DOCSLIB.ORG

A Clean Break: Fuerza Laboral's Quest to Incubate a Cleaning

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Clean Break: Fuerza Laboral's Quest to Incubate a Cleaning A Clean Break: Fuerza Laboral’s Quest to Incubate a Cleaning Cooperative in Rhode Island A thesis submitted by JANAKI K. BLUM In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning TUFTS UNIVERSITY May 2017 Advisor: Prof. Penn Loh Reader: Dr. Ann Rappaport Abstract The aim of this thesis is to examine the challenges and opportunities facing Fuerza Laboral, a Latino immigrant worker center, in its efforts to found a building cleaning worker cooperative in Rhode Island, so as to assist similar endeavors in future. The inquiry explores the crucial pre- launch phase by employing a case study approach with a centerpiece feasibility analysis for a potential building cleaning cooperative. In addition to a review of the relevant literature, the backstory and critical issues are examined through interviews with professionals concerned with the cleaning industry and with worker cooperatives in RI and elsewhere. Research and observation indicated that a worker center could assist low-income immigrants establish building cleaning cooperatives to the extent that it can overcome internal impediments as well as the challenging industry, regulatory, technical, and social conditions in RI. The thesis concludes with thoughts on ways that educational establishments might help further the process. ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the support of many people. First, my heartfelt gratitude goes to Fuerza Laboral for allowing me to conduct the feasibility study for its putative cleaning worker cooperative, and thus the idea for the thesis. Thanks are owed specifically to Heiny Maldonado, Fuerza Laboral’s Executive Director, who responded so enthusiastically to my many requests for information and whose confidence in me has helped me so much. I am indebted to the interview participants, whose observations and opinions helped me to ground my work in reality. I wish to thank my thesis committee, especially my advisor Penn Loh for the patient and insightful guidance and encouragement that helped shape and realize this opus. Thanks are a due to Anne Rapport for her willingness to part of this endeavor and for her perceptive comments and questions. My appreciation also extends to my Thesis Groups, Sharon Cho, Jaissa Feliz, Danielle Ngo, Rachel Nagin, and Sarah Jimenez, for their solid support during the initial stages of the thesis. I owe much thanks to UEP staff Maria Nicolau and Michael Flanary for their extraordinary administrative assistance. Last but not least, I thank my family, John, Justine, Eric, Rohan McDonald, and Vinod Moonesinghe, not forgetting Jessie the dog and Kitsel the cat, for sustaining me with affection and humor. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1 : Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 : Methodology ................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 3 : Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 4 : Introduction to Case ................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 5 : Feasibility Study ......................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 6 : Findings and Recommendations ................................................................................ 86 Chapter 7 : Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 97 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 103 References .................................................................................................................................. 109 iv List of Tables Table 3.1: Summary of Latino cleaning worker coop Initiatives .................................................. 24 Table 5.1: Occupational employment and wage estimates: Cleaning workers, USA, Rhode Island, and Providence Metro Area (May 2014) ...................................................................................... 50 Table 5.2: Number of Rhode Island cleaning establishments, employees, and size (2013) ........ 51 Table 5.3: Clients per worker ........................................................................................................ 52 Table 5.4: Clients per coop size .................................................................................................... 52 Table 5.5: Target clients in 20 miles ............................................................................................. 54 Table 5.6: Target communities with market shares required by a coop of 5 or 10 members ..... 56 Table 5.7: Competitor client service capacity in RI ....................................................................... 57 Table 5.8: Market saturation of target households ($100K income) in Rhode Island ................. 58 Table 5.9: Market saturation of all households (all incomes) in Rhode Island ............................ 58 Table 5.10: Market saturation of target households ($100K income) in RI -MA 3 counties ........ 59 Table 5.11: Market saturation of all households (all incomes) in RI-MA 3 counties.................... 59 Table 5.12: Commercial clients per worker .................................................................................. 61 Table 5.13: Number of clients needed for cooperatives of varying sizes and frequency of cleaning ......................................................................................................................................... 61 Table 5.14: RI Market share of clients for cooperatives of varying sizes and frequency of cleaning ......................................................................................................................................... 62 Table 5.15: Competitors client capacity in RI ............................................................................... 63 Table 5.16: Market saturation of target commercial clients in Rhode Island .............................. 64 Table 5.17: Competitors client capacity RI+MA............................................................................ 64 v Table 5.18: Market saturation of target commercial clients in RI and 3 MA counties ................ 65 Table 5.19: Residential pricing ...................................................................................................... 76 Table 5.20: Clients required for full time work ............................................................................. 80 Table 5.21: Five year financial summary without hired manager ................................................ 83 Table 5.22: Five year financial summary with hired manager ...................................................... 83 Table 5.23: Differences between residential and commercial cleaning ...................................... 85 List of Figures Figure 4.1: Fuerza Laboral, partners, the CBI Program and cooperative network ....................... 32 Figure 5.1: Janitorial services Rhode Island: Total employees ..................................................... 49 Figure 5.2: Janitorial services Rhode Island: Number of establishments. .................................... 49 Figure 5.3: Median incomes of households around Central Falls, RI ........................................... 54 Figure 5.4: National commercial market segments ...................................................................... 68 Figure 5.5: RI total target commercial market composition by industry ..................................... 68 vi Chapter 1 : Introduction The aim of this thesis is to examine the challenges and opportunities facing an immigrant worker center in its efforts to found a building cleaning worker cooperative in Rhode Island (RI), in order to assist similar endeavors in future. It focuses on the early pre-launch phase as this is when crucial decisions regarding a cooperative are made, including the type of industry, legal form, and viability. The introductory chapter briefly outlines the motivation behind the thesis, and the need for the cooperative, and hence for the feasibility study. Labor abuses (such as low wages, wage theft, and unsafe work conditions) are pervasive in industries that employ immigrant workers. The building cleaning industry is one of the severest offenders, and the foreign-born Latino workforce the most affected ethnic group. Traditionally, workers countered exploitation by organizing, notably through institutions such as workplace-
Load more

Recommended publications
  • For All the People
    Praise for For All the People John Curl has been around the block when it comes to knowing work- ers’ cooperatives. He has been a worker owner. He has argued theory and practice, inside the firms where his labor counts for something more than token control and within the determined, but still small uni- verse where labor rents capital, using it as it sees fit and profitable. So his book, For All the People: The Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, reached expectant hands, and an open mind when it arrived in Asheville, NC. Am I disappointed? No, not in the least. Curl blends the three strands of his historical narrative with aplomb, he has, after all, been researching, writing, revising, and editing the text for a spell. Further, I am certain he has been responding to editors and publishers asking this or that. He may have tired, but he did not give up, much inspired, I am certain, by the determination of the women and men he brings to life. Each of his subtitles could have been a book, and has been written about by authors with as many points of ideological view as their titles. Curl sticks pretty close to the narrative line written by worker own- ers, no matter if they came to work every day with a socialist, laborist, anti-Marxist grudge or not. Often in the past, as with today’s worker owners, their firm fails, a dream to manage capital kaput. Yet today, as yesterday, the democratic ideals of hundreds of worker owners support vibrantly profitable businesses.
    [Show full text]
  • NASCO Institute 2006 Program Guide.Pdf
    8:30am SMAC Track Registration Opens 9am SMAC Track Begins 12pm Institute Registration Opens lpm Detroit Tour Leaves 2-4pm SkiUshares & Tours Block 1 4-6pr:n Skillshares & Tours Block 2 ?pm NASCO Welcome 8pm Cooper~tive Hall of Fame 9pm-12am Documentary Film Festival · · 8am Registration Opens 8:30-10:30am Annual General Meeting Part 1 10:30am-12pm Course Block 1 12: lOpm-lpm Keynote Address lpm-2:30pm Lunch on the town (not covered by registration) 2 : 40pm -4 ~ 40pm Course Block 2 4:50pm-6:20pm Course Block 3 6:20pm-7:50pm Dinner Active Member Rep Candidate Speeches 8pm-9:10pm Caucus Block 1 9:20pm-10:30pm Caucus Block 2 llpm Spoken Word Performance 9:00am-12:00pm Annual General Meeting Part 2 10am-12pm Course Block 4 12pm-1:30pm . Lunch Diversity Congress NASCO Properties Family Reunion 1:40pm-3: lOpm Course Block 5 3:20pm-4:50pm Plenary Sessions 4:50pm-5:30pm Cider and Goodbyes ·Coffee Haus This year Institute will host its own unique coffee haus-a place where people can network, hang out with friends, hold informal caucuses and meetings, relax, browse the bookstores, drink coffee and tea--.-basically the physical epicenter of Institute. Open from early moring to late at night, this will be the place to take a break from the packed weekend and connect with other co-opers. Cooperative Hall of Fa·me The Hall of Fame gives NASCO co-ops a forum to recognize individuals who have shown an outstanding commitment to the cooperative movement through their hard work and tireless enthusiasm for cooperation.
    [Show full text]
  • A Clean Break: Fuerza Laboral's Quest to Incubate
    A Clean Break: Fuerza Laboral’s Quest to Incubate a Cleaning Cooperative in Rhode Island A thesis submitted by JANAKI K. BLUM In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning TUFTS UNIVERSITY May 2017 Advisor: Prof. Penn Loh Reader: Dr. Ann Rappaport Abstract The aim of this thesis is to examine the challenges and opportunities facing Fuerza Laboral, a Latino immigrant worker center, in its efforts to found a building cleaning worker cooperative in Rhode Island, so as to assist similar endeavors in future. The inquiry explores the crucial pre- launch phase by employing a case study approach with a centerpiece feasibility analysis for a potential building cleaning cooperative. In addition to a review of the relevant literature, the backstory and critical issues are examined through interviews with professionals concerned with the cleaning industry and with worker cooperatives in RI and elsewhere. Research and observation indicated that a worker center could assist low-income immigrants establish building cleaning cooperatives to the extent that it can overcome internal impediments as well as the challenging industry, regulatory, technical, and social conditions in RI. The thesis concludes with thoughts on ways that educational establishments might help further the process. ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the support of many people. First, my heartfelt gratitude goes to Fuerza Laboral for allowing me to conduct the feasibility study for its putative cleaning worker cooperative, and thus the idea for the thesis. Thanks are owed specifically to Heiny Maldonado, Fuerza Laboral’s Executive Director, who responded so enthusiastically to my many requests for information and whose confidence in me has helped me so much.
    [Show full text]
  • Promoting Cooperatives and the Social Economy in Greece Sep
    International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers’ Cooperatives A sectoral organisation of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Promoting cooperatives and the Social Economy in Greece _____________________________________________ How to promote the social economy in Greece through social cooperatives, worker cooperatives, and cooperatives of artisans and of SMEs Final report to the ILO September 9, 2013 1 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Introduction by Bruno Roelants, CICOPA Secretary General 5 PART 1. THE SITUATION IN GREECE 7 1.1. The s ocial impact of the crisis 7 1.2. Evolution and s tate o f the art of cooperatives and the social economy in Greece 9 1.3. Analysis of the existing relevant legislation 15 PART 2. MAIN RELEVANT NATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE IN THE CICOPA NETWORK THAT COULD BE TRANSFERRED TO THE GREEK CONTEXT 20 2.1. T he CICOPA network 20 2.2 Social services, with a special focus on crèches and homes for the elderly 22 2.3 . Business transfers to the employees under the worker cooperative form 25 2.4. Cooperatives among artisans, profess ionals and micro -enterprises 31 2. 5. The production of renewable energy by cooperatives 33 2. 6. Constitution of cooperative incubators 35 2. 7. Financial instruments for the development of cooperatives 36 2.8 . Constitution of networks, groups and consor tia 41 2. 9. Worker and social cooperatives in rural contexts 46 2.1 0. Multi -stakeholder cooperatives 49 2.1 1. Mixed and transitional forms of cooperatives 50 2.1 2. Cooperatives and emerging sectors: tourism 51 2.1 3. Worker coop eratives dealing with specific social challenges 53 PART 3.
    [Show full text]
  • With Or Without Class: a Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S
    University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2016 With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea Minsun Ji University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Ji, Minsun, "With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1230. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1230 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea ____________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ____________ by Minsun Ji November 2016 Advisor: Dr. George DeMartino Author: Minsun Ji Title: With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea Advisor: Dr. George DeMartino Degree Date: November 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines to what extent union-cooperative partnerships in the U.S. and S. Korea might revitalize labor movements and to what extent class-based narratives (or their absence) shape labor movements.
    [Show full text]
  • 2009 Ends Report & the 2010 – 2014 Strategic Plan
    2009 Ends Report & the 2010 – 2014 Strategic Plan Originally presented to the Board of Directors: February 23, 2010 final version: March 3, 2010 drafted by: Lori Burge (Development Manger) with the support of: Kate Carney (Intern) and contributions by: Melody Anderson (Dairy Buyer) Sarah Barnard (Grocery Buyer) Sage Benson (Operations Manager) Dusty Bloomingheart (HOO Coordinator) Kim Card (Store Keeper Coordinator) Monica Cuneo (Marketing Manger) Cari Eisler (Buyers Team Coordinator) Jane Erbez (Farmers’ Market Coordinator) Emily Kearns (Personnel Manager) Mathilde Lind (Physical Plant Manager) Miles Uchida (Finance Manger) A huge thanks to the entire CM for your work & support on the Strategic Plan! 1 2009 Ends Report & the 2010 – 2014 Strategic Plan GLOBAL END A passionate community working together for sustainability, human rights, social & economic justice. I. PASSIONATE COMMUNITY INTERPRETATION: PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY is comprised of member-owners and non-owner shoppers, neighbors, co-op workers, farmers and other producers as well as the broader cooperative movement and other allies. While our cooperative store calls SE Portland our home, we recognize that our impact extends far beyond. We work to facilitate a PASSIONATE COMMUNITY that is invested and engaged in our co-op and People’s Ends and values. We will work to build a strong base of member-ownership that includes both member-equity and participation. We believe in cultivating the cooperative community. 2009 REPORT: We worked to maintain and increase strong owner investment (equity and shares) in 2009. Sales to owners remained consistently at 67% for the past few years. By 2014 we hope to be back at 70% where we were in 2006.
    [Show full text]
  • Worker Co-Operative Development in Saskatchewan the Promise, the Problems, and the Prospects
    Social Enterprises Knowledgeable Economies and Sustainable Communities Worker Co-operative Development in Saskatchewan The Promise, the Problems, and the Prospects Mitch Diamantopoulos and April Bourgeois A research report prepared for the Northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan Regional Node of the Social Economy Suite Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada Entreprises sociales économies intelligentes et communautés durables W ORKER C O - OPERATIVE D EVELOPMENT IN S ASKATCHEWAN We acknowledge the following for their contributions to this publication: Community partner Co-op Ventures Worker Co-op Lou Hammond Ketilson, principal investigator, Linking, Learning, Leveraging: Social Enterprises, Knowledgeable Economies, and Sustainable Communities Isobel M. Findlay, university co-director, Social Economy, CUISR Len Usiskin, community co-director, Social Economy, CUISR Louise Clarke and Bill Holden, co-directors, CUISR This paper is part of a collection of research reports prepared for the project Linking, Learning, Leveraging Social Enterprises, Knowledgeable Economies, and Sustainable Communities , the Northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan Regional Node of the Social Economy Suite, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The project is managed by four regional partners — the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives and the Community-University Institute for Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan, the Winnipeg Inner-City Research Alliance and later the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, and the Community Economic and Social Development Unit at Algoma University. The project also includes more than fifty community-based organizations in four provinces, the United States, Colombia, and Belgium.
    [Show full text]
  • Canadian Worker Co-Operative Federation/ Fédération Canadienne Des Coopératives De Travail Annual Report | 2020
    CWCF Annual Report | 2020 Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation/ Fédération canadienne des coopératives de travail Annual Report | 2020 CWCF new website and Conference 2019 CANADIAN WORKER CO- OPERATIVE FEDERATION www.canadianworker.coop/ CWCF Annual Report | 2020 1 Profile of the Canadian Worker Co- operative Federation (“CWCF”) Table of Contents CWCF is the apex organization for worker co-ops in President’s Report 2019-2020 2 Canada. It was established in 1991. Offices are located in Calgary, AB, the Annapolis Valley, NS and in Executive Director’s Report: A. Introduction 3 Winnipeg, MB. CWCF has a staff of five permanent B. Report Based on the Strategic Plan 4 employees working half-time or more (two in Calgary, two in Nova Scotia, one in Winnipeg), and two others Financial Report 10 who work very part-time for CWCF. Its Board of seven directors provides stewardship. There are two “at- The Co-operators: Membership and Insurance 10 large” director positions and directors for each of the following regions: BC, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and The Mark Goldblatt Project: Arts and Culture Grant 11 Atlantic Canada. Membership in Related Associations 11 Vision Statement Statement on the Co-operative Identity 12 To be a growing, cohesive network of democratically controlled worker co-ops that provide a high quality of Staff 13 worklife, and support the development of healthy, just Board 2019-20 14 and sustainable local economies, based on co-operative values and principles. Mission Statement 1) To work in solidarity with our members to [Note: in the electronic version of this document, the achieve our Vision of a Co-operative Economy; underlined blue text leads to hyper-links.] 2) To support the development of new worker co- ops; #104, 402-30 Ave.
    [Show full text]
  • Resilience of the Cooperative Business Model in Times of Crisis
    Sustainable Enterprise Programme International Labour Organization What began as a crisis in finance markets has rapidly become a global jobs crisis. Unemployment is rising. The number of working poor is increasing. Businesses are going under. Concern is growing over the balance, fairness and sustainability of the sort of globalization we have had in the Resilience of the run up to the financial crash. The International Labour Organization, representing actors of the real economy, that is Cooperative Business Model governments, working together with representatives of Photos cover: © Ellen Beijers, Kropka! - Fotolia.com employers and workers organizations, is playing its role within in Times of Crisis the UN and multilateral system to support its constituents as they seek to weather the crisis, prepare for recovery and shape a new fair globalization. The Decent Work Agenda Design and printing - International Centre of the ILO, Training - Italy Turin provides the policy framework to confront the crisis. In this series of brief publications, the ILO's Sustainable Enterprise Programme reflects on impacts of the global Sustainable Enterprise Programme economic crisis on enterprises and cooperatives, provides examples of policy and enterprise-level responses, and indicates how constituents can be supported by the ILO. Made of paper awarded the European Union Eco-label reg.nr FI/11/1. International Labour Organization Sustainable Enterprise Programme Resilience of the Cooperative Business Model in Times of Crisis Johnston Birchall1 and Lou Hammond Ketilson2 1 Johnston Birchall is Professor of Social Policy at Stirling University, Scotland 2 Lou Hammond Ketilson is Director, Centre for Cooperative Studies, University of Saskatch- ewan, Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Cooperatives
    Social Co­operatives a Democratic Co-production Agenda for Care Services in the UK by Pat Conaty, Research Associate, Co-operatives UK Acknowledgements Co­operatives UK would like to thank both our members and the many others who contributed so much of their time and expertise at the Deliberative Inquiry event held in Birmingham in July 2013. These participants are listed at Appendix 3 and we are most grateful for their input and to the inspiring group of speakers at the event from the co­housing sector, The Foster Care Co­operative, Ex­cell, Mutual Advantage, London Rebuilding Society and Wessex Resolutions CIC. We would also like to thank a second group of respondents both from across England and Wales and from further afield. They include experts working in social co­operatives in Italy, France, Canada and Japan. These experts who have assisted this resarch are listed in Appendix 4. Their invaluable help in checking drafts, providing research reports and critical reading of this report made this Social Care review possible. We would also like to thank the groups in Wales who are now taking this work forward and in particular the path­ finding action by Welsh co­operative pioneers seeking to develop social co­operatives in Robert Owen’s home county of Powys. It is heartening that this research will find a supportive home there. We hope other parts of the UK will follow this lead. a Democratic Co-production Agenda for Care Services in the UK 3 Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 7 2. Background: Crisis and opportunity ..........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 204 Audebrand 2017 .Pages
    M@n@gement 2017, vol. 20(4): 368-393 Expanding the scope of paradox scholarship on social enterprise: the case for (re)introducing worker cooperatives Luc K. Audebrand Abstract. Over the past decade, scholars have argued for using a paradox Luc K. Audebrand perspective as a provocative and insightful lens for understanding social FSA ULaval Québec, Canada [email protected] enterprises. This article addresses two gaps in this burgeoning literature. First, it expands the focus on social enterprises to include worker cooperatives, which are often overlooked but are highly relevant to this area of study. Worker cooperatives are unique among social enterprises due to their foundational principles: worker-ownership, worker-control and worker-benefit. Due to their dual nature as both a democratic association and an economic enterprise, the relationship between the cooperative’s social mission and its business venture is mutually constitutive and inescapable. Second, this article calls for paradox scholarship on social enterprise to include the study of paradoxical tensions other than the conspicuous tension between financial and social performance. This article suggests broadening this focus to include the tensions between communality and individuality, hierarchy and democracy, and between ‘staying alternative’ and ‘going mainstream’. Overall, this article seeks to construct a stronger theoretical basis on which to build future paradox research on alternatives to the dominant economic paradigm. Keywords: alternative organizational models, hybrid organizations, paradox perspective, social enterprises, worker cooperatives. Social enterprises are hybrid organizations seeking to combine their social mission with a business venture (Battilana & Lee, 2014; Pache & Santos, 2013). They are neither typical non-profits nor typical for-profits; instead, they include aspects of both, even while they may be legally structured as one or the other (Haigh & Hoffman, 2014; Tracey & Phillips, 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • Cooperatives Are Key to the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy
    DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION—JUNE 2015 COOPERATIVES ARE KEY TO THE TRANSITION FROM THE INFORMAL TO THE FORMAL ECONOMY BRUNO ROELANTS | CICOPA | SECTORAL ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE FOR INDUSTRY AND SERVICES INTRODUCTION In 2002, the ILO approved a specific instrument for cooperatives, the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation n°193 (2002),1 which, inter alia, states that cooperatives have an important role to play in the transition from the informal to the formal economy. 2 On the other hand, cooperatives are a main component of the social and solidarity economy, which has become an integral part of the UN agenda through the establishment in 2013 of the UN Inter- Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy, bringing together UN agencies including the ILO, other international organizations such as the OECD, as well as representative organizations including the International Cooperative Alliance.3 The present document explains why and how cooperatives and other enterprises from the social and solidarity economy are one of the main forces today in the transition from the informal to the formal economy. Cooperatives are entrepreneurial instruments open to all people, providing DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION—JUNE 2015 the latter with the skills and the necessary economies of scale that allow them to ensure this gradual transition. This applies in particular to vulnerable groups such as women, ethnic minorities, long- term unemployed, the disabled, immigrants etc. Cooperatives offer to their members and their workers the
    [Show full text]