History 

The U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives was founded at the U.S. Conference of Democratic Workplaces in Minneapolis, May 2004. The conference, and founding of the Federation, was the result of many years of organizing on the part of worker cooperatives and regional worker co-op groups across the country. At the founding conference, a Board of Directors was elected to do the work of building the infrastructure of the organization. In 2005, the board hired paid staff, and in summer of 2006, the USFWC filed papers to incorporate as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit mutual benefit corporation in the state of California.

We began accepting members in early 2006, and our membership has grown by 25% every year since our founding. We estimate that about one-third of the worker cooperatives in the country are members of the USFWC.