United States
ShoreBank Pacific's Ecodeposits Collateral Hit by Crisis
Submitted by MSemTerraRobinHood on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 16:13.East New York Food Co-op
Submitted by MSemTerraRobinHood on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 21:03.On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - Page updated at 12:51 PM
and celebrated by transferring his business to his workers. His
successful whole-grain production business mills grains, operates a
retail store and restaurant, and ships products internationally.
On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees
The Oregonian
MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.
Moore, whose mutual love of healthful eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own — the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan that Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.
"This is Bob taking care of us," said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business' retail operation. "He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return."
Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004, however, one business publication estimated that year's revenue at more than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that Bob's Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20 percent and 30 percent every year since.
Nat'l Conference on a Green Living Wage
Festival of Grassroots Economics asks: Where’s That New Economy?
“Let’s
take back our economy. Let’s decentralize and democratize it,” Heather
Young said, kicking off the panel called “Building the Alternative” at
the Festival of Grassroots Economics, held September 26 at the Humanist
Hall in Oakland.
Heather Young was one of the main organizers of
the festival, a free, day-long gathering of several hundred Bay Area
people who gathered to meet and discuss how to evolve alternative
economies that benefit working people, support local small businesses,
support pay equity, and address work through the framework of race,
class and privilege. Young, a co-founder of Bay Area Community Exchange
wanted to make sure everyone arriving for the day understood that
finding new economic models was the essence of the festival, whose
slogan was “Building an Economy for the People and the Planet.”
United Steelworkers and Mondragon Internacional announce collaboration!
PITTSBURGH - The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”
“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “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. We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”
Josu Ugarte, President of MONDGRAGON Internacional added: “What we are announcing today represents a historic first – combining the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative with one of the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking manufacturing unions to work together so that our combined know-how and complimentary visions can transform manufacturing practices in North America.”
Cooperative Laundry Brings Hope to Distressed Workers
Civic and city leaders are invest ing several million dollars in a unique, employee-owned business model to drive more wealth and jobs into the struggling neighborhoods around University Circle.
Several hundred people will gather on East 105th Street near St. Clair Avenue today to celebrate the opening of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a $5.8 million commercial venture featuring the latest in energy-efficient laundry equipment.
Video of SEN Amherst Conference 2009
Click the link to see the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmDHcZ0wZIUCPE Summer Institute - After the Economic Meltdown: Building the Solidarity Economy
The Center for Popular Economics & the N.H. Program of the AFSC
invite you to the 2009 Summer Institute
World Fellowship Center, Conway, N.H.
July 12-17, 2009
Learn how the economy works and gain tools to make your activism more effective.
CPE’s Summer Institute CPE’s
Summer Institute is a week-long intensive training in economics for
activists, educators, and anyone who wants a better understanding of
economics. We focus on how economic systems impact our lives and work
every day. Our trainings are highly participatory and build on the
knowledge and experience of our participants.
No background in economics is required.
SEN Holds First Forum on the Solidarity Econmy
(Amherst, MA - March 23) This past weekend U.S. Solidarity Economy Network hosted the first conference in the United States to focus exclusively on the solidarity economy. Attendees from around the country and the world came to Amherst, MA to meet and strategize for building the solidarity economy. More information including reviews and presentations from the conference will be available soon.
