From August 6-8th, Third Coast Workers for Cooperation joined members of Yo Mamas Catering, the first graduates of the Cooperative Business Institute, for the 2010 National Worker Cooperative Conference in the Bay Area. Hundreds of worker co-op members, developers and supporters from across the country attended the conference, representing all four regions of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Through a series of workshops, plenaries, worker co-op tours and social gatherings, TCWC and Yo Mamas were exposed to the diversity, enthusiasm, and dedication of a growing national movement for workplace democracy.
On day one of the conference, we piled into separate tour vans for a glimpse of the various worker-owned businesses in the Bay. On the media tour, our first stop was Ink Works Press, a worker-owned, union print shop specializing in “sustainable printing for peace and justice”. We arrived just in time to see their recently unveiled mural documenting the relationship between Ink Works and the various social movements their work has contributed to in the course of over 30 years of printmaking. We took a tour of the workshop, met some of the worker-owners, and absorbed some history before moving on to what Ink Works considers its sister shop, Design Action Collective.
Design Action Collective was started as a spin-off of Ink Works in 2002 as an independent design and communications company, providing high quality “graphic design and visual comm
unications for progressive, non-profit and social change organizations.” Since its inception, Design Action has done an impressive array of design work, from posters to websites, for a variety of groups in the Bay Area and throughout the US. In fact, they’ve designed book covers for AK Press, a worker-run, radical book publisher and the last leg on our media tour.
While some of us took the media route, others followed the Arizmendi Association tour. Beginning with the Cheese Board Collective, “the mother ship of the Arizmendi Association,” members of Yo Mamas were led through a discussion of the origins and philosophy of the Arizmendi Association, one of the most exciting, innovative and successful cooperative development initiatives in the country. In addition to the history and philosophy, of course, they also sampled some of the food that has made the Arizmendi bakeries so popular throughout the Bay.
While the tours offered a broad sampling of the rich history of worker-ownership in the Bay Area, the conference workshops, plenaries, and social gatherings offered a more intimate look at the variety of worker-ownership models at the national level. Austin’s own Jim Hightower ushered in the conference Thursday night with an engaging key note speech at the Women’s Building in San Francisco’s Mission District. After a series of early morning workshops the following day, members of the Evergreen Cooperative initiative, Ted Howard and Medrick Addison, gave an inspiring presentation on the exciting “place-based” strategy for cooperative development in Cleveland, Ohio. The folks at Evergreen have already produced two worker co-ops, Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and Ohio Cooperative Solar, and have ambitious plans to develop an integrated network of 10 cooperatives with approximately 500 worker-owners in a 3 year period!
In a time of economic crisis, TCWC and Yo Mamas are proud to play a part in the growing effort to build a new economy based on democracy, sustainability and cooperation…and we look forward to hosting the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives for the 2011 membership meeting in Austin, TX!
One of several Arizmendi Bakeries
Raquel from Yo Mamas samples food on the tour
Andi and Carlos at the award ceremony
Raquel, Nini, Jeanette, and Sylvia awaiting the tour bus
Tags: TCWC, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, worker-ownership, Yo Mamas
