OURbiz

Everyone Can Be An Owner

EVERYONE CAN BE AN OWNER
Worker-owned co-ops growing
By Janis Mara

BUSINESS WRITER LAURA MAYORGA of Oakland was about to leave the United States for a trip abroad, but she managed to squeeze in one last visit Thursday to Arizmendi Bakery in Oakland, grabbing a slice of mozzarella, roasted yellow onion and red cabbage pizza. Arizmendi is worthy of a special trip, Mayorga said. "The food is so fresh," she said.

But the bakery, known for its exceptional cheese bread, scones and pizzas, is special for another reason. It belongs to its employees, known as "owner-workers." There are no bosses — or, more accurately, everyone who works there is the boss. The bakery, along with Berkeley's Cheese Board Collective, the Berkeley Free Clinic and San Francisco's Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, is an example of the 30-year tradition of worker-owned cooperatives in the Bay Area, which has the largest concentration of such companies in the United States.

And insiders say the sector is growing, with numerous co-ops opening in the Bay Area over the last five years. Still more are in the planning stages, with cities including Walnut Creek and Concord seen as "great opportunities," according to a spokesman for the Cheese Board, a Berkeley pizzeria and bakery.

Nationally, worker cooperatives are a $400 million business, according to the National Cooperative Business Association. Bay Area worker-owned co-ops generate more than half that amount, said Melissa Hoover, executive director of the San Francisco-based U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. In the Bay Area, there are two main types of cooperatives: consumer, such as outdoor outfitter REI, and worker-owned. "With a consumer co-op like REI, membership can be extended to anyone who buys its goods and services," Hoover said.

Worker-owned cooperative membership is determined by working at the business. Co-op members say the work isn't bad. "I like the variety of working at a co-op," said Darren Korn, who has been a worker-owner at the Oakland Arizmendi location for seven years. Five days a week, Korn rounds dough, spins pizza into pizza shells and builds and bakes pizzas. "While I'm doing that, I'm discussing policy issues with the other members," he said. "You get to know your co-workers very well. It becomes like family, which is good, but if you're not careful, it can become a dysfunctional family," said Korn, who is starting a family of his own, with a baby due this spring. His co-op has 23 workers and generated $2 million in revenue this year, Korn said. (The bakery has three locations — the two others are in Emeryville and San Francisco — and each operates independently.)

Worker-owners don't have to worry about what management is thinking, since they are management. But this has its drawbacks, too, Korn said. "You can't just say, 'Screw it, I'll let the boss take care of it,'" he said. "You are the boss." Wages can be another concern. Steve Manning, a worker-owner at the Cheese Board, took home around $38,000 last year — though he also pocketed a $12,000 bonus because the business made a profit. With worker cooperatives, profits are shared among the employees and also put back into the business. Still, Manning and Korn said worker-owned cooperatives are good places to work.

At Arizmendi, employee turnover is very low — an anomaly in the food industry, Korn said. Indeed, the 30-year-old Rainbow Grocery, which now boasts 250 workers and $40 million yearly revenue, has employees with 10, 15 and even 25 years' tenure. Arizmendi is also an example of how the co-op sector has been picking up steam in the Bay Area over the last few years.

"Two Bay Area organizations are primarily responsible for the growth in new co-ops. One is the Association of Arizmendi Cooperatives," said Dave Karoly, a staffer at the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, or NOBAWC, pronounced "no boss." The association formed the first Arizmendi Bakery nine years ago. Members of the 40-year-old, phenomenally successful Cheese Board Collective — one of the country's best-known worker-owned co-ops — helped organize the bakery cooperative. The Cheese Board lent its recipe — literally and figuratively — to Arizmendi, sharing culinary and business secrets, said Steve Manning, a worker-owner at the Cheese Board. The association plans to open a fourth Arizmendi Bakery in the next year or two and is scoping out locations now.

The other association responsible for establishing a number of new worker-owned co-ops in the Bay Area is Women's Action to Gain Economic Security, or WAGES, which opened three co-ops between 1999 and 2003 in Redwood City, Morgan Hill and Oakland, and plans to open another one in the next year. The association works with low-income Latina women to establish worker-owned housecleaning businesses using environmentally friendly products.

Other worker cooperatives are forming independently. Inkworks Press, a 32-year-old worker-owned union print shop that is also an Alameda County certified green business, spawned an offshoot called Design Action Collective about three years ago. Manning, who was laid off from a corporate job in 2001, said cooperatives are becoming attractive to a growing segment of workers. "The standard corporate model is no longer providing pension plans and other forms of security," he said. "People are realizing they have to take more responsibility themselves, and one of the ways they can do that is by becoming an owner-worker and having a vote."

Contact Janis Mara at jmara@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6468. Check out her Energy Blog at http://www.ibabuzz.com/energy.

Bay Area Worker Owned Cooperative Conference

Hello comrades!

This e-mail is on behalf of the Conference organizing committee of the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives asking you to:

SAVE THE DATE!

BAY AREA WORKER OWNED COOPERATIVE CONFERENCE 2007

When: September 29th and 30th

Who: Presented by the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives. Open to all Bay Area Worker Co-ops and community interested in worker ownership in the bay area!

Where: La Pena Cultural Center

Coop Workshops! speakers! Films! Fun, games, music and Networking with other Bay Area worker-owners!

Cost: $40 per participant. Organizations can apply for a group discount

Get Involved!! To Volunteer, donate, provide input, contact conference@nobawc.org

REGISTRATION BEGINS JULY 20th:
We are still working on putting up conference updates on our new NoBAWC site. For now, to register, please contact conference@nobawc.org
Or check back at www.nobawc.org after July 25th.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
For more information please contact conference@nobawc.org or check back at www.nobawc.org after July 25th.

THANK YOU!!

In Solidarity,
The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives 

US Federation of Worker Cooperatives Newsletter

The link below will take you to the 2nd edition of the USFWC newsletter.  It's loaded with valuable information.

http://www.usworker.coop/USFWCsummernews07.html

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

AK Press, perhaps the nation's leading publisher and distributor of books, cds and dvd's, is looking to hire two persons whose work would be to take orders, then package and ship them out of the worker cooperative's Oakland, CA warehouse.

Please forward, repost, and circulate widely. 

For immediate consideration! 

Women and People of Color strongly encouraged to apply. 

AK Press is looking to add two new members to our collective. These positions require a minimum of 40 hours work per week in our  Oakland warehouse, plus additional nights and weekends tabling at special events (bookfairs, concerts, conferences, etc.).

AK Press is a worker-owned and run anarchist collective, which publishes and distributes books and other media. Our politics draw on the rich heritage of anarchist, anti-authoritarian and left-communist thought and action; for more information on our politics as they relate to our business, please see: http://www.akpress.org/about/aboutakpress. AK Press publishes around 20 books, CDs, and DVDs per year, and distributes thousands of other titles from independent presses and publishers to the book trade, individuals, radical spaces, and other outlets.

We are hiring for two Order Entry / Shipping and Receiving positions in our distribution department. 

Job responsibilities include:

• Entering orders and shipping books to stores and wholesalers.

• Receiving incoming shipments (including entering new products, reconciling differences between shipment quantities and purchase order quantities, entering pricing changes, etc.).

• Communicating with our store customers and vendors.

• Shelving and storing books and managing warehouse space.

• Working with other members of the department to select items for distribution and eventually sharing other duties such as ordering stock.

• Coordinating and supervising volunteers and interns to help with jobtasks.

• Collective management: the general management of the company is a collective responsibility. From ensuring our financial health, to assessing our political strategies, to facilitation of meetings, to answering the phone, to changing light bulbs and sweeping the floor, all responsibility and accountability for AK Press rests with its workers. 

We’re actively looking for people:

• Whose politics are compatible with AK’s mission, and whose experiences and interests can contribute to AK’s vibrancy and diversity as a political project.

• Who are detail oriented and well organized.

• Who have good math skills.

• Who have experience with Macs.

• Who have a knowledge of and passion for books.

• Who have an incredible work ethic.

• Who can work well as part of the collective. 

Other desirable qualifications include:

• Experience with Filemaker and/or Acumen Book.

• Experience in other collectives.

• Connections to current political activities.

• Experience in the book trade. 

Our pay is $25,000 per year, comprehensive health insurance including dental, 4 weeks per year of paid time off and all the joys and headaches of being part of a worker owned and managed company. 

Please mail, fax, or email a comprehensive letter of interest and a resume. All applicants will receive a response. Send applications, by July 31, to: 

AK Press
Attn: Jobs
674-A 23rd Street
Oakland, CA 94612-1163
Fax: (510) 208-1701
E-mail: jobs@akpress.org

Don't Miss the Eastern Conference of the U.S Federation of Worker Cooperatives!

  

For some individuals, Mary Hoyer’s job would be like herding long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. She is organizing the 4^th Biennial Conference of the Eastern Conference of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, a thinly spread group of like-minded individuals up and down the East Coast.

Only Melissa Hoover, who staffs the U.S. Federation and organizes a nationwide conference every two years, may have a greater challenge. 

Hoyer does not seem the least flustered either by the number of people she answers to as the Conference’s lead organizer, or by the number of individuals she must negotiate with at the University of North Carolina/Asheville, where the gathering is to be held, or by people calling to say they want to provide some service. 

There may be two reasons why she remains so calm, even as the event is closing in on her:  First, she retired after teaching in Hartford, Ct  schools 30 years, all the while a union activist, and second, she organized a hugely successful conference at the sprawling  University of Maryland campus four years ago.  She was unflappable during the 2.5 days then, and is expected to be the same in Asheville.

Since leaving the classroom, Hoyer became a staff consultant for the Cooperative Fund of New England. That was 13 years ago. Thus, she knows most persons planning to attend already and a number of persons in  Asheville who are to be part of the event, including artists and musicians. 

And what does she have to say about how this year’s gathering: 

• It seems very exciting. People are stepping forward voluntarily to share experiences, information and their skills. There are over 30 workshops in three strands - creating democratic workplaces, managing and financing democratic work places, and building the workplace democracy movement.
• We have an outstanding keynote speaker and long-time advocate of worker-owned businesses, Lynn Williams, former president of the United Steelworkers of America, and the first international union president to actively promote worker ownership in the United States since the 1800s when the Ironmongers’ Union set up a correspondent school for members wanting to know how to start cooperatives.
• There will be free spaces for workshops that will spring up spontaneously, or which have come to her attention since the formal schedule was printed. One of these spaces will be held by SACCO for persons interested in blogs, to discuss how these now communications means may help build movements for social and economic justice.
• We have arranged a downtown tour of two artist-owned and managed cooperatives on Friday evening. Saturday evening attendees are free to choose where they will dine and walk about in  Asheville's exciting downtown. Buses will take participants back to UNCA. 
• The opening plenary panel will take a realistic look at the challenges and rewards of organizing worker cooperatives in the South. We expect Southerners to provide answers to most of these challenges, and what they see as rewards.
• Topping the conference’s business agenda is a discussion of how the Eastern Conference might assist Southerners trying to organize and to manage worker cooperatives. 

For more details go to: http://east.usworker.coop/default.htm

See you there!