SOUTHEAST WORKER COOPERATIVE INCUBATOR
Background:
In 2014 CTU started the Southeast Worker Cooperative Incubator to prepare and train members, many former low-wage workers, how to form and operate their own worker cooperatives. The goal of the incubator is to transform the current economy that suffers from high unemployment and poverty rates into a resilient and thriving community guided by the values of democracy, solidarity, and mutual support. At the root of this work is the respect for human life that includes dignified wages.
Thanks to a partnership with Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC Law School and the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, the incubator is able to provide comprehensive business development services to low-income, immigrant and Latino community members on the southeast side of Chicago and in the south suburbs. CTU’s Southeast Cooperative Institute is a high-touch incubator focused on recruiting, training and supporting workers with the purpose of establishing successful cooperative businesses on the southeast side. Through the incubator, workers learn the history of cooperatives and receive financial training, education on collaborative governance business models, leadership development and one on one mentoring and counseling. Las Visionarias is a Chicago catering cooperative founded by immigrant women that got its start through the Southeast Cooperative Business Incubator.
Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance:
Illinois Coalition for Cooperative Advancement:
CTU is a co-founder of the Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance (IWCA) along with Chicago Community & Workers Rights, the Domestic Worker and Day Laborer Center of Chicago, New Hope Rising and The Co-op Ed Center. The IWCA was formed in 2015 to help forge an environment that supports worker cooperatives for low-wage workers whose typical employment opportunities are driven by companies with little interest in the financial and physical well-being of the working poor. IWCA’s mission is to support a worker-owned cooperative system that promotes economic stability and independence for workers and their communities and instills values of social justice, democracy and collective participation.
IWCA has been working to bring community awareness about the worker cooperative model and its impact on building and strengthening communities; advocating for local and state legislative policies to obtain resources and recognition; developing an ecosystem that supports the technical, education, legal, and monetary development of cooperatives; and to strengthen the economic impact of worker-run businesses in marginalized communities. The Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance believes worker cooperatives can be a model in Chicago, and the region, setting the standard for long lasting economic stability.
In 2018 CTU co-founded the Illinois Coalition for Cooperative Advancement (ICCA), a statewide coalition, with Catatumbo Cooperative Farm, Chicago Community & Workers’ Rights, Chicago Food Policy Action Council, The Coop Ed Center, Las Visionarias, Upside Down Consulting, D@W Chicago, Domestic Worker and Day Labor Center, Englewood Village Farms, Grow Greater Englewood, John Marshall Law School, Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance, LVEJO, Kola Nut Collaborative, New Era Windows and the Raise the Floor Alliance.
In the Spring of 2019 the ICCA successfully passed HB3663: Limited Worker Cooperative Association Act in the State of Illinois, which:
Creates a new business entity better suited for worker coops
Allows for businesses to assert themselves as worker coops under State statue
Allows coops to raise capital without the burden of costly securities registration
Creates more access for worker-ownership for low-moderate income entrepreneurs, formerly incarcerated individuals and immigrant communities in Illinois.
