Worker Cooperatives and Unions

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Comment by Brian Webster on November 22, 2010 at 6:14

Greetings! I am a community organizer and the Chief of Staff at Instituto Laboral de la Raza, a nonprofit workers resource center in the Mission district of San Francisco. See: www.ilaboral.org And I am a member of Sign Display & Allied Crafts Local Union No. 510 in San Francisco.

I would like to discuss and network with Union Book members and union activist about a workers coop that the Instituto is researching, developing and planning to get started up next year.

Our idea and plan is for a new social business initiated and organized by Instituto Laboral de la Raza called San Francisco Green Carts (SFGC) to be launched in 2011. It is inspired by a successful “green cart” program in New York City that encourages street food vendors to sell fresh fruit and vegetables in lower-income areas otherwise lacking access to fresh produce. The Instituto’s plan includes replicating aspects of that program but is strategically focused on creating one green carts enterprise with many vendors sharing its ownership and management in a workers coop that is affiliated with the United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW5). This will create a workers owned social business with large opportunities of scale in operating, purchasing and expansion. After the operating and expansion costs of the social business are met, the profits of the enterprise will be directed to funding the Instituto’s workers resource center, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Starting small with just a few carts, the enterprise will establish itself and then strategically expand.

San Francisco is currently experiencing growth in Food Carts and Food Trucks. There a growing markets and movement that includes a spectrum of ethic food, gourmet food and grassroots activist focused on providing economic development opportunities to poor working people. The city has streamlined it permitting process to encourage these small businesses and jobs. The Instituto sees a good opportunity for simple carts that sell fresh fruit and vegetables and dried fruit and nuts both downtown to office workers and in the “fresh food desert” areas in the poorer neighborhoods on San Francisco.

The concept of Social Business, a non-loss business with a social mission is being articulated and spread by Mohammad Yunus founder of the Grameen Bank. Here in the United States two very successful social business are Newman’s Own food company and Give Something Back an office products company. Both operate as businesses, competing on price, value and service, paying business taxes, paying staff and investing in growing their operations. Both give all their profits to to nonprofit groups instead of share holders or owners. Our plan it to take that working model and combine it with workers coop model that has the strength of the workers running the business being members of a local union with strong statewide and national membership. Union membership will be good for the social business and the social business will be good for the union. We have several members of UFCW5 on our board of directors. Having a new revenue stream, regardless of if it is large or small, will help fund the operations of our community based workers recourse center and allow us to provide more services to the working poor.

I am open to discussion within the UNION BOOK Workers Coop group or one on one by email and phone. I am very glad to find a like minded group to talk to. – Brian Webster