Madison cooperatives offer an alternative to a system of haves and have-nots
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=35857
This might sound like the start of a lusty, utopian love letter for hippie socialist Madisonians, but it's not. Worker cooperatives are a viable, valuable economic tool used worldwide to create jobs and sustainable communities, and despite the existence of several successful worker co-ops here in Madison, they still fly well below the radar. The good news: Although the United States is behind the curve, Madison is actually ahead of it.
It's not that we don't get cooperatives. Many of us have a membership to a consumer cooperative like Willy Street Co-op or REI, and the tapestry of Wisconsin is thickly threaded with agricultural and utility cooperatives. There are housing and marketing cooperatives throughout the state, and according to the UW Center for Cooperatives, Wisconsin boasts about 844 co-ops representing 2.7 million members, contributing $5.6 billion in gross sales to the state economy.
But the worker co-op, as defined and organized by Wisconsin State Statute Chapter 185, remains a bit of an enigma despite its simple premise.
"Sometimes I think that people think worker co-ops are more of a thing than they are," says Madison attorney Scott Herrick, the go-to lawyer in Madison for co-ops. He even helped revise and update Chapter 185 more than two decades ago. "One of the things I tell people is, 'Hey, this is not religion. This is not theology. It's a tool, it's an instrument...and it's underused.'"
