Center Articles

REPORT (December 2023)

In 2021, California launched Social Entrepreneurs for Economic Development (SEED), an innovative grant program that funded a demonstration project on worker cooperative development, spearheaded by community-based organizations (CBOs) that organize excluded workers (individuals who cannot access stable, gainful employment relationships and whose economic opportunities are severely constrained due to their immigration status or other significant barriers to employment). Through an impressive collaboration between these CBOs (CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, Cooperacion Santa Ana, Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, and United Taxi Workers of San Diego), and experts in cooperative development (Democracy at Work Institute and L.A. Co-op Lab), SEED propelled the development of worker cooperatives in four low-wage industries: carwash, child care, homecare, and taxicab. The model built through SEED has already taken root as a compelling prototype of public investment in worker cooperatives. In this report, we identify and examine SEED’s key components and highlight some emerging indicators, both quantitative and qualitative, of the model’s considerable potential to raise wages, improve working conditions, and promote worker self-determination.