USFWC Member Councils are member-led groups united around collective learning and action to advance social justice within the worker cooperative movement. Each council brings member cooperators together to educate and organize around crucial issues for the worker co-op sector and create resources to build a more just and collaborative future.
Union Co-ops Council
English only
About the Council: We are building bridges between worker cooperatives and organized labor. Participants meet to plan workshops at various labor and co-op conferences around the country, share information about and resources with local projects, and arrange for participants to engage in media exchanges, among other activities. See more at usworker.coop/unions
Meeting times: Zoom call every month on the last Wednesdays at 4-5:15pm ET
How to Join: Members should register here for more information about joining this council or if you’re interested in getting notice of our monthly conference calls or in developing a workshop on unions and co-ops in your local area.
Policy and Advocacy Council
English only
About the Council: A member-wide council advancing worker ownership and worker-centered values through legislative and government relations work at federal, state, and local levels.
Meeting times: Monthly conference calls for all members are hosted on the 1st Thursday of every month at 1 pm ET for 90 minutes.
How to Join: Members should sign up at usworker.coop/calendar for more information about joining this council or if you’re interested in getting notice of our monthly conference calls and opportunities to advocate for worker cooperatives in your local area. Signing up to join the next call indicates interest in the general Policy and Advocacy Council. Members who sign up are added to the USFWC's Policy and Advocacy Council member listserv and will be added to the calendar invitation to the monthly council calls.
Not a member? Join USFWC membership here
Movimiento de Inmigrantes en Cooperativas (MIC)
Spanish only
About the Council: This council is a space used to organize to generate mutual support among cooperatives from the Latine immigrant community. Representatives from immigrant-led coops meet to address the needs of their businesses and their communities.
Meeting Times: The council meets on the third Thursday of the odd numbered months at 6pm ET for 60 minutes
How to Join: Members can email sasha@usworker.coop for more information about this council and to be added.
Racial and Economic Justice Council
English and Spanish bilingual space
About the Council: A member space which serves as a conduit between national worker coop networks and the communities doing grassroots economic and racial justice work rooted in racial, gender, economic, environmental, and disability justice; trans and queer liberation; and anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism.
Meeting Times: The council meets on the first Wednesday of even-numbered months, at 5:30pm ET for 60 minutes.
Meetings are bilingual, with simultaneous interpretation between English and Spanish.
How to Join: Email sasha@usworker.coop to learn more and join.
International Council
About the Council: The International Council will be the USFWC membership’s forum for connecting with the international cooperative movement and advising the USFWC’s international programs. The council’s purpose is to strengthen relationships across geographies and sectors, and foster spaces to learn and share experiences across borders and continents with the goal to expand and strengthen our cooperative movement internationally.
Goals of the council include:
- Representation to international co-op governance bodies (such as CICOPA, ICA Americas, CICOPA Americas, and CICOPA North America),
- Serving as liaisons to worker co-op associations abroad (e.g. Canadian Worker Co-opFederation; COCETA in Spain; La Liga in Puerto Rico, Workers.Coop in the UK, and Japan Workers' Cooperative Union),
- Political education on internationalism (such as the solidarity economy and municipalism movements),
- Peer learning networks (in the form of webinars and curriculum and resource sharing internationally),
- Solidarity tours, delegations, and connections (like partnerships with Human Agenda and other trips and conversations connecting US cooperators to cooperative ecosystems abroad).
Meeting Times: To be determined
How to Join: Email sasha@usworker.coop to learn more and join.