A new report by Project Equity has been released that features a dozen case studies on worker co-op conversions, and CDI is proud to have our work on the Island Employee Cooperative in Maine featured alongside so many other amazing projects from around the country. The IEC is now the largest worker cooperative in the state of Maine.
Development of worker cooperatives, particularly the strategy of converting existing businesses, has really accelerated in the past couple years as more and more people look for new ways to make the economy work for all of us. Project Equity’s first report released a year ago, Pathways to Scale, has been the starting point for most conversations about worker co-op development for the past year. It identified several strategies for worker co-op development, including conversion of an existing business.
Case Studies: Business Conversions to Worker Cooperatives, which describes four basic types of conversions, is sure to inform an ongoing conversation on how to promote successful worker cooperative development. You can read the individual case studies here, or you can see the full report, which has a lot of interesting extra analysis.
CDI and members of the IEC will be doing presentations at numerous conferences around the country over the next several months and will be presenting this case study on a webinar hosted by the Democracy Collaborative and moderated by Marjorie Kelly on Tuesday, April 28.
(Looking to convert your Maine business into a cooperative? Get in touch with our Business Ownership Solutions program.)