A co-op business incubator program launches to help workers grow their careers.
Good afternoon.
Erik Chalhoub here. I first learned about cooperative businesses while reporting on an article about Ace Hardware years ago. Known as a co-op, such businesses are not controlled by a single owner; rather they are owned by the workers of the company.
According to a 2021 study by the Democracy at Work Institute, workers in co-ops reported they were being paid $3.52 an hour more than their previous job in a traditional business, and reported that wages were more evenly distributed.
The number of worker co-ops in California is small, with about 100, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the California Center for Cooperative Development, there are also more than 230 co-op childcare centers and about 225 housing co-ops.
To bring attention to co-ops and their possible benefits, the nonprofit Ventures hosted an event in downtown Salinas on Monday, Oct. 21, bringing together co-op leaders, entrepreneurs and others to discuss how these types of businesses can benefit the local economy.
The event also marked the launch of Futuro, an incubator program by Ventures with the goal to increase the number of worker-owned co-ops in the Salinas Valley.
Ventures Executive Director Maria Cadenas says Futuro was formed during a three-year process to determine how to prevent people—mainly rural agriculture and hospitality workers—from getting left behind in economic recovery efforts.
That process was guided by the idea of business ownership as a vehicle for economic mobility and sustainability, which led to the concept of co-ops.
Cadenas says most co-ops are launched in industries where people locally are already working, such as agriculture, childcare and other service-oriented businesses. The population makeup of workers in co-ops—largely Latinos and immigrants—is also similar to that locally in the Salinas Valley, she says.
“We have people already doing those jobs, but they are usually doing it for somebody else,” Cadenas says.
Futuro provides support for people looking to take their skills and either start a co-op or join an existing one. It handles the business side of things, Cadenas says, so workers can focus on their jobs and gradually learn the back-end operations.
For now, Futuro is focusing on three industries: Promatoras (community health workers); homecare for the private market; and agriculture and food.
Those interested in joining a Futuro co-op can apply online and go through training to see if a co-op is a right fit for them.
“The data is showing that stronger regions come when we’re more diversified, have better distribution of wealth and opportunity,” she says. “The possibility of business to not only be a provider of labor, goods and services, but to be a provider of well-being for our neighbors, I think is very powerful.
-Erik Chalhoub, Associate Editor