3c hapter - Index of

172 Locavesting
six successful worker- owned businesses, from We Can Do It!,
a group formed in 2006 by Latina housekeepers in Brooklyn
that has since spun off child- care and cooking co- operatives, to
Mushkin Enhanced, an Englewood, Colorado, maker of computer
components. “It’s a unique model—the worker- owned business.
Some say it sounds like socialism, but these six companies say it’s
helped them tough out the recession,” the article led off. 8
Indeed, the cooperative model could point the way forward
for beleaguered labor unions and corporations that are locked in
mortal combat over balloooning pension obligations that appear
increasingly unsustainable. In late 2009, a potentially far- reaching
alliance was formed between the Spanish worker cooperative
Mondragon and the United Steel Workers to create manufacturing
cooperatives in North America that marry cooperative ideals
and governance with union membership. “Too often we have seen
Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets
and hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering
plants,” said USW International president Leo W. Gerard, in
announcing the pact. “We need a new business model that invests
in workers and invests in communities.” 9
A Multi-Stakeholder Approach
Lately, a new type of cooperative has evolved that more closely
aligns the interests of all stakeholders, rather than organizing
around just one group, such as producers or workers. This new
vision of cooperatives is unfolding—where else?—in that cradle of
cooperation and collective action, Wisconsin.
One of the fi rst such cooperatives to adopt a multi- stakeholder
approach in the United States (multi-stakeholder co-ops already
have a foothold in Italy and Canada) is Maple Valley, an organic
maple syrup producer in Cashton, 15 miles northwest of La Farge.
It had been run as a private venture since 1991, gaining some
6,000 customers, but was restructured as a cooperative in 2007. Its
founder, Cecil Wright, knows a thing or two about co- ops: his day
job is vice president of sustainability and local operation at Organic
Valley. Wright and his fellow syrup makers wanted to create a co- op