“In order to avoid the mistakes of the past and to reach a meaningful scale, actors in New York City must develop an ecosystem that supports the growth and development of cooperatives that must model the system on other nations that have developed ecosystems that allow cooperatives to flourish.” – Rachael A. Tanner, Worker Owned Cooperatives and the Ecosystems that Support Them , 2013

On November 19th, the Community and Worker Ownership Project hosted its monthly meeting on cooperative solutions, with a focus on the public policy development needed to build a supportive environment for worker cooperatives in the state of New York. This month’s meeting continued to feature diverse representation from different sectors of our ecosystem; coops, unions, advocates, and educators. As we discussed in this meeting, the strengthening of a “cooperative ecosystem” is a set of features that when activated together enables a different kind of economy: one where cooperation and care for people in the economy is preferred. Here is a visual map of who was in attendance..

In this post you can read summaries of what was said in our meeting, follow hyperlinks of referenced material or view the video of the session. Also provided are time stamped moments in the footage to get you quickly to speakers being referenced.

Background: A study by the Democracy at Work Institute and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives found that for the year 2018, the state of New York was home to approximately 58 worker cooperatives. A major contributor to this development comes from the support provided by the NYC Department of Small Business Services, which in 2015, with City Council support, launched the Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative that helped establish 21 new worker cooperatives in NYC.

At this month’s meeting we heard from the groups and representatives for policy changes that can be advanced at each level of our government.  Gale Johnson and Sade Swift from the Advocacy Council of the NYC for Worker Coops (NYCNoWC ) shared the policy platform they are developing, (which can be seen here.) These speakers represent  worker-owners who are grounding their recommendations on the lived experiences of being small cooperative businesses in our city who want to be able to have a strong business from a foundation of local worker power. Their policy recommendations answer the question, “What do we need to make our businesses more effective?”

Roger Green, Senior Fellow for Public Policy at Community Economic Development Clinic at CUNY Law and previously a member of the New York State Assembly for over two decades began by saying, “public policy is usually motivated by a public problem.” Assemblyman Green learned that the interconnection of health and well being in communities would need interventions that connect localized solutions to address structural inequality, with supply chains, local jobs, and strong community economic development. He reminded us how we are  now looking at COVID 19 related shortages because of externalizing supply chains.  He highlighted the importance of developing entrepreneurial centers to incubate unionized worker cooperatives and spoke of the need of a law for the Right of First Refusal to give workers the opportunity to purchase the companies they work for before the business is opened for private equity purchase. Suggestions for state legislation that could encourage investments into and loans from an “Incumbent Workers Legacy Inheritance Fund.” It is important to quote Roger’s wise words.

“This recovery should not be governed by the forces of disaster capitalism but by the citizens.”

Kate LaTour, Director of Government Relations at the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International discussed the importance of building support for  cooperatives as a tool for addressing racial inequality and to promote “a recovery mechanism to the economic impacts of the pandemic.” She spoke of the importance of building on the successes of the HR 5236 Main Street Employee Ownership Act of 2018, championed by Senator Kristin Gillibrand and Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York. HR 5236 makes loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) more accessible for worker cooperatives and provides technical assistance for small businesses looking to transition into a worker cooperative model of business. She spoke about how important it is to have tax codes that can offer benefits for cooperative ownership and conversions. In fact, in certain regions in Italy and Spain, economic inequality is less as these policies for cooperative economics are strong.

Christine Curella, Deputy Director, Business Development & New Economy Initiatives, at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives referenced that change is not a top down strategy but works with a dynamism of bottom up and top down or inside/outside efforts where best advocacy for policy changes meets legislators and this is our work, to assure that pairing.  She shared updates on the 2019 Senate Bill 2176 proposal by New York State Senator Bailey as an example right before us of how legislation can uplift worker cooperatives and, if approved by Governor Cuomo, would enable converted worker owned businesses to access critical resources and support for business continuity and job preservation through the Economic Development Fund administered through the Empire State Economic Corporation.

She gave attention to a policy paradigm where some solutions are available “as of right”. Real estate, zoning, tax incentives, investment mechanisms. The example of a right of first refusal for workers to be able to stay by buying their company when the owner wants to leave, if as of right, there would be mechanisms in place that support the efforts on multiple levels.

She begged the question, as we face so much economic turmoil, what can we do that is as of right? We need to have rent and loan forgiveness…and we need to pay attention to how these rights can be accessed- for who, where and when? Our conversation moved to a significant moment of how we can support the legislation before the Governor this week. Following the meeting NYCNoWC crafted a letter and over 15 parties from this meeting signed on to support Senate Bill 2176 intended to make it easier for owners to sell to their workers and for workers to access funds to make the purchase.

Andy Morrison from the New Economy Project discussed the role of public banks in catalyzing support for worker cooperatives while also helping to build a more inclusive economy through the use of public dollars.

A full recording of the meeting can be accessed HERE.

Below are links from things mentioned in this Working Group Meeting.

 1/ Senate Bill 2184 aka Bailey Bill

• This bill aims to push forward initiatives to strengthen the support for worker cooperatives in the State of New York. This bill calls for the establishment of a State Employee Ownership Center to oversee the provision of information and financial support for businesses seeking to succeed ownership to employees.
• To learn about the Bailey bill, information can be found HERE

2/ Right of First Refusal and Right to Own

• In the context of a business looking to sell off its ownership, Right of First Refusal would allow for former workers/employees “to purchase ownership stake in their workplaces before they’re closed or sold off” (HR Dive – Right of First Refusal)
• To learn more about how this policy approach can help with worker ownership transitions, see the report by the Next Systems Project HERE

3/ New Economy Project and Public Banks

• To learn more about public banks in the city, visit Public Bank NYC Coalition’s website, where you can also find ways for your organization to get involved.
• Additional Resource from Vox

4/ Solidarity Economy

• Redding Pa and Abby Scher article on the solidarity economy can be found HERE
• Non-Profit Quarterly article titled System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy can be found HERE
• A report by NCBA on how to build a more incase economy through worker cooperatives. Access HERE
• From the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection NYC – Municipal-Policies-for-Community-Wealth-Building.pdf
• Learn some background on Cooperative Home Care Associates here
• And from Yes! Magazine on CHCA here
• and check out this weekly blast from Grassroots Economic Organizing – GEO

5/ Take a class of cooperative economics at our school!

• Learn about the spring course here!

FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US FOR FURTHER INFO — CWOP@SLU.CUNY.EDU