USFWC Member Councils organized educational sessions and panels, share-outs and celebrated achievements during the 2026 Worker Co-op Conference in Boston, MA – below are some highlights!
- The Union Co-ops Council held a juicy session “How to Unionize Your Cooperative” where unionized worker-owners shared benefits and considerations on why and how they unionized their shops (Action OSH, Comp.coop, Co-op Cincy). Labor partners from United Steelworkers and USFWC staff answered questions from cooperators on contract bargaining, health benefits and how a unionized co-op workplace actually works.
Learn more about how & why to unionize your worker co-op on our Union Co-ops Council page usworker.coop/unions
We also celebrated the creation of USW Local 9007, the first United Steelworkers local specifically for cooperatives and co-op support staff around the country!
Read more on page 12 & 13 of the USW@Work magazine. - In the Movement of Immigrant Cooperators Council (MIC) members shared challenges and achievements of their cooperatives to hear different perspectives and understand all that they had in common and strengthen connections between cooperators. Hearing these experiences, similar or different, from other co-op members from all over the United States together in Boston was inspiring! They created an altar that combined various traditions and cultures that were present and interchanged experiences and contacts to give and receive needed support for their cooperatives.
- The Policy and Advocacy Council was active throughout the Worker Co-op Conference! The visit at Democracy Brewing highlighted local, state and national advocacy efforts being driven by USFWC and engaged multiple government representatives in a rich discussion of how governments should be engaging with the worker co-op movement. We also strengthened our collective learning around regional initiatives through two different conference sessions, one hosted by Zen Trenholm on Worker-owned Cities, and the other on analysis of the Opportunity to Own legislation that is being driven in several states. In case you missed it, Alex Papali of the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP) was recognized as an Advocacy Champion and Massachusetts State House representative Carmine Lawrence Gentile was recognized as a Worker Ownership Champion during the conference and Worker Co-op Awards ceremony.
- Racial and Economic Justice Council members led the panel “Political education in the workplace: how co-ops build toward liberation.” Members of Design Action Collective, Cooperation New Orleans and Escoba Mágica shared the practices they have integrated: political education during member onboarding, listening to audio books while working and more!
Check our events calendar to sign up for the next meeting of any of these member councils!
