Once an employee at a large grocery store, Ben Jankowski soured on corporate business practices during the COVID-19 pandemic when the company cut employee benefits.
So he began to make an exit strategy and a few years later joined Pedal People, the Northampton-based bike-powered trash hauling cooperative, seeking a workplace where “I have more say, and my coworkers have more say.”
On Monday, Jankowski joined a couple dozen people representing cooperatives in Williamsburg when state Sen. Paul Mark and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa came to share lunch with leaders of this so-called “solidarity economy.” The legislators were there to gather feedback and learn how they can best advocate for worker-owned models such as Pedal People and many others throughout the region.
In a cooperative model, workers ideally set their own wages and share in decision-making about assets, while benefiting from flexible schedules and supporting more localized production and industry.
The concept of a solidarity economy arose in Europe in the 1970s, and made its way to Latin America in the next decade. In America, the concept is only about 20 years old, and in many areas like Massachusetts, it is still in its primitive stages.
To bolster a movement toward a solidarity economy, Mark has filed the “Opportunity to Own” bill, which is intended to spearhead a movement for employees to operate businesses once ownership decides to move on.
The bill is designed to encourage business owners to sell to their employees. It would require business owners to give workers 30 days’ notice so they have an opportunity to buy. If workers can match the highest viable offer made on the open market, the seller would be encouraged to consider that offer. If the businesses successfully become a co-op, the seller will receive a capital gains tax break.
For Mark, capitalism is experiencing growing pains comparable to the 2008 Great Recession and the beginning of the Great Depression in the 1920s. This bill is just one step in the right direction toward a more equitable, post-Capitalist system, he said.
“It’s imperative that we start to rethink the entire way that our market works, and if we never do that, especially as AI is starting to enter the world and the workforce, we’re going to continue to find economic inequality,” he said. “We’re going to continue to find people working long hours and not being able to get ahead in ways that were commonplace, 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
In addition to the bill, advocates are seeking more money for the Small Business Technical Assistance program run by MassDevelopment. This program supports small businesses, including worker cooperatives, in building critical entrepreneurship and democratic management skills. Due to rising interest in worker cooperatives, the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP) and allied groups are calling for a funding increase from the current level of $5 million to $7.5 million.
In the state’s upcoming fiscal year 2027 budget cycle, advocates are also requesting the Massachusetts Center for Employee Ownership (MassCEO) get $300,000 to support business owners and employees in pursuing worker ownership.
Success stories
Also in the room for lunch was Tristan Taylor of Fitchburg, a former Facebook employee, who said that on an annual basis, “vampiric corporations” harvest some $26 billion in cellphone service costs across the state. His response was unconventional: start a co-op.
Now, his collaborative, worker-owned business, “Fitchburg Fiber” offers internet access to a couple square miles within his town. His small team divides resources and makes collective decisions to sustain the service.
Taylor and others discussed the limitless possibilities of cooperative arrangements. He said that Amazon subcontracts the last mile of deliveries a majority of the time, which is a way for local people to swoop in and keep money local and out of corporate hands.
Two other cooperatives played a role at Monday’s gathering — Cocineras Latinas LLC of Pittsfield prepared and served lunch, and Spanish interpreter Maria Elisa Fuller with Language Justice Solutions in the Berkshires, translated for Spanish speakers in the room. Her cooperative provides translation services for a variety of needs, including medical and legal help.
Discussion of Mark’s bill coincided with discussions about the current reality of America’s business climate. For example, 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 on a daily basis. This trend began in 2011 and is expected to last through 2029, according to U.S. census data. Meanwhile three-fourths of businesses do not get sold and fail to transition to a new owner.
As more people retire, and fewer businesses remain intact, those gathered discuss that local communities and the state more broadly will see a decrease in tax revenues, and as those businesses disappear, so do middle class jobs. Without middle class jobs, come low wages and exploitation.
“In Northampton, in particular, we’ve had a lot of conversations over the years about what happens when a business feels like it’s at the end of its life, and one of the most obvious answers is turning that business over to its workers,” said Sabadosa, who supports the bill.
“If we want strong local communities, we need to invest in them, which means we need to invest in the people — we need to buy our things locally — and co-ops are a great way to make sure those dollars are going right back into the local community over and over and over again, and that we’re actually supporting our community,” she said.
Michael Hitchcock, co-executive of Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds which is dedicated to worker ownership, explained how a cleaning co-op in Pittsfield, E.C.C. Services LLC, has given its workers more money, flexibility and health.
“They all work in major hotel chains, and they make minimum wage,” he said. “But in the cleaning cooperative, they make $25, $30 an hour — and they can decide. For example, today they’re usually working. But they decided to get up at 6 a.m. and go clean early so that they could come today. They have much more flexibility in their cooperatives to decide their lives. And they say they prefer it because it doesn’t wear out their bodies, and they get to make more money.”
In addition to negotiating their own wages, coop members also decide how to invest in production, Hitchcock explained. A cleaning co-op may decide to save 20-50% of profits for a van, or a cook may decide to put money away for a new refrigerator or make other rainy day funds.
One mom-and-pop shop closing after 50 years of family ownership was King Cone in Pittsfield, which became a co-op for a part of the summer two years ago after the family decided to sell it. Patrick Doyle, who worked at the shop, said the change of hands toward a worker-owned system benefited both employees and customers.
“We paid ourselves $20 an hour,” said Doyle, explaining that previously employees were making minimum wage. The co-op also agreed to operate on a sliding-scale model, meaning customers pay what they can.
Hitchcock believes the solidarity economy is the business model of the future.
“Almost everything we’re doing could exist when capitalism is gone or if the government collapses,” said Hitchcock. “These processes and relationships are beyond the immediate political reality.”
