There are 2 main types of cooperatives. Consumer cooperatives purchase goods in bulk to cut costs and save money. Your local food co-op where you might put in a few hours of work per month to further cut costs is one example. Many food co-ops buy from cooperatively organized wholesalers. As important as consumer co-ops are, we always end up asking ourselves: who makes the goods we are buying? This is where worker-owned cooperatives come into play. They operate in numerous industries, including childcare, commercial and residential cleaning, food service, healthcare, technology, consumer retail and services, manufacturing, wholesaling and many others. A worker-owned co-op is an entity in which:

1. the work force owns the company
2. decisions regarding significant matters, such as choosing a manager, are made democratically on a one-person one-vote basis
3. the labor involved in running the enterprise, and the wages and other benefits that result, are shared on a democratic basis.

Why worker-owned co-ops?
We like worker co-ops because we want the goods we buy to be made by people working under democratic and sustainable conditions, and we want to work in enterprises that themselves are democratic and sustainable. From our definition of a worker-owned co-op above, we see that such co-ops turn the workforce into owners eliminating "the boss;" they democratize control of the workplace so no one feels like a cog in a wheel. Because the property of the company is owned collectively by the workers and no one else, no absentee owner makes a buck off our labor.

More info on worker owned coops:

• University of Wisconsin, Center on Cooperatives
• National Cooperative Business Association
• History of Worker Cooperation in America