Help Us Build A Worker-Owned Las Vegas

We have spent more than a year building an all-volunteer worker cooperative incubator starting as a student organization on the UNLV campus. Now we have the opportunity to take it to the next level. We have been invited to participate in a historic national conference developing the union co-op model along with United Steel Workers and Mondragon USA [www.cincinnatiunioncoop.org/] and replicating the already successful union co-op model food hub, Our Harvest [ourharvest.coop/] in our local community of Las Vegas NV.

Please help support our effort by donating toward our airfare to this conference.

LVWORCS [www.lvworcs.us] is asking for funds to send some of our members to a historic conference in Cincinnati OH on December 9-10, 2013.

LVWORCS "“ Las Vegas Worker Ownership Resources and Cooperative Services is an all-volunteer worker cooperative incubator in Las Vegas NV. We are dedicated to creating family-sustaining jobs by organizing worker-owned cooperatives and growing the local economy.

Worker cooperatives are small business that are democratically owned and operated by the people that work there, and no one else. Worker owners pay into the local tax pool, spend their pay checks locally, source materials and services for their business in the local community, thereby developing local ownership of the economy.


Our first project is SNAC "“ the Southern Nevada Agricultural Cooperative "“ a worker-owned food hub modeled after the Mondragon / Union Co-op Initiative [www.cincinnatiunioncoop.org/] OUR HARVEST food hub [ourharvest.coop/] in Cincinnati OH.

By building a food hub for marketing locally grown produce we will be cultivating food sovereignty and a sustainable food system in Las Vegas and southern Nevada. By creating family-sustaining jobs we are taking back our local economy from corporate control and generating wealth that circulates in the local community.

Mondragon USA and the Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative is sponsoring an exciting two day event, a union co-op symposium that is bringing the nascent Mondragon USA union co-op community together along with Fernando Fernandez De Landa, Director of the Americas for Mondragon.

People will be coming here from across the country and from Mondragon to strengthen our movement, work through governance issues, learn from each other, and more! It will be December 9 and 10th. December 9th is likely to be a working session focused on bylaws, collective bargaining in light of Mondragon's best practices and the Steelworkers best practices. It will also look at what Mondragon USA can be. December 10th will be more of an inspiring/informative day with workshops on Mondragon's best practices, union co-op management, financing, training, what the power of the union co-op model is, how we can build an economy that works for all.

http://www.lvworcs.us
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LVWORCS
http://www.meetup.com/LVWORCSTwitter: @lvworcs