Work Together 4

Work Together

SU

SP ST ECI A AI NA L E B L D IT E E IO MP N O LO N YM EN T

May 2011 - Issue N°4

The global information magazine on cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises in industry, services and crafts

Japan’s recovery JWCU set up a relief fund

JWCU, the Japanese organisation for worker’s cooperatives is reporting an extremely hard situation within their members with the aftershocks that are still hitting the country. A relief fund has been set up to help the cooperatives. Report on page 24.

IN THIS ISSUE

COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISES BUILD A BETTER WORLD

EDITORIAL

2

INTERCONTINENTAL

3

EUROPE

7

INTERVIEW

14

SOUTH AMERICA

16

NORTH AMERICA

19

AFRICA

22

ASIA

24

(page 3)

SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT: A KEY FOR THE FUTURE OF EUROPE

SIGNS OF HOPE FOR COOPERATIVES IN EGYPT

(page 7)

(page 23)

INTERVIEW WITH ISABELLE DURANT VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (page 14)

2 | EDITORIAL

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

Editorial

Work Together Issue Nº 4 - May 2011

By Manuel Mariscal, COCETA From COCETA, we are actively working for the inclusion of social clauses in the contractual documents for public tenders, based primarily on employment sustainability and its characteristics. We cannot forget that cooperatives are an ideal company model to work with public administration; while traditional enterprises give contracts according to the length of time of a specific service, cooperatives try to Sustainable employment is a fundakeep people employed for longer mental pillar on which our business and they do not only maintain jobs, model is built, and it is linked to but this has an impact the International Coon local areas, with operative Alliance “Sustainable all the benefits that (ICA)’s cooperative employment is this entails. principles : the sevWhen CECOP requested that I write the magazine’s editorial that you have in your hands, I had two thoughts: on the one hand the responsibility of writing words that include all those cooperative feelings and thoughts and, on the other hand, I felt the satisfaction of being able to talk about a topic which I defend at every possible opportunity.

enth principle is a fundamental Another important concept in this field about the community pillar on which is Corporate Social interest. CooperaResponsibility tives work to achieve our business (CSR). According to their communities’ sustainable develop- model is built...” the Word Business Council for Sustainment through poliable Development, CSR is : "the cies approved by their members. commitment that takes a company Everyone knows that cooperatives to contribute to sustainable ecoare the companies that make the nomic development through colmost effort to maintain long-lasting laboration with employees, their employment embedded in the terrifamilies, local community and socitory. ety in order to improve quality of Under the Treaty of Lisbon, and life”. This idea is dynamic and is within it, Chapter II of the Charter constantly evolving and changing, of Fundamental Rights, sets out but it is vital and it is in harmony various points about the freedom to with sustainable employment. choose an occupation, the right to engage in work and the freedom to conduct a business. Also, the Chapter III of the Charter analyzes equality between men and women; based on the ICA goals, we note that it appears to promote and strengthen self-governing cooperatives throughout the world and promote sustainable human development and human, economic and social progress.

I hope you find this Work Together issue interesting and that it makes us think and further develop these topics. Happy reading!

Work Together is the magazine of the world (CICOPA) and European (CECOP) Confederation of cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises active in industry and services CICOPA is a sectoral organisation of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).

Avenue Milcamps 105 - BE-1030 Brussels, Belgium Contact: olivier.biron@cicopa.coop www.cicopa.coop www.cecop.coop SECRETARY GENERAL

Bruno Roelants COORDINATION AND EDITION

Olivier Biron and Leire Luengo COLLABORATORS

Virginia Pérez and Natalia Acerenza GRAPHIC DESIGN

Jorge Cabrera for jcse TRANSLATIONS AND PROOFREADING OF THE THREE LINGUISTIC VERSIONS

Guy Boucquiaux, Francine Feret, Arantza Garrido Altuna, Helen Robinson and Celia Martín del Pozo PICTURES

Self-production and copyright-free photographs from flickr.com The editorial staff would like to thank all the members of CICOPA and CECOP CICOPA Europe for their contribution.

Edited in English, French and Spanish

Manuel Mariscal Sigüenza is vicepresident of CECOP, vice-president of COCETA (The Spanish Confederation of workers' cooperatives) and president of FAECTA (Federation of cooperatives enterprises of Andalusia).

INTERCONTINENTAL

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INTERCONTINENTAL International Year of Cooperatives: “Cooperative enterprises build a better world” Olivier Biron, CICOPA ‘Cooperative Enterprises build a better world’ will be the slogan of the 2012 United Nations International Year of Cooperatives. It highlights the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, in particular recognizing their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration: "Cooperatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility", declared the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.

The UN resolution which proclaimed this international year invites all member states to consider taking action towards establishing national mechanisms, such as national committees, to prepare for, observe and follow up on the International Year of Cooperatives.

The mains objectives are to increase public awareness about cooperatives and their contributions to socioeconomic development and promote

the formation and growth of cooperatives. The International Year of Cooperatives encourages governments to establish policies, laws and regulations conducive to the formation, growth and stability of cooperatives.

The United Nations have also recently revealed the logo of the International Year which features seven persons working together to lift and support a cube. It evokes the definition of a cooperative enterprise as

Launch of an interactive news platform about cooperatives Leire Luengo, CICOPA 'Co-operative Press' has recently launched 'Dash.coop', a website that displays news and blog feeds from cooperatives across the world. It also provides an interactive dashboard for cooperators and anyone interested in the sector to view feeds by subject or through custom searches.

'Dash.coop' has the particularity that

users have control over the site. Anyone can join up and add feeds to contribute to a source of information about cooperatives. Any article can be shared through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious or email. A more in-depth analysis allows feeds to be viewed by country, as well as the most popular subjects, such as con-

“an autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, cultural needs and aspirations, through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise” 1. ■ 1

ILO Recommendation 193/2002 on the promotion of cooperatives For more information, please check: http://social.un.org/coopsyear

ferences and special events.

'Dash.coop' editor Anthony Murray emphasizes the wealth of cooperative news: “Dash.coop is here to share this information and cooperatives together”. Moreover, he insists that cooperatives need to be in constant communication and see what others are doing, especially during the global recession and in the upcoming International Year of Cooperatives in 2012. ■ Website: http://www.dash.coop

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WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

Building gender equality through cooperatives Leire Luengo, CICOPA n 8th March 2011 it was the centenary of International Women's Day. To mark this occasion, Work Together is coming back to the crucial role of women in worker cooperatives.

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Despite signs of progress in gender equality over the past 15 years, there is still a significant gap between women and men in terms of job opportunities and quality of employment, according to the International Labour Office (ILO). In turn, women have always had a strong presence in worker cooperatives given that this business model combines economic viability and social responsibility.

The agro-tourism women’s cooperative TO Kastri, is an example. Since 2000, Anna Darzenta and 27 active housewives came together to begin working outside the home and opened their own catering company in the Greek island of Syros where there is high unemployment. The EQUAL program for female entrepreneurs, funded through the European Social Fund, has helped them.

of Worker Cooperatives (COCETA), 49% of people in worker cooperatives are women. Amongst them, 39% have directors’ positions, though in other enterprises which do not adopt this model, the percentage of women that work in these positions is barely 6%.

"With an egalitarian ethos, participatory decision-making, common ownership and commitment to goals beyond the motive of profit, cooperatives are expanding opportunities for women in local economies and societies throughout the world", declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the occasion of last year’s International Day of Cooperatives, for which the motto was 'Cooperative enterprises empower women'. About gender equality, he also underlines that the cooperative approach is not only an economically sustainable model, but also an enterprise system in which there are equality indicators between men and women above the rest of the business formulas. According to the Spanish Confederation

In Italy, according to ANCPLLegacoop, the presence of women in worker cooperatives in the fashion industry is 95%, a significant example is the cooperative Stienta CAPA (Rovigo), consisting of around 100 workers who are nearly all members, in a leading producer of the Dolce & Gabbana range which conducts an annual turnover of more than three million euros. In others sectors where there are fewer women, such as the metalworks, chemical and paper production sector had a 20% of female presence in directors’ positions. In addition, during the last six years the female presence in the manufacturing sector has increased significantly from both the qualitative and quantitative point of view.

Two workers from the Spanish cooperative Sherlimp

The New Zealand China Friendship Society (NZCFS), and the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (ICCIC), have begun a project with Shaanxi Province Women's Federation, focused on encouraging Chinese women in cooperatives. The first phase of training has finished, and vice chair of ICCIC, Dave Bromwich, believes that “cooperatives give women an opportunity to lead, and help them to develop confidence in themselves”.

While the world economy is facing difficult challenges, cooperatives provide a valuable service to many women, especially those in vulnerable communities. The cooperative business model is more resilient in a crisis situation compared to capitalistic companies because of the very fact that those workers are the owners of the company and therefore, it is a model which prevails over individual capital and in which profits are shared with a collective approach. ■

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Rossano Rimelli is the new president of CECOP-CICOPA Europe Olivier Biron, CICOPA ossano Rimelli was elected as president of CECOPCICOPA Europe at its extraordinary general assembly which was held on 4th November in Brussels. With this election, he also becomes vice-president of CICOPA for Europe. Industrial expert, graduated in economy and business, Rossano Rimelli has been active in the cooperative movement in Italy for more than 25 years.

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Since 2007, he has been General Director of ANCPL, the sectoral organisation of Legacoop for industrial cooperatives. He succeeds to Felice Scalvini who has recently been elected co-president of Cooperatives Europe. Felice Scalvini had been

president of CECOP for the last 14 years, a period that saw historical changes in Europe, and that was marked by a profound transformation of the institutional architecture of the international cooperative movement, to which he himself contributed.

At his election, Rossano Rimelli declared: "Being president of CECOP means having the important duty to represent the whole organisation. But the activity of the organisation itself requires the involvement of most members. I am also convinced of the fact that, beyond the cooperative sector in which one evolves, what we do must be seen as an entrepreneurial activity. In Italy, Spain, France and many other countries in Europe, cooperatives have a great competitive

Rossano Rimelli

capacity, at both national and international levels, and facts show that cooperation can be done in many different ways. In this time of crisis, cooperatives can make a difference in front of other more lucrative forms of enterprises”. ■

EU co-financed Project encourages collaboration between Brazil and Uruguay cooperatives Rosana Perdomo, Red del Sur

ed del Sur (Southern Net-

R work) has launched in 2010

an EU co-financed project, where processes focused in crossborder cooperation are reinforced. Organizations from Brazil and Uruguay, respectively UNISOL and FCPU, are already taking important steps in this regard (read more about Red del Sur on page 16).

Last February, a Brazilian delegation, formed by cooperatives and government officials of Brazil’s Río Grande do Sul state, visited Uruguayan companies and established several agreements with government

representatives from Uruguay.

Hence the collaboration that would involve various links of the textile chain based on recycled polymers.

Classifiers cooperatives (recyclers), firstly from Brazil, would do the primary job of collecting plastic containers to transform them in clean sheet of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-kind of clear plastic. This would be the raw material needed by Coopima, an Uruguayan cooperative that would be in charge of producing the polyester fiber which would return to Brazil to be processed by Coopertextil, a self-managed textile spinning mill.

Brazilian cooperatives delegation and officials visit Coopima, Uruguay

This regional network would join and complement Justa Trama, a chain of fair trade fabric production and garment based in Brazil and involving about six companies. Therefore, this provides a great opportunity, from a regional strategy, to provide jobs to several sectors of the Social Economy of both countries. ■

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WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

Series of documentaries about the world cooperative movement Leire Luengo, CICOPA he Spanish audiovisual production cooperative m30m made a documentary about cooperatives around the world and are currently in the editing process of the first episode recorded in Chile. They are also working on the development of the second episode that will be filmed in Colombia; they have conducted an initial investigation into the sector during the month of November.

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The balance of this first approach has been "very positive", as pointed out by the spokesperson, Ana Sánchez: “Firstly, because we have known the cooperative movement first hand and at the same time, we could share and exchange experiences. We believe that the cooperative movement needs to be more interconnected.”

The series will be initially available on the Internet, though m30m hope to find another way of broadcasting in the future, such as on public television. The production company has expressed their desire to find other European audiovisual companies, who are also cooperatives, and with whom they can approach the project in collaboration.

For the time being, the series has no institutional financial support. M30m is looking for potential project promoters in the countries where they are broadcasting and also on an international level. In fact, the episodes filmed in Chile are being financed with cooperative resources and with the help of the International Centre for Social and Cooperative Economy (CIESCOOP) at the University of Santiago in Chile and the Andalusia Foundation School of Social Economy.

Increasing visibility The objectives of this documentary are, on the one hand the visibility of

The Mundart artisans’ cooperative in Santiago de Chile

the cooperative movement in the world; to get to know the countries and regions worldwide through the companies and cooperative organisations, and display the values and the cooperative principles in practice. At the same time, the cooperative sector wants to start a world meeting forum and promotion of the cooperative identity.

“Many members of cooperatives are aware that there is a challenge in explaining what we do, in order to show what we are and how we do it. Perhaps we engage ourselves more in action than words, but we must learn to speak out for the world to know us and recognise us”, says Ana Sanchez.

The cooperative idea is a phenomenon present in most countries, and it has survived and has grown, even though their conditions have not always been favorable. “We believe that sharing experiences in each country will allow us to strengthen the cooperative movement”, Ana Sanchez says. “It is an inclusive and supportive way of doing business, which responds to peoples’ needs. Although the cooperative also has something unique in each region and that is where we are con-

vinced that sharing the experiences of individual countries will allow us to strengthen the cooperative movement”.

Cooperative spreading The m30m cooperative, which has been based in Andalusia for nine years, has an aim to make cooperatives and social economy more popular. It is not the first time m30m have done this type of audiovisual work; in 2003 it began making nine documentary episodes called The Andalusian Social Economy promoted by CEPES Andalucía. In 2009 they began the production of another series for the same entity called Undertaking from the Social Economy.

“In 2008 we started to consider the importance of going beyond the sphere of our region and we began designing a self-produced series that allows us to broadcast and learn about the cooperative movement throughout the world. We wanted to experience new things and to report them”, says Ana Sanchez. ■ For more information, please check: http://www.m30m.com/

EUROPE

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EUROPE EUROPEAN UNION

Sustainable employment: a key for the future of Europe Olivier Biron, CECOP

ECOP - CICOPA Europe launched a campaign on sustainable employment highlighting the fact that worker cooperatives, social cooperatives and other types of enterprises owned by their workers allow a more sustainable type of employment. Why? In fact, those enterprises are controlled by ownersstakeholders who are actively present on the territory, and are aimed to satisfy their common economic, social, cultural and/or environmental needs and aspirations.

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“I really believe that people become empowered by doing things themselves, not by having handouts” explains Becky Johnson from Who made your pants?, a worker cooperative formed to empower marginalised women by providing flexible employment, education and a social and community space. For this campaign, CECOP has been collecting stories of cooperative members from all over Europe. All those testimonies are presented on the campaign website (www.sustainableemployment.eu).

The website includes also news and videos.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest for the worker cooperatives model. A largely unsustainable financial-economic system at a global level paved the way towards the global crisis which has left entire EU member states in a very critical situation. Since then, cooperatives have appeared as generally more resilient to the crisis than the average of enterprises, also in terms of jobs, and as a realistic option to save enter-

prises and jobs through the restructuring of enterprises in crisis or without heirs. Nevertheless, cooperatives in general and worker cooperatives in particular suffer from a lack of recognition in European employment policies. “An emblematic example of that lack of recognition can be found in the EU 2020 strategy”, underlines CECOP secretary general, Bruno Roelants. However, the recently published European Commission Communication on the Single Market Act does recognize that the cooperative sector is more vibrant than ever 1.

Despite the enthusiasm cooperatives have enjoyed in the past few years, the CECOP campaign does not picture them as the medicine that would cure all the diseases. As any other type of company, cooperatives have many problems but, most of the time, these are solved jointly by their members. “It is not easy to operate as a cooperative. The initial enthusiasm soon gives way to individualism and demands that can easily endanger the integrity of the company. It is therefore absolutely necessary to share the issues and problems faced by all members of the workforce with the fierce conviction that all actions are taken in the common interest” explains Elena Purinan from the Aussametal cooperative in the North of Italy.

All members have their word to say and are directly interested in the success of the business thanks to the redistribution of surplus: “If more businesses were run this way, with highly motivated worker owners, then everyone would be better off”, says Scott Muir, a worker from Infinity Food in the UK.

Recently, CECOP wrote a letter to several high-level EU decision makers to raise their awareness on the worker cooperative business model.

The letter was sent to EU Commissioners László Andor (Employment), Antonio Tajani (Enterprise) and Michel Barnier (Internal Market), several MEPs, Commission civil servants, etc. As stated in the letter, “by providing sustainable employment in economically sustainable enterprises geared towards the long term, we consider ourselves to be part of a wider socio-economic trend, which is trying to generate and distribute longterm wealth in the territories, going in the opposite direction of the tendencies which caused the crisis”. ■ 1

European Commission Communication COM(2011) 206/4: “Single Market Act : Twelve levers to boost growth and strengthen confidence” - http://s.coop/15v6.

The letter is available on the campaign website at http://www.sustainableemployment.eu

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FRANCE / SPAIN / UNITED KINGDOM

Keys to the creation of cooperatives: the example of three practical guides Leire Luengo, CECOP he transformation of companies

T into cooperatives is an option which is not always taken into account as part of corporate restructuring due to a crisis or in businesses without heirs. The global economic crisis has demonstrated the success of this entrepreneurial leap towards a more democratic and more sustainable employments. Examples of successful buyouts of enterprises in crisis by their workers are numerous.

Several guidelines have been recently published for all those interested in joining the cooperative movement, especially in the UK, Spain and France. The Spanish Confederation of Worker Cooperatives (COCETA) and, in France, the General Confederation of worker cooperatives (CG Scop) have published very practical guides, which describe the most important steps to take and which are aimed at future developers. Each confederation has given its national touch (legislation, financing, business environment, etc.), but both pursue the same objective: to publicize and promote the cooperative option.

The guide published by COCETA offers very practical information, including several tables that allow new cooperatives to establish a diagnosis in relation to the starting point found where the new entity should work more cooperatively and thoroughly to ensure its success. Both, CG SCOP as COCETA include a list of tools on which these companies can find support, such as entities or public and private institutions, which specialize in providing assistance in such situations. COCETA’s guide also includes a list of public grants and technical assistance from which entrepreneurs can benefit.

Single market act: “the cooperative sector more vibrant than ever” Diana Dovgan, CECOP The European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, has presented on 13th of April the ‘Single Market Act’, a text regrouping twelve priorities designed to boost growth and reinforce citizens' confidence. Key actions for each lever should be adopted by the end of 2012.

The text specifies that the cooperative sectors is “more vibrant than ever” and highlights its important contribution in terms of employment in the European Union.

CECOP’s position on the Single Market Act can be found on its website: http://s.coop/15vq. ■

Practical guides to promote the creation of cooperatives

For its part, Co-operatives UK has recently launched a guide to promote the cooperative movement in the creative industries, namely to ensure that these professionals (who are often self-employed) work together.

The document gives the necessary keys and indicates the way for the creation of a cooperative. Cooperatives UK also released in 2008 a generic guide for establishing cooperatives. ■ To access these guides refer to : SPAIN De empresa en crisis a empresa cooperativa: Guía para la transformación de empresas mercantiles en cooperativas de trabajo. COCETA (Download) FRANCE Guide “Transmission d’entreprise en Scop”. CG Scop. (Download) UNITED KINGDOM Creative cooperatives. A guide to starting a cooperative in the creative industries. Co-operatives UK. (Download) Guide “Starting a Co-operative”. Cooperatives UK. (Download)

Entrepreneurial restructuring and anticipation of change Olivier Biron, CECOP In 2010, CECOP-CICOPA Europe led an EU-financed project on restructuring called 'Anticipate'. This project focused on entrepreneurial restructuring and anticipation in worker and social cooperatives and other employeeowned enterprises in Italy, Spain and France. In these three countries, the phenomenon of workers owning their enterprise is important from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view. Following the project, a book called 'Beyond the Crisis: Cooperatives, Work, Finance - Generating Wealth for the Long Term' is about to be published in English, French, Italian, and Spanish. The study has set out to identify the dynamics of the cooperatives involved and their ability to adjust to change and to anticipate it.

This might be particularly interesting in the context of the crisis which flared up the world economy.

The book can be purchased on the CECOP website at www.cecop.coop.

“Beyond the Crisis: Cooperatives, Work, Finance - Generating Wealth for the Long Term” (CECOP Publications) by Alberto Zevi, Antonio Zanotti, François Soulage and Adrian Zelaia. ■

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SPAIN

The ‘Sociedades laborales’ secure jobs in time Leire Luengo, CECOP he jobs consolidation in the Sociedades Laborales (SAL) in Spain has been made reality thanks to the fact it is a workerowned enterprise. “If four people join together to create a company and own it, then they will do their very best to survive in any economic environment”, said Jose Luis Núñez, spokesperson for the Confederation of Employers and Industrial Societies Spain (Confesal). In addition, the Spanish SAL law restricts the hiring of temporary employees. So to stay as SAL they must meet a minimum number of permanently contracted working partners.

“This ensures that industrial societies are creating stable employment”, said Núñez.

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The SAL governance model scheme is similar to a traditional company with the difference that the majority of the Board of Directors is composed of working members (at least two-thirds). The SAL sector is integrated in Spain for about 17,000 companies and 100,000 workers, according to data available from 2010.

In addition, these companies recorded a turnover of 16,000 million Euros in the last fiscal year.

The Galician SAL Nor Rubber engaged in the manufacture of rubber products is a clear example. In 2001, following the collapse of GESRUBBER, Inc. the new company was created, “with a small portfolio of clients, with little funding but with a good product and a huge desire to move forward with this project from 133 workers who were looking to

Workers from Nor Rubber

secure their jobs”, says the company Board of Directors president, José Manuel Quintana.

workforce would not be so involved in the management and progress of the company”.

After ten years of existence, they are clear about it, if they had not been a SAL, the adverse circumstances would have been solved in another way: “We should have gone to exter-

Zuray Andrea Melgarejo, a professor at the National University of Colombia and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Navarra, performed the first comparative study between the SAL and the traditional companies in Navarra region (North of Spain). The study concluded that SAL are in a favourably competitive position compared to other commercial companies: “This business formula creates a job different from other small and medium enterprises characterized, among other factors, by a balance between sustainability, solidarity and adaptability to new markets, more likely to generate permanent employment and legal flexibility as well as flexibility for salaries”, the study written by Professor Melgarejo concludes. ■

“This business formula creates a job characterized by a balance between sustainability, solidarity and adaptability to new markets...” nal financing, which could have led to a more complex situation. Surely we would have suffered more and the

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Spanish workers cooperatives have grown by 7% during the first three months in 2010 Mariana Vilnitzky, COCETA

In 2010, the whole cooperative movement mobilised at the occasion of the first 'Co-operatives Fortnight'. The campaign got 2.3 million people involved, around 70,000 were active online and the media coverage reached over 43 million people.

year compared to the same period in 2009, according to the Spanish worker’s cooperatives association, COCETA. At the same time, the confederation announced that it had contributed to the creation of 10,000 jobs per year since 1986, with an average of 500 new enterprises created every year.

These businesses employ around 205,7000 workers compared to 70,000 when COCETA was first created in 1986.

In addition, according to the last COCETA directory, 49% of people in workers cooperatives are women.

Amongst these, 39% have directors positions, though in other enterprises which do not adopt this model, the percentage of women that work in these positions is barely 6%.

During a ceremony which took place in Valence, where the activities for the 25th anniversary of the organisation were unveiled, its president Juan Antonio Pedreño underlined the financial difficulties across the sector.

“Cooperatives keep up thanks to the efforts of their members” he added and asked the public to support the cooperative model. Our challenge for 2011 is to achieve a larger role in institutional dialogue, and in order to achieve it, we should familiarise political organs of our potential.”

Co-operatives UK to launch petition calling for action to narrow the gap between rich and poor John Atherton, Cooperatives UK

he number of workers coop-

T eratives increased by 7% last

COCETA has equally participated in an increase of 4.5% in the quantity of jobs created within the same time period. The sector of workers cooperatives in Spain now represents around 17,000 businesses which generate a turnover of nearly 54,000€.

UNITED KINGDOM

COCETA 25th anniversary opening ceremony

Pedreño underlined the role of these enterprises in the local development and declared that they represent a model for the future: “Cooperatives obtain mainly positive results whereas other models demonstrate their limits at a time when it will be difficult to increase jobs in the public sector”.

The president of COCETA underlined the role of the organisation in the creation and the continuation of jobs within its 25 years of activity.

“In this time of crisis, cooperatives committed themselves to balance incomes and outgoings and to maintain jobs”, he underlined.

Felice Scalvini, co-president of Cooperatives Europe, who assisted at the COCETA event, insisted on the fact that everywhere in Europe, cooperative enterprises are more able to resist the crisis: “Everyone says that things are not going well. However, in asking our organisations in different countries during the past three years, I have established that even if difficulties exist, the situation is not that bad. To a certain extent, history proves us right”. ■

Inequality is at its highest since records began: 50% of the United Kingdom (UK) population owns just 1% of the wealth. The richest 10% of the UK has 100 times the wealth of the bottom 10%. Last year, together, the cooperative sector in the UK The 'Cooperatives Fortnight' looks for raise awareness of how cooperatives offer a way of doing business in which everyday employees, customers and residents have an equal say in decisions and share the profits.

The 2011 Fortnight will take place from 25 June to 9 July with the theme ‘Yours to share’ which represents the shared ownership and the share in profits that makes cooperatives different. In order to show how cooperatives share, Co-operatives UK aims to get 100,000 signatures for a petition calling for cooperative action to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Co-operatives UK is calling on the British Government to support action to share ownership and wealth in a cooperative way encouraging business to share profits with workers for example, as it is the case for worker cooperatives or cutting red tape so that it is as easy to start a cooperative as any other form of business. ■ Sign the petition and share it at http://www.uk.coop/yourstoshare Facebook: www.facebook.com/coops14 Twitter: www.twitter.com/ CoopsFortnight

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FRANCE

France: Democracy succeeds in cooperatives!

Olivier Biron, CECOP or the first time in its history,

F the General Confederation of worker cooperatives (CG Scop) has launched a big campaign across the whole country. Its goal: to educate the working world that ‘scops’ (worker cooperatives) are businesses tailored to work in this century and that they represent a model that deserves to be taken into consideration.

CG SCOP’s campaign has been announced by the written press, radio and internet. It re-explains the typical cooperative principles represented by CICOPA on a worldwide scale: sustainability and local roots, wealth sharing, leaders elected by worker members, the principle of one person/ one vote on major decisions, etc.

It comes right one year after the launch of the new 'Les Scop' (the worker cooperatives) brand and the ‘Democracy suits us’ slogan.

An original approach For the purpose of the campaign, it was the worker cooperatives employees’ themselves who took a stand in their work environment. They are the emblem of this campaign since who could be better to express the human and collective dimension of their business model? The photos from the campaign appeared in newspapers and are accompanied by various messages such as 'We will not delocalise our business. We are the Board' or otherwise 'Sharing decisions, risks, pleasures, profits, is normal for us'.

“At the time it was logical and appropriate to involve cooperatives, whose members have expressed themselves in the campaign, just as they would do naturally, in real life. The way in which many cooperatives in very different sectors of activity have been directed allowed us to equally illus-

Workers of the Acome cooperative group

trate the diversity and wealth of the cooperative movement” confides Sylvain Cathébras, from the Alma cooperative which has participated in the campaign.

The movement of worker cooperatives in France - now named cooperatives and participatory societies - today represents more than 2,000 companies and more than 40,000 workers.

Opening up to the general public As President of the General Confederation of worker cooperatives since 2006, Patrick Lenancker takes stock of this new campaign in France.

QUESTION: What is your first impression of this campaign?

ANSWER: The feedback we have on this campaign is very positive. Our external contacts are finding that the campaign is a success and the new brand very appealing. Internally, our cooperatives show appreciation and pride of belonging to our Movement.

Quantitatively, our website has seen its traffic grow by nearly 40%.

Strongly focused on reputation and image, the campaign has also enabled to create contacts on cooperative projects that may start this year.

Q: Concerning the campaign that CECOP - CICOPA Europe launched at European level (cf. www.sustainableemployment.eu), which role do you think that cooperatives could play in terms of employment?

A: It is obvious. By nature, cooperatives are intended to help their members and not to yield shareholders’ profit. In worker cooperatives, which include cooperative and participatory societies, the members are the employees themselves with the primary aim of sustaining their means of working in order to maintain and develop jobs, both in quantity and quality. Fortunately, many conventional enterprises are intent to keep their business and jobs. However, there is always a risk that the company aims and legacy could end up being taken away, as we witness every day, reading about restructuring and discordant relocations in the economic press. In worker cooperatives, employment is the very aim. ■ Website: http://www.les-scop.coop .

To read the complete interview of Patrick Lenancker, you can go on http://s.coop/15ws

12 | EUROPE

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

ITALY (OPINION)

Social Cohesion and sustainable employment : a network to fight against the crisis Sabina Bellione, Legacoopsociali aced with the crisis which affects the world economy, social cohesion could be one of the solutions: the institutions, conventional enterprises and cooperatives or other companies controlled by their workers represent a possible foundation to stimulate the resumption of the labour market.

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The social cohesion network is made possible thanks to the common values and complementary factors between diverse characteristics: conventional companies, through a better internal organisation and a focus on investment in order to reinforce their presence on the market; the institutions, which are a driving force of territorial agreements with the present enterprises by favoring investments; cooperatives and other enterprises owned by workers and

particularly social cooperatives.

Thanks to their presence on the territory, social cooperatives encourage the connections with different stake-

“Social cohesion should go through the knowledge of different action modalities in order to find shared solutions more easily” holders and the integration of communities through the current social, economic and cultural situations and which can be defined as 'generators of solidarity' including the workers, who participate in the efforts to overcome the crisis and who sacrifice a part of their wage in the acceptance of a contract of solidarity.

In short, everyone becomes an active link of the social cohesion chain.

One of the important steps in this process is the stability of the links of cohesion: the networks to which the key players belong will have to change by adapting themselves from time to time to the requests from the territories: one should start talking about 'flexible subsidiarity'.

This process, of which human beings are at the centre, (workers, entrepreneurs, politicians, etc.), experiences greater success when all stakeholders are informed and involved: one cannot talk about social cohesion without mentioning a 'shared sustainability' either for the choices or the proposed solutions.

Thus, social cohesion should go through thus the knowledge of different action modalities in order to find shared solutions more easily. ■

Save employment : Italtac shows the way Adriana Assini, ANCPL he Italian Italtac company is a cooperative recently created and specialized in the production of self-adhesive material.

It has a high level of technical expertise thanks to its highly qualified workforce.

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The cooperative headquartered in Soliera in the Modena province was created thanks to the involvement of the former workers of Diaures, a company which went into crisis following financial problems and which had to file for bankruptcy. The 24

workers – after being forced to stop work for one year - decided to save their jobs and created the cooperative. They had to invest their own money in buying machinery and hiring the work place. Such an operation was made possible thanks to the support of various financial institutions linked to the Italian cooperative organisation Legacoop such as CFI, Coopfond and Sofinco. The 'Italtac-Self-Adhesive materials & coatings' cooperative was born on 17 March 2011.

Italtac manufactures a large variety

of standard and customized products in order to respond to the increasing requirements of the labelling market.

The company wants to reinforce its presence on the international market as a reliable provider and a long term partner and to develop strong commercial alliances with clients and other providers.

The 24 workers of the Italtac cooperative are deeply involved in the production process which allows them to guarantee an efficient, optimal and quality service to its clients.■

EUROPE

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

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CZECH REPUBLIC

Czech Labour Minister supports cooperatives Olivier Biron, CECOP he Czech Minister of La-

T bour and Social Affairs,

Jaromír Drábek, raised the profile of the CECOP-CICOPA Europe Board meeting in Prague by attending the opening of the event, which took place on 29th March in the offices of SČMVD, the Czech union of worker cooperatives.

The Minister, Jaromír Drábek, reminded those present of the importance of cooperatives during his address: “The platform of cooperatives is nothing new for me. The cooperative movement has a long history in the Czech Republic and it is an inevitable part of the Czech economy and of the Czech society. The Union of Czech Production Cooperatives

(SČMVD) is one of the basic partners for negotiations between the government bodies and the cooperative sector. The cooperative movement has considerable advantages: the stakeholders are also the co-owners of those enterprises therefore they have much wider possibilities to decide about their own activities. I believe that the discussion that is taking place at the European level to strengthen the role of the cooperative movement is a good way to stimulate people to take responsibility for themselves in their own lives”.

The Minister also underlined that he visited two worker cooperatives this month in his effort to constantly improve the support of cooperatives by the government in the country.

Jaromír Drábek (right) with CECOP president Rossano Rimelli at the CECOP Board meeting

Indeed, the cooperative movement is deep-rooted within the Czech society, reaching as far back as the 19th century. SČMVD affiliates 252 cooperatives with 18,000 workers active in several economic sectors such as art handicraft, household equipment, building industry, electric equipment, wood, machines tools, textiles, clothing and chemicals. Their aggregate turnover is around €730 million. The organisation was originally created in 1953 in order to promote and defend the interests of production cooperatives in the Czech region of the exCzechoslovakia. ■

ROMANIA

The Romanian Minister of Culture and National Heritage denounces counterfeiting Carmen Biban, UCECOM n an interview with the

I newspaper ‘Viata C’ pub-

lished by UCECOM, the organisation Romanian worker cooperatives, Irina Cajal Marin, the deputy Secretary of the State along with the Romanian Minister of Culture and National Heritage, re-affirms her support for production of handcrafted products. She declared that she is “convinced that the invaluable artistic heritage of the Romanian people should be enriched and protected in the name of those who love it”.

Irina Cajal Marin participated in a conference on the theme of ‘The traditional craftsman - the challenges of the modern world’, during the national fair of popular art and crafts of Romanian worker cooperatives. She was questioned by the exhibitors, who expressed concerns about the consequences of the counterfeiting of their products. The deputy Secretary had suggested that the cooperatives make "concrete propositions to stop counterfeiting which generates unacceptable profits and damages the value of national heritage". She suggested taking descriptive measures to better supervise handicrafts production and

notably to “determine criteria in order to identify the issued products of popular art and handicrafts which can be bought by the public or cultural institutions, or linked to education about the country.

In 2009, counterfeiting in Romania represented approximately 26% of the total production in the market1. In this situation handicraft cooperatives are part of the rare businesses which appear to maintain crafts production that respond to the demands of tradition and authenticity. ■ 1

Source: REACT - The European AntiCounterfeiting Network (www.react.org).

14 | INTERVIEW

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

INTERVIEW Isabelle Durant : “Employment sustainability is also reflected in the management of the company that produces it”

Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP (EFA / The Greens), has agreed to answer the questions of "Work Together" on the occasion of this special issue on sustainable employment.

Isabelle Durant aspires to a more social Europe. On her website, she explains how she contributed to reach an agreement with the European Parliament and the Commission in 2001 about the working hours of lorry drivers: “Social aspects are always put off. First we liberalize and deregulate” she said “and at the very best, afterwards we realize which the consequences are for workers, their health, and our security. That's also the Social Europe” Let’s see what Isabelle Durant thinks about Europe, where companies would care more about their workers...

Question: The concept of sustainable employment is totally absent in European policies. This concept is the main mission of cooperatives and companies run by their workers and represented by CECOP. However, according to you, how can sustainable employment be defined?

Answer: Employment sustainability is not only a contractual issue for

workers who practice it (ideally with an open-ended contract) but also a question of purpose and influence of the activity to which it contributes in its territorial, economic, physical, and human environment. Sustainability is also reflected in the management of a company that produces it: a prudent management, who anticipates and controls its expansion

“It is regrettable that the 2020 strategy, without exclude it formally, considers this method of recovery by the workers just as a stopgap…”

INTERVIEW

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

and who invests in human capital of Europe. Don’t you find that this method should be taken more into training for all its workers. account in European policies?

Q.: Have you ever been aware of cooperatives as a citizen or as an MEP A.: It is regrettable that the 2020 strategy, without exclude it formally, conand in which way? siders this method of recovery by the A.: Absolutely. Here at the European workers just as a stopgap...

Parliament, several cooperatives, especially those focused on agriculture “In a trade where and food production fields, contact us regarding some aspects of the forthindividual producers’ coming reform of the Common Agriincome is isolated and cultural Policy (CAP). In a trade placed in jeopardy where individual producers’ income is isolated and placed in jeopardy strucstructurally, the turally, the organisation into workers’ organisation into cooperatives, where workers run their own companies, turns out to be parworkers’ cooperatives, ticularly appropriate and adequate. In running their own this troubled sector, adequacy, should lead us to analyse the usage and procompany, turns out motion of a model like this one not to be particularly only in sectors undergoing restructuring or due to company closure, but appropriate and also in areas of small innovative adequate” firms, allowing the creation of new jobs.

Q.: The vast majority of cooperatives Q.: The takeover of companies in cri- have so far shown a better resistance sis or without heirs by their workers to the crisis compared with average has already saved many jobs in companies from the same sectors and

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the same countries. Do you believe that their governance and management system has something to do with this?

A.: It's obvious that companies from sectors more touched by competition and that, because of this reason, have developed short-term strategies for surviving to a wild dumping are those that are more threatened.

Q.: Finally, if you wished to create a cooperative, which would be its main activity?

A.: I have already participated and I am member of a housing cooperative for social purposes, offering a dozen of associations working in the social fields of premise shared services, a common work ethic, a knowledge platform and services. If I had to create another, it would be based on the field of art production (cinema, theatre, image, new technologies): I am convinced that in this matter which cannot be conceived without a real human commitment, without a guideline that makes sense; there is a huge need for sharing strategies and resources. ■

→ 1994-1999: Co-president of the Ecolo party in Belgium

BIOGRAPHY

→ 1999-2003: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Transport in the Belgian government of Guy Verhofstadt → 2004-2009: re-elected as Co-president of the Ecolo party → 2009: elected MEP (EFA / The Greens) and Vice-President of the European Parliament

Interview conducted by Olivier Biron, CECOP

http://s.coop/1e4z http://twitter.com/cicopa http://www.youtube.com/user/SustainableEmpl

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16 | SOUTH AMERICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

SOUTH AMERICA MERCOSUR

CICOPA looks towards the South Rosana Perdomo, Red del Sur he new political and socioeconomic context of MERCOSUR highlights the role of the Social and Solidarity Economy as an alternative to boost job opportunities and employment inclusion of extensive social sectors in the region. The worker cooperatives block not only have influenced the construction of this new reality in every Mercosur country, but also they have taken a major leap to be a forum for political, social, economic and cultural heritage expression, called Red del Sur (Southern Network).

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This network, established in 2007 by several organisations representing worker cooperatives of the region, is formed by the Producers’ Cooperatives Federation of Uruguay (FCPU), the Regional Union of Cooperatives and Solidarity Enterprises of Brazil (UNISOL), the National Confederation of Worker Cooperatives (CNCT) from Argentina (in which we should emphasize the role of FECOOTRA, FACTA and Metalworker Cooperatives Network), and the Paraguayan Cooperatives Confederation (CONPACOOP).

Political representation of worker cooperatives before national and local government agencies and MERCOSUR agencies, as well as development of a common regional identity by integrating knowledge, values, and professional trajectories are the main objectives of this network.

Moreover, Red del Sur also aims to

Cooperativa de Trabajadores Navales, member of the Federation of Worker Cooperatives of Uruguay (FCPU) - Photo: Manlio Masucci (ISCOS)

gain a bigger position for the social economy in regional economy, especially for worker cooperatives through the development of economic networks between cooperatives, strengthening workers’ cooperatives in strategic areas.

International cooperation towards South Red del Sur has been able to realize its potential thanks to the support of several development organizations that have been strategic to strengthen the sector, including most notably Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE, Italy), the Cooperation and Research Foundation CIDEAL (CIDEAL, Spain), Istituto Sindacale per la Cooperazione e lo Sviluppo (ISCOS Nazionale and ISCOS ER, Italy) and Nexus (Italy).

The network’s role at MERCOSUR

level was essential in the adoption by the European Union of a support project to this regional cooperative process called Promoting worker cooperatives and strengthening networks of Mercosur Social Economy Enterprises as a strategy for fighting poverty and building a more democratic and sustainable society.

The project, launched in April 2010 (see article page 5), allows for the implementation of strategies aimed to the strengthen the participation of regional companies in the market; to develop initiatives between cooperatives creating production chains; and to combine tools to promote public policies and social development programs. All these lines are crucial to promote social and solidary enterprises as a strategy to encourage a more human and sustainable development model. ■

SOUTH AMERICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

ARGENTINA

Worker cooperatives rehabilitate both employment and dignity Fabián Silveira, FECOOTRA

here plants are closed down, worker cooperatives reopen them. Out of 16,000 cooperatives in Argentina, half of them are worker cooperatives.

They created 300,000 jobs and account for 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Out of some 40 million inhabitants in this South-American country, 10 million are linked directly or indirectly to cooperatives and mutual societies.

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These data unveil that the challenge for worker cooperative is to enhance Participants to the their visibility as a sector. Many 'Argentina Trabaja' programme citizens consume products and/or services of cooperatives without graphic design, financial, accountbeing aware. With this in mind, the ing and legal services). Managing president of the Federation of social inclusion programs at State Worker Cooperatives level has also been possible. One (FECOOTRA), José Orbaiceta, example is the program ‘Argentina made clear: “a new map of the soTrabaja’ (‘Argentina works’) which cial economy is taking shape. in its first phase has succeeded in Worker cooperatives emerge as a rescuing the jobs of 1,984 unemnew political, economic and social ployed workers reality. They are makthrough the creation “Worker ing their own voice of worker cooperaheard, the workers’ cooperatives tives. voice in the constellation of the social emerge as a new Worker cooperatives economy”. mean to recover jobs

political, economic and social reality”

Some of the achievements are the following: to revamp CICOPA-Americas, to create a National Confederation of Worker Cooperatives (CNCT), to weave networks of joint management, to reopen plants, to set up worker cooperatives of young professionals in the various sectors (communication, free software,

with dignity, i.e. meeting the economic needs and enhance the persons who become genuinely actors, giving greater importance to the member worker members than to capital. The challenge is to ensure that this means be sustainable and worker cooperatives in Argentina are heading toward this objective. ■

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CICOPA keeps expanding in the American continent Virginia Pérez for CICOPA As for November 2010, CICOPA counts seven members in Latin America. The last two which joined CICOPA are the ‘Confederación Nacional de Cooperativas de Actividades Diversas de la República Mexicana’ (Mexico) and the ‘Confederación Paraguaya de Cooperativas, CONPACOOP’ (Paraguay).

The Mexican organisation has 247 affiliated cooperatives in various sectors such as mining, building, broadcasting and ports services. It is the only Mexican organisation affiliating worker cooperatives. CONPACOOP is an intersectoral confederation grouping mainly farmers’ and credit cooperatives. One of the main goals of this affiliation is to develop worker cooperatives in Paraguay. ■

Argentina works, teaches and learns Fabián Silveira, FECOOTRA The progr am ‘Arg en tina Trabaja’ (’Argentina works’) is aimed at rescuing more than 150,000 workers’ jobs through the involvement of the concerned employees in worker cooperatives. It is managed jointly by the national government, worker cooperatives, the Federation of Worker Cooperatives, FECOOTRA, and the National Confederation of Worker Cooperatives of Argentina (CNCT). In its first phase, the constitution of cooperatives enabled the federation to safeguard 2,000 jobs.

The work, more precisely repairs of municipal buildings and rehabilitation of public areas, is carried out in social clubs, community integration centres, mobile services, etc. The workers can decide what in their community they will transform. With a model of integral development in mind, the Labour Ministry, the Social Development Ministry and FECOOTRA have proposed a consistent capacity-building program of school literacy training, secondary schools, capacity-building in cooperatives and vocational training. ■

18 | SOUTH AMERICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

BRAZIL

Building sustainable employment in Brazilian cooperatives Geraldo Magela da Silva, OCB espite a consolidated Labour

D Law since 1st May 1943 in Brazil, there is some adversity in the legal and socio-economic fields.

However, worker cooperatives have played an important role in the sustainability of jobs: retaining the workforce, promoting competitive conditions for cooperatives and dignity for their members.

Cooperatives have been established as a third way. It is less costly because a cooperative member is the master of his or her own business and supplier of workforce; and more plausible because the cooperative member is able to negotiate and establish better working conditions.

Worker cooperatives have made a huge effort to strengthen their organisations and principles. Under the OCB leadership there is a process of adding cooperative organisations to the document entitled ‘Criteria for identifica-

tion of worker cooperatives’ which gives guidelines for two very important initiatives in the sector. On the one hand by the elaboration of a specific draft legislation aimed to regulate worker cooperatives and on the other hand by the National Compliance Program for Worker Cooperatives (PNC-Labour).

The new legislation reaffirms the worker cooperative and is independent from traditional Brazilian labour laws. This legal project is still pending in National Congress but it is ready to be approved by parliament in 2011 and signed by the President. After that, all cooperatives will have to comply with the requirements of the new law in order to be recognized and this will create clear standards to identify legitimate worker cooperatives.

The PNC provides worker cooperatives with the opportunity to officially differentiate themselves on the mar-

Logo of the ‘PNC- Trabalho’ standard

ket. Companies hiring worker cooperatives which are participants in the PNC are assured a good standard of business. The company has the assurance that the cooperatives will follow the law and comply with the demands of the new draft legislation mentioned above. The cooperatives that have been awarded the title have an increasing number of customers and increasing revenue. They have increased the number of employees, increased membership and have credibility on the market. ■ To know more about this program visit http://s.coop/1641

PARAGUAY

Developments and challenges of cooperatives in Paraguay Natalia Acerenza for CICOPA ince the emergence of the first cooperatives in Paraguay, 80 years ago, the cooperative sector has continued growing and unifying itself. The Paraguayan Cooperative Confederation (CONPACOOP) comprises a total of almost 700 cooperatives, especially those from the savings, credit and farmer sectors, and to a lesser extent, worker cooperatives.

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Worker cooperatives are living an incipient growth in Paraguay. CONPACOOP has set as one of its objectives, in the framework of its now strategic plan to develop and

strengthen the worker cooperative sector. This objective has been largely driven by the cooperative movement of MERCOSUR, which has encouraged CONPACOOP to continue along this road.

CONPACOOP's commitment to boost the creation and sustainability of this sector has led this organization to link with Red del Sur (Southern Network) as a regional place of expression for such cooperatives in the MERCOSUR region, receiving the support of the federations of workers’ cooperatives of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Among the difficulties that the move-

ment faces to achieve this goal, we can find the unfavorable regulatory framework. "Here the law only provides with normal facilities to other kinds of cooperatives, but workers cooperatives need more than tax exemptions to be created”, pointed out Antonio Ortiz Guanes, President of the National Institute of Cooperatives (INCOOP). Just to give you an illustrative comparison, in Brazil, for example, fewer people are needed to create a worker cooperative; they are granted allocations, lower interest rates and free expert technical assistance from the State. ■

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NORTH AMERICA Key conferences scheduled in Quebec about worker cooperation Hazel Corcoran, CWCF rom October 11th to 15th 2011 tow key conferences will be held in Quebec. The first conference titled ‘Business Succession and Employee Ownership Conference’ will take place from the 11th to 13th of October. The second one named ‘CICOPA North America Conference: Cooperation without Borders’ will be from the 13th to 15th of October.

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The objective of the first conference is to raise awareness of worker cooperatives as an alternative for businesses without successors and to develop the expertise of stakeholders through the exchange and analysis of their experience. In the coming years the world is facing a very significant phenomenon, and one with major socio-economic consequences: the mass exodus to retirement by business owners from the so-called "baby boomer" generation. It is estimated that about 200,000 Canadian businesses will change hands in the next fifteen years. The phenomenon will be proportionately comparable in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

The exceptional scale of this transition may cause the loss of many enterprises for lack of buyers, or for being sold to competitors. A recent study by the Quebec Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports (MDEIE) has shown that although the phenomenon is already under way, we are currently witnessing only its very earliest beginnings and that departures should reach their peak between 2017 and 2020 and that, when we are approaching this peak in 4 to 5 years’ time, there will

Member of the Canadian delivery business Shift Delivery Co-op

no longer be sufficient individuals willing to purchase these companies.

This phenomenon of a missing next generation of individual entrepreneurs should also manifest itself much earlier in rural areas. The social and economic risk is substantial and many companies risk closure; as a result tens of thousands of jobs could disappear, whole villages and communities could go into decline.

Faced with this threat of business disintegration and accompanying massive job losses, the alternative to transfer these companies to their employees through the worker cooperative model appears increasingly to be the ideal solution and a tremendous opportunity for the worker cooperative movement to grow. The worker cooperative model (along with related models like multi-stakeholder cooperatives) helps to maintain and develop these enterprises, and helps workers maintain local control over their future.

The second conference, “Cooperation without Borders", has the objectives to provide a venue for the worker cooperative movements in Quebec, the rest of Canada and the United States to come together and share experiences. The organization of this Conference is a historic event.

For the first time, hundreds of members of worker cooperatives from across North America will meet and share their experiences together to improve their governance practices and democratic management of their businesses, and to demonstrate together their solidarity and common will to build a caring economy based on ownership and control of enterprises by workers. The Conference is being organized by CWCF with support from 'le Réseau de la coopération du travail du Québec', the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and other partners. ■ For more information : http://www.cooperation2011.coop

20 | NORTH AMERICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

UNITED STATES

Melissa Hoover: “Worker cooperatives are crucial to creating sustainable employment” Virginia Pérez for CICOPA ork Together’ interviewed Melissa Hoover to know the United States’ cooperative sector’s situation in depth and its vision as an engine for worldwide sustainable jobs.

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Melissa Hoover is the executive director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) since its beginning in 2004. The federation now has 75 members and represents about 1.400 people. Hoover says that their membership includes about a third of the worker cooperatives in the United States. On the topic of the cooperative contribution to sustainable employment, Melissa Hoover says: “I believe cooperatives and worker cooperatives in particular are crucial to creating sustainable employment, sustainable for the humans employed, and for the earth we depend on”.

For Melissa Hoover, much of the cooperative contribution to sustainable work is given by the fact that cooperatives “are a powerful combination of abstract and practical”, she says, “valuing autonomy, democracy and education and basically valuing people. It is a powerful statement to make and one that directly counters the profit motive and individualism that are embedded into our public dialogue, at least here in the United States”.

She explains that on a practical level “to conduct business according to these values and to do it well and successfully is inspiring to so many people who see the problems of an unfair economy and do not want to just protest but to build an actual solution”.

Melissa Hoover believes that the

The Arizmendi Bakery worker cooperative group has 5 bakeries in the US Photo: Myleen Hollero

principles of cooperation between cooperatives and concern for the community are the cornerstones to sustainability. “Cooperating with other cooperatives keeps us in mind of the myriad of interests we are always balancing, and contradicts the

“Worker cooperatives are crucial to creating sustainable employment, sustainable for the humans employed, and for the earth we depend on” dominant message that competition is the only way to succeed”. She added that a worker cooperative is generally environmentally sustainable “because worker-owners tend to live in the community in which they work and make workplace decisions, they are

less likely to make decisions to damage that environment”.

On the other hand, she indicated that cooperatives, rather than laying off workers, may decide to re-train and relocate them. “They can share the burden of an economic downturn rather than displace it onto the most vulnerable. Self-management brings dignity to work, and it offers opportunities for significant growth as workers engage not just in their daily tasks but in the larger operations and cooperative decisions”.

“It is this human-centred job security, and personal growth through the exercise of democratic rights, that I find inspiring and potentially transformative for society. I believe worker cooperatives and the capacity they build for democratic participation make us better citizens, better family members, better neighbours and better advocates of sustainable values”, she stressed. ■ To access to the full interview of Melissa Hoover, click here

NORTH AMERICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

MEXICO

New cooperative law will be used to promote cooperative work Natalia Acerenza for CICOPA lthough this model is far

A from being a marginal economy, there are no precise figures for the number and influence of cooperatives in Mexico. There is a lack of recognition and promotion required for this sector’s development. A new Cooperative Societies Act aims to find solutions to the obstacles this movement is facing.

In the production cooperatives sector in Mexico we find a number of illustrative and very strong companies such as Pascual, Cruz Azul, El Grullo (Jalisco) and Trado. They show that it is possible to reach high levels of economic success. However, there are still a large number of small cooperatives not organized or not affiliated to any second level organizations that could represent them.

“One of the objectives of our confederation is to achieve the integration of this large number of production cooperatives - present throughout the country- into a broader representative framework”, pointed out the director of the Mexican cooperative confederation for all the sectors (CMC), Dov Orian.

The current law governing cooperatives dates from 1994 and presents some gaps that have created barriers in its implementation. Moreover, this law is more oriented to the control and management of cooperatives than to their development and promotion. “Regarding production cooperatives, they often find difficulties in size and access to credits; therefore it is hard for them to live up to today's modern technological devel-

Dov Orian, director of the Mexican cooperative confederation for all the sectors (CMC)

opment”, states Orian. These are some of the aspects that the proposed new Cooperative Societies Act seeks to correct in Mexico, and that were launched last week at the Chamber of Deputies by the Senior Council of Cooperatives (COSUCOOP).

One of the points which the new Cooperative Societies Act desires to highlight is the fact that the government should be involved in supporting, encouraging and promoting the cooperative concept within the movement as well as outside.

Another challenge this sector is facing constitutes the sector’s fragmentation and the lack of statistical information reporting on its real size.

“Since Mexico is a large country, with significant geographic distances, we often do not even know of the existence of some cooperatives”, stated the Headquarters Chair of the Mexican Confederation. The new law envisages that Mexico´s National Institute of Geography and Statistics incorporates the cooperative title in the resident registration in order to overcome this problem. ■

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A cooperative of journalists works with the New York Times Virginia Pérez for CICOPA Launched in late October 2009, the 'Chicago News Cooperative' produces public-interest journalism, focused especially on the reality of Chicago (United States). The cooperative is composed of the former Chicago Tribune managing editor, James O’Shea, and other recognized professionals.

Their contents are published in the 'New York Times' twice a week, being the first outside news organization to produce entire pages to this prominent American newspaper. In 2011, Chicago News Cooperative expects to launch a website that will be the centre of its operations and introduce new ways of communication for the community. ■

Colors Restaurant: cooperative in the heart of New York Natalia Acerenza for CICOPA Worker cooperatives in the United States cover all sectors of activity and catering is no exception. The restaurant cooperative Colors, located in the city of New York, has shown how the crisis can be an opportunity.

The worker cooperative Colors Restaurant was founded in 2006 by surviving workers from the World Trade Center tragedy that occurred on 11th September 2001.

The restaurant offers international cuisine based on locally produced ingredients. Being organized in the form of a cooperative means to the staff-owners that they have access to better working conditions, better salary and racial equality, together with an economically viable activity. Worker members come from more than a dozen countries.

The group is part of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), an organization that fights for fair working conditions for workers in the foodservice industry, and also launched campaigns to fight against exploitation of restaurant workers. ■

22 | AFRICA

WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

AFRICA UGANDA

Uganda towards a modern and powerful cooperative movement Leonard Msemakweli, UCA 010 was a good year for cooperatives in Uganda. A number of milestones were reached, showing that in recent times, it had made good progress towards the building of a new cooperative movement. In 2009 and 2010 a number of new cooperatives were created in several economic sectors, including worker cooperatives. Some of the cooperatives created outside the agricultural sector come from the energy sector and there are also new handicrafts and furniture cooperatives, as well as irrigation cooperatives.

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This means that more and more people from different fields continue to recognise the role of the cooperative model in improving their standard of living. At a governmental level, the cooperative movement has also received more support with a new coop-

Uganda Co-operative Alliance's members

erative policy which was launched during the year. It recognizes cooperatives as part of the private sector and therefore lays a good foundation for a modern cooperative law.

During 2010, the Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) turned its attention to the concept of horizontal integration and its benefits could quickly be seen in the conduct of cooperative busi-

SOUTH AFRICA

Worker buy-outs save jobs!

Olivier Biron, CICOPA Worker take-overs have become a phenomenon which saves many enterprises around the world. There are many examples in Europe or South America of workers deciding to not let their enterprise disappear and to become owners of the enterprise. This is not where it ends! South Africa has also opened the path to worker buyouts. In October 2010, the workers of the Mine Line/TAP Engineering fac-

tory in Krugersdorp, just outside Soweto, started an occupation of their workplace to stop the former owner from stripping the factory of machinery and other assets and to fight to save their jobs.

They occupied the plant and began a campaign of solidarity, demanding that the state takes over of the factory.

Now the factory has re-opened and is a democratically run worker coopera-

ness. “This is now contributing to the good reputation and reliability of our cooperatives in the eyes of big buyers.

Horizontal and vertical integration will strengthen the whole cooperative system by making it more effective and efficient, and increasing its power both in the market and society as a whole”, says Leonard Msemakweli, UCA’s Secretary General. ■

tive. However, in order to succeed in this activity, they need the support of the Industrial Development Cooperation, a state-owned national development institution that provides financing to entrepreneurs and businesses engaged in competitive industries. “If they do assist this cooperative, it would open up a door from the government to many other worker cooperatives” says Athish Kirun from COPAC, an independent agency active in the development of worker cooperatives in South Africa. “If they don’t help the cooperative, we will then go back to demonstrate in the streets”. ■

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EGYPT

The Nile revolution suggests a better future for cooperatives Olivier Biron, CICOPA gypt has experienced an unrevolution which led to the fall of President Hosni Moubarack. Essam Charaf, the new Prime Minister, has been nominated by Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In the meantime, it has been announced that presidential elections will be held by the end of the year. So far, the first step towards democracy has been reached with the referendum on constitutional amendments approved by 77.2% of Egyptians.

E precedented

The Egyptian revolution has completely modified the destiny of the country which till recently was in the regime’s hands, leaving little space for the freedom of thought or to do business. For 30 years, the fallen president relied on police control and a political party which answered to him, in a country where more than 40% of the population lives on only 2 dollars per day. “Egypt has woken up to a new political consciousness; and will not be fooled by anyone!” declared the Egyptian writer Alaa elAswany to the French newspaper 'Libération'.

The chaotic situation in Egypt has had important consequences for the economy of the country. A drop of 25% is foreseen in the income generated by tourism. In this respect, cooperatives represented by the Production Cooperatives Union (PCU) have also felt the pinch. “The Egyptian economy is experiencing a slow-down, everything has stopped. The unrest in the streets doesn’t help. All this has affected the

Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

activity of the cooperatives, although what has happened to the country is something positive” says Mounir Shaarawy, the PCU Secretary General. “We are very proud of our noble revolution and are optimistic that reforms are coming, especially for aspects of cooperative work. Hope is now floating as the control of some big businesses over the Egyptian administration has disintegrated. Former business magnates controlled laws and the decisions of the ministries undermined the efforts of cooperatives as they threatened corrupt activities”.

Until now, cooperatives were controlled by the ruling power. Needless to say, worker cooperatives which are based on democratic values and principles did not have any advantages granted. Today, it seems that things are better for cooperatives. “The regime had no trust in cooperatives since they were always working

against decisions made about the welfare of workers and small businesses.

They aimed at making cooperatives suffer by cancelling many of their legal privileges, such as tax exemptions, in order to increase their operating costs and making their work more difficult” says Shaarawy.

Mounir Shaarawy is confident about the future. “We are on the right track” he says. “We have seen positive signs.

With reforms and a new administration that arose from the Egyptian people, we believe that the new laws to be enforced will be to the benefit of the cooperatives, workers, and trade unions to create a call for social justice.”

Today, Egypt is slowly waking up to this revolution and there is quite a long way to go. Things will gradually turn back to normal for the Egyptian people. At least they can be assured that they will re-emerge much stronger from this Nile revolution. ■

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WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

ASIA Six weeks after the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan on 11th March, the country is experiencing a number of aftershocks and the situation of the power plants in Fukushima Prefecture is very unstable. The authorities have raised the nuclear threat to seven, its highest level.

Japan’s recovery JWCU set up a relief fund Yoshiko Yamada, JWCU

JWCU, the Japanese organisation for worker’s cooperatives is reporting an extremely hard situation within their members with the aftershocks that are still hitting the country. A relief fund has been set up to help the cooperatives.

Despite the hardship, JWCU, the Japanese organisation for worker’s cooperatives is still working extremely hard: “We are moving forward, and our global members are helping us” said a spokesperson of the organisation. In order to help the worker cooperative movement in the affected areas, JWCU set up a relief fund that will help the organisation to provide its members with essential supplies and financial support (see frame).

“The need for supplies and co-ordination is expected to continue for a long time” There is a myriad of examples of solidarity which show how cooperatives are trying to recover from the disaster.

In Senai, the biggest city of the Tohoku region, two children’s centres managed by a worker cooperative opened in April. Children, particularly those who had to evacuate, are having an extremely tough time, as their usual daily routines have been severely disrupted. They now have to come to terms with the instability of the situation and a completely new environment. “Our members are de-

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The Noda village has been completely devastated

termined to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for these children”, declared JWCU. Over 200,000 yens (around 1,700 Euros) were dutifully raised in a charity concert on 27th March in Tokyo to support the region of Tohoku. The Worker Coop Art Project (WAP) composed of JWCU members and friends talented in music and art have organised this concert.

“There is a myriad of examples of solidarity which show how cooperatives are trying to recover from the disaster” gether and demonstrating solidarity.

Severe damages amongst cooperatives JWCU are regularly reporting severe damages among its members. The chaotic situation has made the rescue work even more difficult. Despite the challenges, the aid has been organised and people are working to-

The JWCU head office and regional offices were receiving goods and supplies from members throughout the country. In a message to the cooperative movement, JWCU declared last month that “since there is an urgent need for food, we are focusing on delivering suitable food

which is practical and quick to prepare, as well as vegetables. The need for supplies and co-ordination is expected to continue for a long time”.

The first delivery trucks arrived from Tokyo in the Tohoku regions, (the cities of Noda, Ohsaki, Ishinomaki, and Onagawa). The residents from the affected areas needed practical help with removing debris and cleaning the damaged houses.

Several cooperatives offered the use of trucks and to send more people to help, which was necessary to clear up the devastated zones. ■ For more information: http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/ index.html

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WORK TOGETHER - ISSUE N° 4 - MAY 2011

Solidarity among JWCU members

Boxes of foods are loaded on a truck, heading to Tohoku

Children' hall in Sendai

Charity concert on 27th March in Tokyo

Relief fund for worker cooperatives in Japan: As a job-creating organisation, JWCU is determined to support its members in securing jobs and income to reconstruct peoples’ lives. In a statement, the organisation declared: “While there is still a need for food and supplies in order to survive each day, we will continue to respond to those material needs. Some of our members (and numerous other people) have lost their jobs, homes and belongings.

Others have been evacuated to different cities and do not know when they will be able to return to their homes or if they can be moved into temporary housing. Under these extremely difficult circumstances, however, the local people still need to make a living. The needs exist in many regions, including Tokyo and its surrounding areas, where evacuees are staying”.

If you want to know more about the relief fund or if you wish to make a donation, you can visit the JWCU website on: http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/JWCU2011Earthquake_Relief_Fund.pdf

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KOREA

Cooperative legislation in South Korea requires reform HyungSik Eum, KASEE outh Korea has a specific

S cooperative legislation sys-

tem in which each cooperative sector is regulated by its own legislation which depends on different ministries. As a direct consequence, although there are strong cooperative sectors such as agriculture, the interests of the cooperative movement as a whole cannot be protected by legislation, but only by its sectoral interests.

This is the case for consumer cooperatives in particular, for which it is always very difficult to get a legal status as a cooperative.

To solve this problem, several organisations in the newly emerging cooperative movement, including KASEE, the Korean CICOPA member, launched a project for enacting a legislation which could cover various types of cooperatives, which were lacking a proper legal status. The main target of this legislation is worker cooperatives, which KASEE represents. However, there are also differing needs. For instance, medical users’ cooperatives, are actually considered as partly consumer cooperatives, and would need to acquire a new legal status enabling them to

A KASEE member enterprise in the construction sector

open more to non-members by enforcing non-surplus distribution constraints.

There are also several care workers’ associations, which call for legal recognition to give their workers a status, which is neither 'employed' nor unemployed. To cover those different needs, these organisations reached an agreement on a draft legislation to cover various types of cooperatives which are not covered by the existing sectoral cooperative legislation.

This new legislation would have a similar form to general laws on cooperatives but it would also mention specific types of cooperatives.

KASEE, Solidarity of Medical Consumer Cooperatives, the Korean Association of Local Centres for the inclusion through the Economic Activity, the Institute for Cooperative Research, the Social Investment Foundation and several care workers’ associations are taking part in this project. They expect to design a new legislation within the next year. ■

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CECOP-CICOPA Europe has launched its campaign on sustainable employment because Europe urgently needs quality jobs to ensure a better future for all workers and all enterprises.