Chicago Forum Focuses on Cooperative Business Development
Events like the Madison Cooperative Jobs Conference are occurring
in other cities as economic development staff, business owners, entrepreneurs,
and citizens explore how cooperatives can be part of economic development
efforts. Having attended the June
conference on cooperatives in Madison, staff from the Center for Workplace
Democracy in Chicago presented its own Forum on Developing Cooperative
Businesses in Chicago in October.
The forum was targeted to economic development
professionals, and those interested in cooperatives. UWCC’s Lynn Pitman presented on the economic
impact of cooperatives in the U.S. economy, and participated in a discussion
about cooperative development models.
A highlight of the forum was a panel discussion by
worker-owners of the New Era Windows Cooperative, a worker-owned cooperative
that bought the Republic Windows and Doors factory this past year. Republic abruptly shut down the factory and
declared bankruptcy in 2008, causing 240 workers to lose their jobs. Protests over the layoffs led to the factory
being purchased by a manufacturer of energy efficient windows and the rehiring
of some of the workers, but in early 2012 the new owner, a California-based
company, decided to close the plant.
This time the workers decided to organize as a worker
cooperative and purchase the factory themselves, thinking that they had the
most at stake in seeing the factory, which appeared to be a profitable
enterprise, continue operations. Workers
persevered in their efforts, and with support from United Electrical Workers
Union, The Working World, a nonprofit that provides investment capital and
technical support for worker cooperatives, and the Center for Workplace
Democracy, the workers have purchased the factory. Sales and production were planned to begin in
2013.
An estimated 180 people attended the forum, which also
included additional panel discussions by local cooperative businesses, and a
presentation on the Mondragon worker cooperatives in the Basque region of
Spain.
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