COOP Stories

www.valleyworker.coop

The Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives is rooted in the ideals of co-operation, mutuality and solidarity. VAWC is itself an expression of co-operative principles — a “co-op of worker co-ops” that have come together as a means of strengthening the efforts of our individual co-ops to develop their businesses, serve their members, and contribute to the wider co-operative economy. Our core goal is to provide ourselves with the resources and support we need to advance our co-operatives, empower our members, and benefit more people in our communities.

We envision a co-operative economy where one can live an entirely co-operative day: An economy built on workers’ self-determination and freedom of action and association; An economy of breadth and depth that puts working people in control of their economic destiny while serving their communities in accordance with the co-operative values and principles.

The Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives is dedicated to building a sustainable local economy by facilitating the growth and development of worker cooperatives in Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont. To realize this, we will:

1. provide support for our members. This includes maintaining and sharing information relevant to worker co-operatives, providing technical and organizational assistance, offering joint marketing and promotional services, developing group benefits, improving access to financial resources, strengthening ties between worker co-operatives, and developing relationships with other segments of the co-operative/labor community.

2. develop new worker co-operatives and offer mentoring and skill-sharing to those developing worker co-operatives.

3. promote worker co-operatives in our region. This includes educating and developing community awareness of worker co-operatives as sources of meaningful employment and economic empowerment, providers of quality goods and services, and viable alternatives to conventionally owned and managed businesses.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit VWAC on social media:

www.ncui.coop

NCUI was established in 1929 as All India Co-operative Institutes Association and was re-named National Co-operative Union of India in 1961. NCUI is the apex in India which represents all sectors of the Indian Co-operative Movement. Its objectives are to promote and develop the co-operative movement in India; to educate, guide and assist the people in their efforts; to build up and expand the co-operative sector; and service as an exponent of co-operative opinion in accordance with co-operative principles.

NCUI membership is open to national and state level co-operative organisations as well as multi-state co-operative societies. As on 30th June 2016, NCUI had 260 members, including, 17 National, 163 State and 80 Multi-State Cooperatives. It represents 23,892,300 individual members.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit ncui.coop on social media:

www.barbados.coop

Formed May 20, 2014, the Barbados Cooperative Business Association Ltd is a cooperative business that is owned and democratically controlled by its member cooperatives. We are a member of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) a body based in Brussels that represents all cooperatives worldwide.

Barbados Coop is led by a volunteer group of persons devoted to the development of cooperatives in Barbados and the wider Caribbean region.

We are working on a number of projects at this time. The major emphasis is to resuscitate those cooperatives that appear to be dormant and, to expand our membership to include the new cooperative businesses now emerging.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit the Barbados Cooperative Business Association Ltd on social media:

www.buddyup.coop

Buddy systems is an online platform cooperative.

Iva and Mario met in February 2018 at an event called Share the Knowledge, a potluck which took place in Iva’s living room once a month. Iva remembers really enjoying the guacamole that Mario brought and also his great ideas about cooperatives. Mario remembers really enjoying Iva’s home baked bread and learning about her skill-sharing and community organizing project Buddy Up!. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Before they met, Iva had been building Buddy Up! community boards all around Vancouver as a way of facilitating meaningful connections between neighbors and building community resilience through learning, doing, and creating together. At the same time, Mario had just taken a cooperative development training program called Cooperate Now to help him and his colleagues start two worker cooperatives: Eyemole Arts and Technology Coop and Brave Technology Coop. Naturally, Iva and Mario saw great overlap in their paths and began working together. Iva joined both coops and over the course of a year, the two became the best of buddies, both personally and professionally.

In March 2019, the Buddies decided it was time to formalize their complementary relationship and reimagine their collaborative potential through a consulting practice. They called it Buddy Systems.

Over the course of the past year, Iva and Mario have collaborated on a number of projects and events with neighbourhood organizations, academic groups, cooperatives, and professional communities. In November 2019, Iva entered into a six-month social business incubator program at the Groundswell Alternative Business School to develop Buddy Systems even further and explore radical new directions for their practice.

Buddy Systems is still early in it’s journey of growth and we are continually learning and growing to serve the communities and ideas we believe in.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Buddy Systems on social media:

www.drivers.coop

We are a driver-owned ridehailing cooperative in New York City. Drivers make more on each trip, all profits go back to drivers, and drivers have democratic control over the decisions that affect their lives.

Our mission is to end exploitative conditions in the for-hire vehicle industry through system change– putting drivers in the driver’s seat of the platform economy.

Change is urgently needed. In New York City, our competitors- Uber and Lyft- run on the exploited labor of a 91%-immigrant workforce of 85,000 drivers. They push drivers into poverty by taking a commission of up to 40% on each trip, externalizing the cost of vehicle purchases, insurance, maintenance, and the risk of doing business onto workers, and misclassifying drivers as independent contractors in order to avoid paying at least minimum wage and providing benefits and basic employment rights. Even before the crisis, over 70% of drivers had less than $1,000 in savings, a reflection of New York City’s deep racial wealth gap and the predatory structure of the rideshare platform economy.

That’s why The Drivers Cooperative has launched a new platform, owned by the drivers. For better pay in the short term, and a just, green transition of the industry in the long term.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit the Drivers Cooperative on social media:

www.coopercar.coop

Coopercar – Cooperativa Multiactiva de la CAR Cundinamarca is a cooperative entity of contributions and credit, supervised by the Superintendency of the Solidarity Economy. Our social base is composed of officials of the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca CAR, assets, contractors, pensioners and officials of the SINA.

It provides comprehensive cooperative services, satisfying the needs of our associates with products and services with the generation of financial resources through loans, fostering the development and growth of our associates.

We are a multi-active solidarity economy company that contributes to improving the quality of life of our associates and their families through a comprehensive portfolio of services.

In the present day, our social base will be greater than 500 associates and we will have a presence within the scope of the National Environmental System – SINA.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Coopcar on social media:

www.electric.coop

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives in the United States.

As the national service organization that represents America’s electric cooperatives, NRECA works to empower electric cooperatives and to help ensure their long-term success in a number of ways:

• Amplifying the voice of America’s electric cooperatives and their consumer-members in Washington, D.C.
• Working with elected officials to keep electricity safe, reliable and affordable.
• Helping the employees of electric cooperatives learn and grow professionally.
• Promoting the cooperative business model and the benefits of co-op membership.
• Researching and communicating with NRECA voting members regarding legal tax, environmental and other issues.
• Spearheading programs to strengthen co-ops and their communities, such as advocacy campaigns and workforce development initiatives.

False claims that electric cooperatives were hoarding copper wire during World War II brought cooperative leaders from different states together to defend themselves. As a result, in 1942, America’s electric cooperatives formed the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to provide a unified voice for cooperatives and to represent their interests in Washington, DC.

Today, NRECA represents more than 900 consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives, public power districts, and public utility districts in the United States. The Arlington, Va. -based national service organization oversees cooperative employee benefits plans; carries out federal government relations activities like lobbying; conducts management and director training; and spearheads communications, advocacy, and public relations initiatives. In addition, it coordinates national and regional conferences and seminars; offers member cooperatives advice on tax, legal, environmental, and engineering matters; and performs economic and technical research.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit NRECA on social media:

www.scotmid.coop

The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, trading as Scotmid Co-operative, is an independent retail consumers’ co-operative that originated in the Central Belt, particularly Edinburgh and the Lothians. It was formed in 1981 by a merger of the Dalziel Co-operative Society of Motherwell with the larger St. Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1859.

With over 3,900 staff, the co-operative has 177 Scotmid supermarkets and convenience stores, nine Lakes & Dales convenience stores, 17 funeral offices, and 89 Semichem health and beauty shops throughout Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

Like most other retail consumers’ co-operatives in the UK, Scotmid is incorporated as a registered society.

In the year to 26 January 2019, Scotmid Co-op recorded turnover of £377.9m (£373.7m 2017/18) and a surplus or profit after tax of £4.5m (2017/18: £5.5m). The Society also had net debt of £29.4m (£32.7m 2017/18) including a £37m bank loan (£39m 2017/18). Scotmid also reported a £19.2m (£19.3m 2017/18) pension deficit. The Society’s membership was 155,343 down from 268,125 in 2017/18. No share of the profits bonus was declared for members by the Board during the year. The Society operates a share option plan for all employees

Scotmid has a committee style governance structure, similar to The Co-operative Group prior to its own major governance reforms. Scotmid Board Directors are nominated by Regional Committee members and elected by members from the Regions they represent (if these positions are contested).

Scotmid are also a user of the global Cooperative Marque.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Scotmid on social media:

www.fluid.coop

THE GLASSBLOWERS OF BELLE-ÎLE-EN-MER

Founded in 2008, Fluïd is a Cooperative and Participatory Company (SCOP) specializing in glass blowing which offers high-end decoration and tableware products.

It is a production of small series, and unique, tailor-made pieces created from traditional and traditional glasswork. Our workshop is based in Belle-Île-en-mer , a small island on the west coast of Brittany, taking part in local life and in the cultural and economic wealth of the island.

Isolated from the madness of the world, our glassmakers have complete creative freedom and can focus on creating unique products.

Fluïd is dedicated to the world of decoration , lighting and tableware . Each piece is made by hand and mouth blown. The universe brings within a place, an elegant and colourful atmosphere.

A full-fledged actor in craftsmanship, Fluïd wishes to make each moment of sharing an enriching experience blending the beauty of art and design.

The works produced by Fluïd harmonize to create a modern and refined space. The transparency of the glass mixed with the intense colour create a unique atmosphere, playing with the material that reflects the light, creating coloured shadows that come alive.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Fluïd on social media:

www.centralengland.coop

Central England Co-operative is a family of businesses include food stores, funeral services & florists.

It is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society’s profits. A proportion of the profits of the business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes.

The Society’s key businesses are its 260 food stores and over 120 funeral directors which all trade using the 2008 version of The Co-operative brand. The co-operative also has 20 travel branches, 10 florists, three stonemasonry outlets, a coffin factory and crematorium; it has 1,731,005 members (including over 329,000 regular trading members) and 8,600 employees (figures as January 2017).

Registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, Central England Co-operative is the second largest independent retail co-operative in the UK and was formed in 2014 following the 2013 merger of the Anglia Regional and Midlands Co-operative societies. The society has a permanent seat on the board of Co-operatives UK; it is a corporate member of The Co-operative Group, the largest consumer co-operative in the world and the national buying group, Co-operative Federal Trading Services.

About Cooperatives and .coop
The global Cooperative community has more than 1 billion members, representing 12% of the world’s employed population. All Cooperatives verify their identity when selecting a .coop web address. Your unique business identity is recognized online with a .coop domain name – your digital brand – a brand known for its economic advantages to its community, consumers, and members.

If you would like your cooperative featured, click on this link to submit your story.

Visit Central England Co-operative on social media: