cyu
28th December 2009, 17:22
Excerpts from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy/clevelands-worker-owned-boom
http://www.yesmagazine.org/images/issues/103/50Alperowitz_city.jpg
This June, the doors will open at the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a state-of-the-art, nearly $6 million facility in Cleveland, Ohio.
What’s so special about this laundry? In a word, ownership. The business will be 100 percent owned by its 50 employees, virtually all of whom live in the surrounding community.
It is the first attempt to bring together the economic power of “anchor institutions”—universities and hospitals, in this case—that have a long-term commitment to the city. Instead of luring outside corporations with promises of tax breaks and lax standards for labor and environmental practices, the Evergreen strategy develops home-grown worker-owned enterprises that can offer ongoing services to these anchor institutions.
This represents the first significant effort to create green jobs that not only pay a decent wage, but also build assets and wealth for employees, since they are not only workers, but also owners. If successful, this initiative could become a national model.
That Cleveland may become a center of an innovative, green, wealth-sharing economy is especially remarkable because the city has been one of the hardest hit by the flight of capital and jobs.
Cleveland is among the five poorest cities in America. There are at least 15,000 vacant buildings in the city and more than 3,300 acres of vacant land.
The answer... lay in building on the city’s most significant assets: the network of health care, higher education, and cultural “anchor institutions” that are a legacy of the city’s once-strong manufacturing base. The university and hospitals are prominent among them.
These institutions together purchase many billions of dollars of goods and services, and they are among the only institutions still growing. Because they are rooted in place, they have a self-interest in ensuring their surrounding neighborhoods are safe, healthy, and vital communities.
Local foundations, hospitals, nursing homes, banks, a university, and City Hall are each investing in the Evergreen network of community- and worker-owned enterprises. These co-ops are structured to serve the anchor institutions’ ongoing needs
Evergreen companies will hire and train employees from low- and moderate-income neighborhoods for jobs in the cooperative enterprises. A local nonprofit specializing in workforce development is recruiting workers through church and other networks. More than 90 neighborhood residents—some who have been laid off during the current recession, others who have been underemployed for years—attended the first community hiring meetings. Some of these men and women will become the first Evergreen employee-owners.
By linking green jobs to wealth creation, Evergreen is pioneering a new approach to organizing the green economy. After all, if green jobs are good, isn’t a green job you “own” even better?
The Evergreen businesses are aptly named: all aim to be environmentally sustainable. The Evergreen Laundry, for instance, will be the greenest commercial-scale laundry in Northeast Ohio.
how do you move from 50 jobs to 500, and then to 5,000?
Access to capital is the key to expanding impact. In Cleveland, the Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund was formed to provide seed financing for the next generations of worker cooperatives. The Fund is modeled in part on Spain’s Caja Laboral bank, with initial funding from foundations. But as they grow, the Evergreen co-ops will be an increasingly important source of funding for other co-ops; each will dedicate at least 10 percent of their pre-tax profits to the Fund to help build the cooperative network.
"Why shouldn’t all of our citizens have access to meaningful jobs in workplaces where they can own a piece of the company and participate in the company’s direction?"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/images/issues/103/50Alperowitz_city.jpg
This June, the doors will open at the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a state-of-the-art, nearly $6 million facility in Cleveland, Ohio.
What’s so special about this laundry? In a word, ownership. The business will be 100 percent owned by its 50 employees, virtually all of whom live in the surrounding community.
It is the first attempt to bring together the economic power of “anchor institutions”—universities and hospitals, in this case—that have a long-term commitment to the city. Instead of luring outside corporations with promises of tax breaks and lax standards for labor and environmental practices, the Evergreen strategy develops home-grown worker-owned enterprises that can offer ongoing services to these anchor institutions.
This represents the first significant effort to create green jobs that not only pay a decent wage, but also build assets and wealth for employees, since they are not only workers, but also owners. If successful, this initiative could become a national model.
That Cleveland may become a center of an innovative, green, wealth-sharing economy is especially remarkable because the city has been one of the hardest hit by the flight of capital and jobs.
Cleveland is among the five poorest cities in America. There are at least 15,000 vacant buildings in the city and more than 3,300 acres of vacant land.
The answer... lay in building on the city’s most significant assets: the network of health care, higher education, and cultural “anchor institutions” that are a legacy of the city’s once-strong manufacturing base. The university and hospitals are prominent among them.
These institutions together purchase many billions of dollars of goods and services, and they are among the only institutions still growing. Because they are rooted in place, they have a self-interest in ensuring their surrounding neighborhoods are safe, healthy, and vital communities.
Local foundations, hospitals, nursing homes, banks, a university, and City Hall are each investing in the Evergreen network of community- and worker-owned enterprises. These co-ops are structured to serve the anchor institutions’ ongoing needs
Evergreen companies will hire and train employees from low- and moderate-income neighborhoods for jobs in the cooperative enterprises. A local nonprofit specializing in workforce development is recruiting workers through church and other networks. More than 90 neighborhood residents—some who have been laid off during the current recession, others who have been underemployed for years—attended the first community hiring meetings. Some of these men and women will become the first Evergreen employee-owners.
By linking green jobs to wealth creation, Evergreen is pioneering a new approach to organizing the green economy. After all, if green jobs are good, isn’t a green job you “own” even better?
The Evergreen businesses are aptly named: all aim to be environmentally sustainable. The Evergreen Laundry, for instance, will be the greenest commercial-scale laundry in Northeast Ohio.
how do you move from 50 jobs to 500, and then to 5,000?
Access to capital is the key to expanding impact. In Cleveland, the Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund was formed to provide seed financing for the next generations of worker cooperatives. The Fund is modeled in part on Spain’s Caja Laboral bank, with initial funding from foundations. But as they grow, the Evergreen co-ops will be an increasingly important source of funding for other co-ops; each will dedicate at least 10 percent of their pre-tax profits to the Fund to help build the cooperative network.
"Why shouldn’t all of our citizens have access to meaningful jobs in workplaces where they can own a piece of the company and participate in the company’s direction?"