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A North Carolina Textile Co-Op Gives Immigrant Workers a Stake in the Business [View all]
In a state that lost 88 percent of its textile industry jobs in just 10 years, small worker-owned cooperatives are islands of rights and resilience.
At the same time that Vicente was learning the textile business in his home country, Molly Hemstreet was seeing the industry close up shop in her hometown of Morganton, North Carolina. Factory by factory, what had been the largest employer in town was picking up and moving out. Between 1992 and 2012, the number of workers employed in making clothing and other fabric products in North Carolina fell by about 88 percent, from about 95,000 to only 11,400.
In 2008, she founded Opportunity Threads, a worker-owned cut-and-sew plant built on a threefold ethical platform: social, environmental, and economic benefits for the local community.
Opportunity Threads is also a worker-owned cooperative. In addition to receiving paid holidays, vacation, and sick and maternity leave, full members earn a share in the company’s profits. It’s the key that drives the engine, Hemstreet said. Opening the door for workers to become worker-owners allows them to contribute to the business’ growth and strategy.
The UsofA has been bleeding jobs and it appears that the TPP will just make the cuts larger. We must challenge the Oligarch control of our government. At the same time we need to shop for local products and support local businesses. This is part of the Populist Movement. Also, please support YES! Magazine.
See the complete article: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/north-carolina-textile-co-op-immigrant-workers-opportunity-threads-morganton
Cecilia Garza wrote this article for YES! Magazine. Cecilia is a regular contributor to YES! Follow her on Twitter at @ceciliagarza2.
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