Originally named the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative, we are a union co-op incubator that was founded in 2011.

We believe bringing together unions and co-ops is a powerful way to generate family-sustaining jobs and create an economy that works for all.

We are inspired by the success of Spain’s Mondragon, the largest cooperative network in the world. Check out this New York Times article on how Mondragon has successfully weathered the Covid-19 pandemic and recession

In bringing Mondragon’s model to Greater Cincinnati, we are developing an interconnected network of community-driven, worker-owned businesses that grow the economy and develop wealth from the ground up.

This primer offers a brief overview of the union co-op model, our story, and our union co-op initiatives, as well as resources to learn more.

Union Co-op Model

A union co-op is a hybrid business with elements of a union’s worker solidarity and a cooperative’s democratic operations.

As in a unionized business, worker-owners in a union co-op are members of a union and elect a union committee to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement on their behalf. The union also promotes and instills solidarity between workers in different businesses, industries, and countries.

As in a worker cooperative, worker-owners in a union co-op own and democratically govern their business according to the principle of one worker, one vote.

Origins of the Union Co-op Model

Unions and cooperatives have a long history of working together in the United States. The most active period of union-led cooperative development came after the Civil War when unions like the Knights of Labor embraced cooperatives as a strategy to empower workers. According to historian Steve Leikin, at their peak in 1886, the Knights of Labor represented over 750,000 members and 185-200 worker, consumer, and producer cooperatives. More recently, unions in the US have looked to Mondragon for inspiration and innovative strategies to empower their members through democratic worker-ownership.

Mondragon is a federated network of 80 worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain that employs 70,000 people in family-sustaining jobs. All Mondragon cooperatives espouse the ten Mondragon principles, which incorporate the values of self-help, responsibility, democracy, equity, and solidarity. In the 1950s, Mondragon began to encourage worker cooperatives with more than 50 worker-owners to create social councils that help address worker-management issues . These social councils are similar in function to unions .

In 2009, Mondragon and the United Steelworkers (USW)—the largest industrial union in North America—agreed to adapt collective bargaining principles to the cooperative model in North America.

In 2012, USW, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) hosted a “Worker Ownership for the 99%” press conference to introduce their jointly crafted template for the development of union co-ops. The USW-Mondragon union co-op template replaces Mondragon’s social council with a union committee that is empowered to engage in collective bargaining. The idea is that the union committee both improves working conditions for all employees and helps strengthen communication within the business when a union co-op grows. The union also draws workers into mutual assistance and understanding of worker struggles around the world.

The Union Co-op Template

As in all cooperatives, bylaws serve as the key operating agreement of a union co-op. The City University of New York (CUNY) Law School’s Community Economic Development Clinic partnered with Mondragon in 2013 to provide legal support for union co-ops, including the development of a model set of bylaws. Bylaws define mission and values, allocation of shares, rights and responsibilities of members, and organizational structure.

The USW-Mondragon template recommends that large union co-ops establish four primary bodies: the general assembly, the board of directors, management, and the union committee. No worker-owner can serve simultaneously on the board, management, and union committee, although an individual may serve multiple roles in consecutive terms.

• The general assembly is the primary oversight body of the cooperative. It meets annually and all members have an equal voice according to the principle of one member, one vote.

• The board of directors is the primary governance body responsible for the strategic objectives of the cooperative. The union co-op template recommends a representational structure in which worker-owners elect directors at large from the membership to serve four-year terms.

• The primary operations body is management, which the board appoints to serve four-year terms. Managers with the direct power to hire and fire (e.g. CEO or CFO) are not represented by the collective bargaining agreement

• The union committee, a parallel body to Mondragon’s social council, is the primary communications infrastructure between workers and management. The membership elects union committee members on a representational basis (by worker category). These representatives are responsible for negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with management and facilitating communication between worker-owners and management about issues that arise on a day-to-day basis.

Our Story

Co-op Cincy is the first organization to bring the 2009 USW-Mondragon agreement to life.

We are rooted in local relationships with Mondragon dating back to the 1980s.

During the 80s, a Cincinnati nonprofit now called Ignite Peace began sending delegations of local civic leaders to the Basque region of Spain. The trip inspired future Co-op Cincy board member Jerry Monahan, union leader of the Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council, to discuss creating worker cooperatives in Cincinnati with colleagues at the AFL-CIO Labor Council. One of the people he talked to was future Co-op Cincy Co-Founder Phil Amadon.

Phil devoted much of his 32-year career as a railroad mechanic to the labor movement. When he read media reports about the 2009 USW-Mondragon agreement, he decided to convene a study group of local organizers to explore the idea of creating unionized worker cooperatives here in Cincinnati.

Kristen Barker of Ignite Peace (formerly Intercommunity Justice & Peace Center), Ellen Vera of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 75, and Flequer Vera of Amos began to meet regularly with Phil in early 2010. After months of studying the Mondragon principles, the Knights of Labor vision for a cooperative commonwealth, and the Evergreen model in Cleveland, they agreed that union co-ops could help counter the decline of family-sustaining union jobs in Cincinnati.

Phil, Kristen, Ellen, and Flequer formally founded Co-op Cincy in 2011 and began to reach out to potential partners including the OEOC, Evergreen, USW, the Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council, UFCW, and Mondragon.

Co-op Cincy’s Co-Founders hosted our 1st public event in February 2011, attracting around 90 community members. Out of this group, a steering committee was formed that began meeting biweekly to explore how to develop union co-ops in Cincinnati.

In April 2011, Co-op Cincy sent 8 delegates to an OEOC workshop where we met Michael Peck, Mondragon’s North American Delegate, who had collaborated with Rob Witherell of USW to orchestrate the 2009 USW-Mondragon agreement. In the following months, Co-op Cincy discussed union co-op business ideas with Michael, the OEOC, and The Ohio State University Ohio Cooperative Development Center (OCDC).

The OCDC agreed to conduct a feasibility study for a food hub in October 2011. Weeks later, Co-op Cincy filed 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporation papers (as the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative) and established a 14-member board of directors. The board replaced the steering committee and formed working groups to identify next steps, establish key relationships, and fundraise for feasibility studies.

Co-op Cincy received a $22,000 zero-interest loan from USW in December 2011 to hire the OEOC to conduct a market analysis for a railcar wheel manufacturing union co-op in partnership with Danobat, a Mondragon cooperative. Co-op Cincy also provided input on the union co-op template in preparation for the 2012 press conference “Worker Ownership for the 99%” .

Co-op Cincy launched our first union co-op, the Our Harvest food hub, in April 2012. In June we received a $15,000 grant and $10,000 from UFCW to fund a market study with the OCDC. Since 2012. we have supported Our Harvest’s growth, fundraised to incubate new union co-ops, built relationships with labor leaders, and engaged the Cincinnati community in our efforts.

In early 2013, UFCW agreed to subsidize the development of Our Harvest by allowing Ellen to work full-time as CEO during the start-up’s incubation stage. In the summer of 2013, a Co-op Cincy delegation toured Mondragon and Mondragon hired Kristen shortly thereafter to lead the development of a Mondragon-style union co-op federation in the US. Co-op Cincy launched our 2nd union co-op, Sustainergy, in November 2013.

Our Union Co-op Family

Several worker cooperatives in the US were unionized before the USW-Mondragon agreement and do not explicitly follow the USW-Mondragon union co-op template. For instance, Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx is by far the largest worker cooperative in the US, with 1,100 worker-owners who voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199 in 2003. The SEIU provides crucial help to CHCA when they lobby New York state authorities on home care issues. The Union Co-ops Council of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives features case studies of several others on its website.

An exciting new generation of union co-op development initiatives has launched in the wake of the 2009 USW-Mondragon collaboration agreement, explicitly adopting the template that Co-op Cincy follows. To date, union co-op development is underway in multiple areas of the US including Dayton, OH; New York, NY; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Madison, WI; St. Louis, MO; and the state of Maine.

Kristen also worked as an organizer at Mondragon USA, which supported the development of union co-op initiatives across the country. Mondragon USA launched a foundation arm called 1worker1vote.org.

Learn More

Visit our Resources page for resources offering more info about union-co-ops, the cooperative and labor movements, and Mondragon.

In addition to those resources, here is some recommended reading:

• The Practical Utopians by Steve Leikin (2005). An informative history of cooperative development in the Knights of Labor.

• Making Mondragon by William & Kathleen Whyte (1991). An in-depth study of the Mondragon federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain.

• “Improving the Quality of Home Health Aide Jobs: A Collaboration between Organized Labor and a Worker Cooperative” by Daphne Berry and Stu Schneider (2011). A chapter in Employee Ownership and Shared Capitalism: New Directions in Research (ed. E. J. Carberry) that examines the role of SEIU 1199 in Cooperative Home Care Associates.

For general questions, contact Co-Director Kristen Barker at kristen@coopcincy.org