by Kirk Vartan, worker owner at A Slice of New York, USFWC member
On January 29, 2021, the City of Santa Clara officially announced their Worker Cooperative Initiative around employee ownership:
Here is the 45-minute presentation made to the full City Council as a Special Order of Business:
This is a great milestone in the Silicon Valley Worker Cooperative movement as some of the top industry experts (Project Equity-PE, Democracy at Worker Institute-DAWI, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), and the Sustainable Economies Law Center-SELC) are all working together, right at the beginning, to help Santa Clara create a program around worker-ownership:
“Among the challenges the City faces is keeping small businesses and the jobs they provide rooted in the community. In addition to our small business relief program, we now are able to offer a broader range of services through this succession planning and owner initiative,” said City Manager, Deanna J. Santana. “Small businesses are the backbone of our local economy and we need to continue to be creative about how we support small businesses. This is a win-win-win for business owners, workers and our community.”
It is great to see the forward motion continue, and we are all looking forward to the upcoming announcements and programs that will be offered.
Image from a Santa Clara City Council meeting, 2019
