The Cooperators Podcast Episode 4 Esteban Kelly on Worker Owned Co-ops
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:37 — 43.4MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Presented by Robert McGarvey.
That sound you hear just may be a tidal wave of worker owned cooperatives.
At least that’s what Esteban Kelly, executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, is hoping for and working for and dreaming about.
He believes that just now be the time for worker owned cooperatives.
Why? Because for so many of us our economic lives are grim. Income inequality is the economic buzz work du jour but it’s just that old saying, the rich are getting richer and the poor, well, you know what’s happening with them.
Kelly says that in a decade maybe 0% of Americans will have zero assets.
That’s busted, baby.
Worker ownership of businesses just may be the cure.
And a lot of it is happening today. Retiring Baby Boomer entrepreneurs are selling their companies to their employees, often as a worker co-op. Home health workers are joining together and forming co-ops. So are cleaning crews.
There’s soaring recognition that it just is better to own a slice of the pie.
Listen to this provocative half hour podcast.
And know we have three or four more worker cooperative podcasts in the pipeline. Now’s the time to learn more about this movement. And The Cooperators Podcast is where to learn.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
Hey just a minor detail–Union Cab was not a conversion, but the end product of over ten years of labor organizing. When the owner of Checker Cab chose to shutter the company that negotiate with the labor union, the workers decided to abandon the traditional labor union strategy and start Union Cab. UC grew out of the labor movement and maintains close ties to it, but it was a full-on start up from the ground up buying new equipment, vehicles, and licenses.
Here’s a short, official history: https://www.unioncab.com/History