worker co-op, Opportunity Threads, has grown over time into a textile sector industrial strategy. A network of organizations has developed. Industrial Commons itself is a nonprofit that helps secure public and philanthropic community development funding. In addition to incubating new worker cooperatives, it is developing an “innovation hub” to support emerging manufacturing and arts businesses and helping create a housing co-op.
The network also includes an associated trade group, the Carolina Textile District, bringing together regional textile businesses, whether family-owned or cooperative. One benefit of this structure is that it builds trust—so that family owners, when they retire and sell their businesses, may be more amenable to support a sale to their employees.
Meanwhile, Obran, founded in 2019, is seeking to create the country’s first national worker co-op holding company. To date, the group has developed a network of four worker-owned businesses in three sectors: home healthcare, logistics, and employment services. The vision is to develop and/or acquire 10 or more businesses in each sector to achieve economies of scale. To do this, however, the group is experimenting with not just innovative legal structures, but payment structures that allow the network to attract folks who might otherwise work for private equity firms to employ their skills to develop networks of worker co-ops.
Many questions remain, but both networks are worth paying attention to. As you read this article, I encourage you to reflect on how to build scale in worker ownership, while retaining effective worker governance and voice.
Until the next Remix column, I remain,
Your Remix Man:
Steve Dubb
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