Expanding economic opportunity through worker cooperatives

Fighting Poverty, Strengthening New York - A podcast from the Community Service Society

Could the worker cooperative business model help low-income New Yorkers find well-paying, stable employment? In this episode, we speak with Professor Richard Wolff about the concept of worker coops, how they work and how he believes this method is better for both the employees and the economy as a whole. Then we meet a former CSS employee who started a successful worker coop of home health care aides in the Bronx in 1985 that is still going strong. We take a trip up to see this organization, the Cooperative Home Care Associates, and meet Juana Fuentes, current home care aide, worker-owner, and CHCA board member. Finally, we return to CSS to learn about a new application of the worker coop model that CSS is recommending as a way to bring meaningful employment to areas of New York where there is little opportunity.