Worker Cooperatives

Below, are the recordings for NASCO Institue 2020 sessions by room. Please share lessons learned with your cooperatives and communities. 

If you did not register for NASCO Institute and you'd like to support free and low-cost cooperative education, please consider contributing a donation amount that feels appropriate for you and/or your cooperative. Your donation makes it possible to offer cooperative education materials and resources free of charge. DONATE HERE.

Template: Millions of Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, so odds are that one of more of your employees will test positive in the coming months. But there is a smart (and legal) way to communicate this news to your employees.

The Democracy at Work Institute is building a comprehensive Resource Library that will include a wide range of materials, including academic papers, start-up toolkits, curriculum samples, actual documents from existing worker cooperatives, and more. The topic list below provides a map of the resources that will be available. We are also continuing to publish additional resources on a daily basis.

After a lot of labor and learning, the workers who famously occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago in '08 are opening a new cooperative business: New Era Windows. Laura discusses the journey with Brendan Martin of The Working World and three of the worker-owners.To see the full story go to GRITtv.org.

Laura Flanders interviews the directors of "Shift Change," Melissa Young & Mark Dworkin.

What role did economic cooperation play in the civil rights movement? As it turns out, a huge one. This forgotten history is the focus of Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard's recent book Collective Courage: A History of African-American Economic Thought and Practice, out in bookstores in May 2014.

The Laura Flanders show streams from GRITtv.org.

Presented by Steve Dubb (The Democracy Collaborative), Rachel Plattus (New Economy Coalition), Joe Rinehart (US Federation of Worker Cooperatives & Democracy at Work Institute), Farzana Serang (CoFED), & Lisa Stolarski (Center for Community- Based Enterprises)

Presented by Cecile Reuge (University of Vermont & Vermont Workers' Center)

In the 1880s, the Knights of Labor, known as largest labor union in the world at the time, organized a network of almost 200 industrial cooperatives across the United States. Today, the presence of labor unions is at an all-time low. Meanwhile the cooperative movement continues to grow, but in whose best interest? This resource will explore the history of food cooperatives within the broader context of cooperative and labor movements as well as workers rights in food consumer cooperatives.

This is a brief descriptions of what a co-op is, as well as the different types of co-ops that exist.