Resources
Co-op U Manual
The Co-op U Manual is a practical guide to helping build cooperatively owned businesses. It’s used to support teams in our Co-op U course.
Written by Co-Director Kristen Barker and Racial Justice Educator and Co-op Developer Cynthia Pinchback-Hines, the Manual includes exercises, tools, resources, and more!
Our Co-op U Manual is now available for purchase as a print book. Cost: $35.
Worker Owner Workbook
After 5 years of development, Co-op Cincy is excited to release the Worker-Owner Workbook. The book can help teams develop cooperative businesses and worker-ownership culture.
The book teaches the nuts and bolts of running a co-op business, from business financials to conflict management to team building. It also contains essential information about the co-op movement, labor movement, and the Mondragon cooperative network of Spain.
The Worker-Owner Workbook is great for co-op workers, as well as individuals and institutions interested in co-ops.
The e-Book version is free. Please complete this form to let us know why you would like a copy. Afterward, you will be redirected to a shared folder where you can view/download the English and/or Spanish versions of the e-book. If you have issues, please email paloma@coopcincy.org. Thank you for your interest!
If you would like a print copy, you can purchase one below:
Full Color, Spiral Bound – $19.65
Full Color, Perfect Bound – $17.84
Black & White, Spiral Bound (color cover) – $16.35
other Union Cooperative resources
What is the Union Co-op Model?
The Union Co-op Model: Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities is the blueprint document explaining what the Union Co-op Model is, why Unions and Co-ops should be tied together, and the vision and mission of the model to create an economy that works for all.
How do you start a union co-op?
Use this quick checklist of Feasibility Steps for Union Co-op Development Process to understand some of the first steps of building your union co-op business.
Also, checkout our 12-week Co-op U program which takes your co-op business idea from feasibility to launch. The program typically runs twice a year and may be offered online in the near future!
How can labor unions support the creation of cooperatives?
How do we expand avenues for worker power? This toolkit gives a brief overview of the potential for unionization and worker ownership to strengthen workers’ rights together, and it lists seven union resources to use toward the creation of worker-owned businesses.
Also, Co-op Cincy is featured as a case study.
Who is building the Union Co-op Movement?
1worker1vote is the national union co-op organization, of which Co-op Cincy is a founding member. 1W1V is building a national network of hybrid, shared ownership, regional and municipal ecosystems starting with unionized worker-owned cooperative businesses to overcome structural inequalities of opportunity, mobility, and income.
Are Unions and co-ops stronger together?
Stronger Together? The USW-Mondragon Union Co-op Model A scholarly article in the Labor Studies Journal by Laura Hanson Schlachter who studied the union co-op model and asks the question of whether co-ops and unions are stronger by working together. She uses Co-op Cincy as a case study and proposes possibilities and dilemmas of the USW-Mondragon model for worker cooperative formation in the United States.
How are unionized worker co-ops addressing income inequality?
Worker-Owned and Unionized Worker-Owned Cooperatives: Two Tools to Address Income Inequality written by Carmen Huertas-Noble, a 1worker1vote co-founder.
Mondragon Resources
Mondragon 1956 – 2012 – A great introductory book on the history of Mondragon, which they created during the International Year of the Co-ops.
TU Lankide 100th Anniversary edition - A special English Language Edition of TU Lankide, Mondragon’s monthly magazine founded by Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta 55 years ago, honoring the 100th anniversary of Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, 1915-2015, the inspirational founder of the Mondragon Experience.
Mondragon Corporation – Link to Mondragon Corporation website.
Fagor Electrodomesticos: A US Perspective – A look at the power of a co-op of co-ops.
A Letter From Mondragon - Armín Isasti, lifelong Mondragon employee, offers us some heartening words to help us on the cooperative journey in these tumultuous times.
Cooperatives & Worker-Ownership Resources
Cultivate.Coop
Cultivate.Coop is a library of information about cooperatives. Everything here is created by and for people who work in co-ops. You can edit and upload content to Cultivate.coop just like Wikipedia.
Worker Cooperative Toolbox
In Good Company: A Guide to Cooperative Employee Development is a great guide that we use in our union co-op development process to understand the basics of co-op development. This resource was published by Shared Capital Cooperative (formerly Northcountry Cooperative Foundation) in partnership with Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund.
Co-op Curriculum
The comprehensive Collecting Ourselves: A Cooperative Entrepreneurship Curriculum, from Northcountry Cooperative Foundation (NCF), walks participants through an examination of why to be cooperative and how to make a cooperative business, especially:
Organizing people into a Steering Committee
Creating a Business Plan
Multi-stakeholder cooperatives
Solidarity as a Business Model: A Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives Manual
Owning a Better Future
OwningaBetterFuture.com is a blog on Worker Ownership by Rob Witherell, United SW Organizer & one of the architects of union co-op template.
Becoming Employee Owned
becomingeo.org is abrought to you by Workers to Owners, a national collaborative of leaders in the field of worker ownership who are committed to helping companies transition to worker ownership in order to build a fairer and more equitable economy.
Ours to Share: How Worker-Ownership Can Change the American Economy examines worker-owned firms and evaluates their potential to create a productive, stable and equitable economy as compared with traditionally structured firms. Key Findings Here!
Building a Cooperative Solidarity Commonwealth, written by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, defines a new system of cooperative commonwealth and solidarity economics, and how this system is created.
African American Cooperatives and Civil Rights: Jessica Gordon Nembhard explains the huge role economic cooperation played on the civil rights movement.
Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard (2014)
Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Decmocracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Missisippi is a chronicle of one of the most dynamic experiments in radical social transformation in the United States. The book documents the ongoing organizing and institution building of the political forces concentrated in Jackson, Mississippi dedicated to advancing the “Jackson-Kush Plan”. All proceeds from book sales support Cooperation Jackson's general fund. (2017)
How can we use cooperatives to respond to inequalities in our digital age?
Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, A New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet edited by Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider exploring efforts around platform cooperativism. Michael Peck, a co-founder of 1worker1vote.org wrote a chapter on union-cooperatives called, “Building the People’s Ownership Economy through Union Co-ops,” chapter. (2016)
The Revolution Where You Live by Sarah Van Gelder, an elaboration on 20 local heroes and healers, under the mass media's radar, who are getting stuff done. CUCI is the focus of chapter 11! (2016)
