The Chronicle of CUHK United Cooperative Store 2015 Special Edition | Written by CUHK Student Press | Translated by Hang Yu NG
Managing a store is about profit maximization. Everything that favors capital accumulation is acceptable—even if there is frequent employee turnover or a lack of interpersonal relationship. Apart from this mainstream approach, do we have another choice? Alternative economic models do exist, but as transnational capital and local financial groups control industries from different sectors, the room for survival of alternative models is often throttled as they could hardly withstand market competition. However, a cooperative store in CUHK, which has been operating for over ten years, is a model of applying the concept of a people-oriented economy.
groups, which the Committee later passed. In the following summer vacation, the original successful bidder withdrew, and the second choice HKWWA took over and signed a 5-year contract. HKWWA and the students started fundraising; they received donations and interest-free loans, allowing them to successfully gather the $200,000 initiative funding. The members of the Cooperative bought shares and nervously prepared for the opening 3 months later. The members recalled that they were delighted to have successfully opened the business, but they never imagined that the Cooperative would still exist after more than a decade.
The United Cooperative Store, located at LG, Benjamin Franklin Centre, was founded by the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association (HKWWA) in November 2011. In 2000, the University renovated the Benjamin Franklin Centre and reserved a place for setting up a convenience store that the Student Union (CUSU) had long been fighting for. Meanwhile, some students from the CUHK Grassroots Concern Group discovered the concept of “cooperative” and were interested in it. They thought that apart from having a spirit of embracing social equality, the University also enjoyed preferential rent, which provided suitable soil for developing cooperatives. More importantly, they understood that cooperatives implement employee autonomy and economic democracy,which hold a fundamentally different relationship from the general production relationship—one in which an enterprise may exploit the employees. They hoped cooperatives could counter the trend of monopoly. At the time before The Link REIT (now renamed as the Link Real Estate Investment Trust) had been listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and Starbucks had not yet entered CUHK, this kind of thought was undoubtedly radical. The Grassroots Concern Group tried to persuade the Staff-Student Centres Management Committee through the CUSU and proposed priority tendering for community
Women as Laborers: Cooperation and Empowerment Give Strength This group of grassroots women was unemployed workers due to the relocation of the manufacturing sector outside Hong Kong during the economic transformation or housewives who did not work outside. How did they come together, work hard, and start their business? Women who apply for a job in the United Cooperative Store are required to attend a series of workshops with themes including the Cooperative Store, food manufacturing, store management, and language training. They even have to go through an internship period and pass an assessment before becoming an official member. The key is how the freshmen understand the “Cooperative Store” and whether they are willing and suitable to work together for the long term. A Cooperative member said, “They cannot come in as they want, but they can leave anytime.” If recruiting new members is not an easy task and a substitute cannot be immediately found to fill a vacancy, why would they allow someone to leave anytime? The reason is that the Cooperative Store respects individual freedom, and does not force anyone to sacrifice life for work. If one withdraws, she can take her money paid for shares back. If one comes back within a year, she will even be accepted as a member again.
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