Happy Workers = Happy Customers, Stupid!!

We industrious little elves at Weaver Street Market Co-operative learned a fascinating new tidbit this week from our lord and master 1% managers in the corporate office – Zingermans provides excellent customer service because its workers are happy. We know this because we got to watch Zingermans' training video.

So. I sat there thinking: and your point is what? I mean, for the very first time, ooh, probably since I achieved puberty, I found myself agreeing with the higher-ups at WSM, who spend their time behind a combination lock in the corporate office, in Hillsborough, NC.

I raised this with our lovely Training Manager, who, bless her, has still retained her soul. So, if you guys get that we need to be happy to give good customer service, what are you doing to make us less unhappy? Frankly, I said to her, why don’t you take the video back to the corporate office managers, tell them to substitute ‘worker service’ for ‘customer service,’ and it might give them a clue as to what they could start doing right.

You folks out there, you who are customers or consumer-owners with WSM, take a good look around when you next shop, and you’re feeling all happy-clappy because you just bought organic, hemp underpants on Aisle 13, in your ‘real,’ local co-op. Take a good look at your workers. Do they strike you as overjoyed?

If you want to see happy, try Trader Joe's. I asked some of their workers why they were so annoyingly jocular the whole, bloody time. Two pay raises a year. A living wage. Light workload. Light management touch. Good holidays. Great bonuses … at this point, I couldn’t hear them any more for choking back the tears.

Try WSM. One pay raise a year. And a measly one at that. No bonus worth sneezing on. No incentives. A workload that we can barely handle. And one that gets larger every year – without discussion or explanation worth squat. It’s called exploitation, people. And our Mission Statement – your MS – specifically forbids it. The same MS that demands that the work experience be as fulfilling as the customer experience.

Why is this the case, and why do I go on working here? Second part is easy. Because I care. Because I don’t like seeing my friends get hurt. Because I still think we can make WSM a stronger business and a better co-op. And because I practice Occupy; I don’t just preach it. I believe I’m still capable of helping to build part of the paradigm alternative to corporatist, consumerist capitalism.

But why does the corporate office management team get away with exploitation? Well, I guess the first point to make is why does it want to?

The answer to that is because the same corporate office management team ran up $10 million in debt in 2007/2008, financing the new store in Hillsborough and a new Food House (which any sane person now realizes was a disaster), without telling anyone. And then agreed to pay it all back within about 6 years. Which results in we workers having to work hard enough to raise about $2 million a year in interest and principal repayments, on top of the normal turnover of about $28 million.

The more important question is, how come corporate office managers get away with dumping all of this on we the workers? Answer: because we let them. You customers and consumer-owners let them, because you don’t pay attention; you don’t attend meetings; and you don’t ask questions.

We workers let them get away with it, because we don’t speak up. We just had Department Meetings throughout the co-op – those would be the ones where we got to see the infamous happy-dappy Zingermans' video. Did anyone else speak up and say, well then, make us bloody happy! You can tell us what to do; but you can’t demand we be happy. It’s up to you to create conditions that allow us to be happy. Anyone? Speak up? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller … ??

I have – once again – undertaken a Dispute Process under the WSM Employee Policy, raising my concern that workers are not as happy as they could be, because there is too much work, not enough staff, not enough reward or incentive, all because there is too much debt, and we stakeholders (we workers, owners and customers) are not allowed to discuss alternative business plans.

I will eventually get to the Board of Directors, through the Appeals process, where I will ask the Directors, first, to demand that the corporate office management team hold a Full Co-op Employees’ Meeting, where we workers can, in the safety of numbers, raise our concerns, compare notes and get answers.

Next, I will ask the Directors to establish an Owners’ Task Force, to examine the finances of WSM, to devise possible alternative business pathways to repaying our huge debt, alternatives that do not exploit workers. And then, to investigate worker conditions, to determine if they are compatible with the MS requirement that the work experience be fulfilling.

I will do this. But, to be honest, guys, the corporate office managers will pay no attention if they think this is all just me. If you customers care about your workers, start paying attention. Ask questions. Go to meetings. Demand that this Task Force be set up, by writing to: board@weaverstreetmarket.coop. Serve on it once it has been created.

And to my fellow workers. Speak up. Find the courage. It’s no good complaining to me. Telling me. Writing me. As you do. Your managers and the corporate office management team need to hear it from you.

Some of us spend some time at the moment decrying what is happening on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. Screw that! Start noticing what is happening in our own backyard. In our own local co-op.

1% is not just a financial status. It is a state of mind. It is a state of mind to be found among the corporate office management team of WSM, where they say that it is ok for them to dictate what happens in our co-op, because they run it.

Well, they don’t. It’s OUR co-op. And co-operative values state that a co-op should be democratically controlled by its stakeholders; not by a few, self-appointed managers in the corporate office.

But these are meaningless words unless we find the time and the guts to speak up, speak out and demand change. It’s up to you, folks. We can have what we want. But we have to be the ones to demand it. It’s no good waiting for someone else to do it for us.

SWAT, Interlopers, and a Lingering Sense of Bias: Lack of Political Leadership, or Incompetent Governance?

In the sleepy dual township of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, NC, we like to think that our thoughtful brand of progressive leadership provides an homogenous and caring exemplar of efficient local government. Events of the past few months have left me wondering if the reverse is true.

We are not homogenous. Not in our demographic or political make-up. Nor even in our alleged single brand of caring progressivism.

In Carrboro, all we imports (I am from England, by way of Rhode Island, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina) have become so taken with our over-enthusiastic efforts to engineer a social and artistic nirvana, that we quite forget to ask if we have the permission of the many thousands whose families have been living here for generations.

We build what we delightfully call a vibrant commercial center, without noticing that most of those who shop in its centerpiece (Weaver Street Market Co-operative – where I work and advocate) are white and well heeled. As one pithy YouTube observation noted, most of the ethnics are to be found in the kitchens or behind the counters.

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen, good men and women true, believe they are reducing the tax burden for local residents when they attempt to increase the commercial tax base by encouraging higher-rise downtown developments. But they don’t stop to consider what this might do to land and rent values for the surrounding, long-standing shop tenants and residential renters.

We talk of affordable housing. But we mean policies that will allow even more imports to knock $100,000 of their brand-new $300,000 McMansions. We’re not referring to finding ways to allow those imports from further shores to pay a rent that permits them three bedrooms, not just one, for their large families.

We blather about democracy. But we happily appoint our fellows to serve alongside us, rather than engaging in open, even elective processes. We bleed tears (finally) for those immigrants whom we wronged by introducing an unconstitutional Anti-Lingering Ordinance (I opposed it, back in 2006). But we forget to notice the abuse being suffered by our sisters and girlfriends, when they are harassed by some doing the lingering.

Our very own southern slice of heaven, Chapel Hill, prides itself on having moved far away from ugly scenes of segregation. Yet, we don’t seem to realize that the sight of armed Policemen, assaulting a group of residents on Franklin Street, on a Sunday afternoon, rekindles those same ugly memories for some.

What’s more is we don’t appear to want to find out precisely what was going on in the minds of folks, most of whom are neighbors in this town, that would inspire them to initiate such an aggressive confrontation among themselves. Why don’t we want to know? What’s clear is we don’t. At least, not those of us who oppose an independent review of the events surrounding the Yates Garage incident.

But heck, I’m an outsider (only been living in Carrboro for 6 years). What do I know? Well. I know what I see.

I know that I go into bars up and down the main drag in Chapel Hill, a block over from an historic African-American neighborhood, and I wonder why I am not partying alongside black drinkers and black dancers. I ask a friend who has lived here for 30 years, and she tells me, with a knowing wink, that things haven’t changed much – they just got quieter.

Well, until November 13^th that is.

I know that I read a detailed account of the firing of two African-Americans from the employ of the Chapel Hill Town Council, in a newspaper that prides itself on its title The Independent, and what I read tells me that this bastion of progressive municipal leadership likely condoned class bias, racial discrimination and retaliation for dissent, while demonstrating, for all to see, the very essence of political indifference.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro like to play a pretend game. They both like to pretend that they do not contain distinct and different communities. Black, white. Rich, poor. University, secular. Moreover, they both like to pretend that there are not distinct and different brands of progressivism – if you don’t agree with the progressive line of the established progressive community, then it simply pretends that you are not progressive at all.

But, how can the powers-that-be in the two communities possibly admit to such distinctions? To do so would undermine the carefully-cultivated notion of a single strand of progressive ‘rightness;’ that same righteousness that validated censorship on the local flagship forum of progressivism, before an editorial panel was created in the past few years.

‘Othering’ may be less pronounced within that forum now (although, please note, this contribution is unlikely to find its way to the front page of that forum). But it still exists in other political arenas, in both Carrboro and Chapel Hill. And it is just as much a form of unprogressive political segregation as any other experienced in these two townships.

So it is that any political candidate who is not a part of the progressive mainstream (or should that be one-stream?) in both Carrboro and Chapel Hill is ‘othered’ on a regular basis by those offering political punditry and endorsements come election time – and on other occasions, too.

A sitting incumbent, who was offering himself for re-election in the recent Chapel Hill Town Council Elections, was listed as an afterthought in endorsements recommended by the aforesaid Independent newspaper, notwithstanding the fact that this same incumbent came close to winning the Mayoralty barely two years ago. He won re-election by the way, ‘independent’ endorsements for others notwithstanding.

My own brother-in-law, a resident of these parts for 20 years, and an acknowledged and active supporter of all causes progressive, was demonized as anti-progressive, when serving as co-host on a community radio chat show we fronted on WCOM a couple of years ago, simply because we had the temerity to ask local established progressive politicians to answer questions we put to them – questions they didn’t like.

We are not homogenous in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. We are different. We are diverse. If we want to put an end to the political fracking now threatening to wreck our two communities, it is incumbent on those who claim to be our progressive leaders to stop merely taking about diversity, and to start demonstrating real diversity in their thinking, and in the way in which they include diverse peoples’ diverse thoughts and concerns in their decision-making.

The latter cannot be achieved, however, unless and until there is demonstrated competence in local governance and up-front leadership among our politicians. Both, in my opinion, are lacking.

When we all get happy-clappy about progressive issues, and dance around the Weaver Street lawn, praising ourselves for patronizing a co-op, rather than Wal-de-Mart, but forgetting to look at the frowns on the faces of our exploited co-op workers, it is just as easy to forget that the first duty of government is to manage itself competently.

More often than not, that comes down to the question: who is in charge – the staff or elected representatives?

I fear that close examination of the Yates Garage incident, the history of Carrboro’s Anti-Lingering Ordinance (here yesterday, gone today, who knows where tomorrow?) and the sacking of the Chapel Hill Sanitation Two may well reveal that years and years of self-congratulatory Kumbiyah have left our twin municipalities firmly in the grip of our municipal employees.

Whose advice were the Carrboro Board of Aldermen listening to when they began their ill-fated journey into the land of constitutional hell, and passed the original Anti-Lingering Ordinance back in 2006? And why did they allow that advice to overcome what they have now demonstrated as being their better political instincts?

Why do progressives on the Chapel Hill Town Council kow-tow to their own staff when they know that injustice has been done in respect of the Chapel Hill Sanitation Two?

And who gave what orders to whom with respect to Yates Garage? What was the established line of command? Was there one? What are the Rules of Engagement? And are the answers to these questions the reason why the local established progressive community are so opposed to the Independent Review Commission proposed by Jim Neal, who has eschewed political back-slapping, in favor of taking a stand for what he believes to be right. As did Town Councilors Sally Greene, Laurin Easthom and Jim Ward, when they supported Jim’s proposal.

All of those who work in whatever capacity in our local government do so, for the most part, because they have a genuine desire to serve and protect their friends and neighbors in the communities in which they live.

I do not criticize them for attempting to provide competence, when they are faced with a dearth of such competence by their elected masters. But the rule is as old as representative government itself. Leaders do not look to their staff to provide them with excuses not to lead. Elected leaders do the leading. Make the decisions. Set the strategy. Take responsibility for the failures. Staff are there, as conscientiously as possible, to offer only advice, and then to carry out the clear and stated wishes of those we elect to lead.

I can form opinions only on what I see. There may always be more to the story than I see, than I read or I am told. With that caveat, and subject to anyone responding differently, I’ll stick my neck out, and say the following:

I see such governing competence from the Mayor of Carrboro. He includes. He considers. He decides. And while allowing room for his fellow Aldermen properly to make up their minds, he doesn’t allow too much dithering. What’s more is, he owns up when he’s been a clown. That’s competence, pure and simple. Whether or not I always agree with the outcome. I see it from a few others. But not enough.

Diversity definitely plays a part in the way I vote. And I’m not talking ethnicity here. First and foremost, I look for people I think will be competent. But sometimes, I’ll just toss that criterion right out the window, and vote for someone simply because they say things that make us think – and I won’t care whether or not they can competently organize their way out of a wet paper bag.

Competence in governance is important. But so too is political courage. And I recognize that the two don’t always reside in the same skin.

We have had ample opportunity to hear our local political leaders say the right thing in the past few months. But, few have stepped up to the plate. They have hidden behind political opportunity or municipal face-saving.

I do not take the same view as Alderman Sammy Slade on the Yates Garage incident. But I didn’t vote for Sammy Slade so that he would agree with me. I voted for him because he doesn’t sit well with crap. He is a walking, talking municipal conscience. He says things that me sit up and take notice. And he didn’t disappoint me on Yates Garage. Even though I think he’s full of it, on this one. That’s political leadership.

I attended the Carrboro Board of Aldermen meeting when the Anti-Lingering Ordinance was repealed. I like Joal Broun. Always have. I liked her when she criticized Chapel Hill for allowing the Bank of America Monument … I’m sorry, I misspoke … the now empty and foreclosed Greenbridge Tower Development, because it was going to overshadow the neighboring historic African-American community.

[By the by, isn’t it funny how Joe Riddle gets around, and the Chapel Hill Town Council lets him? But, I digress.]

I liked Joal just as much last Tuesday, when she remonstrated with those progressives (including me) and immigrants who wanted repeal of the Anti-Lingering Ordinance. Not because she didn’t want repeal (she did), but because she wanted to make sure we understood that, once repeal was approved, we would all be responsible for ensuring better behavior from the harassers in the future.

I have not always agreed with Jacquie Gist. But she was pithy in her denunciation of those who do not respect their fellow residents who are women. She flew in the face of the prevailing sentiment that evening. As political leaders do. As also did newly-elected Alderman, Michelle Johnson. And Randee Haven O’Donnell. I just wish we saw it more often.

There are few who are able to demonstrate both competence and political leadership in government. I don’t expect miracles. But I would like to see a healthy and ongoing dose of both from at least some quarter within the pool of those we elect to govern us. There’s enough of ‘em, and we need both competence and political leadership right now, in both Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

What would such leadership look like? I don’t know. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Besides, I’ve not yet been elected to a position where I’m supposed to be the one having the answers. What I do know is that I see what I see, and I say what I see.

What I do know is that it would not look like Aldermen waiting to hear from staff before finding the guts to decide what is right; it would not look like Councilors hiding behind staff when things go wrong; and it would not look like the established progressive community running scared from transparency, because it might have to admit that someone else has a better answer.

And maybe that’s a good place to start. Not assuming that we are the only ones with the answer. Not assuming that only we know best. Asking, before deciding. Especially asking those who are protesting what we are doing. Especially if what we are doing is implementing yet more social engineering. Maybe slowing down on the social engineering. Smart growth, walkability, infilling, whatever. Maybe representing people a little more, and the latest social fad a little less. Maybe … ??

[I have, by the by, also posted this note on OrangePolitics, in the event you are interested in seeing if there is any ongoing discussion. The photo shows students protesting segregation at a sit-in at Brady's Restaurant in Chapel Hill, 1964.]

Hot Bar-Tender @SV ...

In the Southern Village store of Weaver Street Market Co-operative, we have been told by management to smile more.

I kid you not. Apparently, we have been scoring low on our all-important Mystery Shopper Reports (yes, I know; we actually have THOSE in our co-op!). So. We have to smile more, to make management smile more.

Well. If it’s customer-friendly they want …

… good-bye Hot Bar. Hello ‘Hottie Bar,’ and the newly-restyled Hottie Bar-Tender!!

The lights will be dimmed. Stools out front. A sports TV to one side. And the ubiquitous Disco Ball gently rotating in the background, to the insistent, sexy tones of 24 x 7 Barry White.

I have undergone an extreme make-over. Uniform will now be gelled hair, waistcoat and an ever-changing selection of brightly-colored, lycra muscle thongs.

The Weaver Street Market logo will be delicately applied each day, in dazzling pink lip glitter, to the freshly-exposed rear regions – and, if you’ve never seen two Weaver Street logo’s flesh-wrassle, prepare to be entertained (every day, but Sunday; noon, tea-time and a special full-frontal show, when I close the Hottie Bar at 9.00pm).

I am no longer Chef Geoff. Please refer to me in future as ‘The G-Prince.’ I will be cooking and serving my food in a soft, suggestive Andalusian purr, that will make Antonio Banderas sound like … well … a pussy-cat:

“Can I tempt you with my … MEATloaf ... garneeeshed with my fully-RIPEned, ROOTING vegetables, uh huh … ??”

Oh yeah! We’ll put up that Mystery Score …

♫”Girl, I don't know, I don't know why; can't get enough of your love babe"♫

Backdoor Hiring Freeze ... ??

Further to my comments last week about Weaver Street Market Co-operative increasing sales, but hinting at wanting to put the squeeze on employees, two other anecdotal observations:

1) The most recent Market Messenger reported NO new employees. First time I can remember that since the formal hiring freeze was lifted in early 2010.

2) The word in my department is that the department manager thinks we are ‘heavy’ on hours. Even though our hours have been pretty much unchanged this past year. And certainly they have not increased by the same 10% our Southern Village store sales have.

Now, if you want to know what I think we can do about this, skip to the numbers at the end. Otherwise, stick with me, while I set out what I think is happening, and why it is important that it not be happening.

I have tried mightily to get the WSM corporate office management to discuss with us workers why it is that they have placed so much emphasis on sales growth these past two years. I put the point bluntly to them two years ago.

I wasn’t even allowed the opportunity at this year’s Unit Meeting, when we were told disingenuously that all financial goals were now ‘standard’ – for which read, not open to discussion.

The lack of discussion was a direct breach of our co-op’s policy. Board Policy specifically demands that employees be involved in the making of all major decisions that affect their workplace [Board Policy 2-3 (4)]. It also demands that workers not have imposed on them conditions or decisions that are unsafe, unduly undignified or unnecessarily intrusive – certainly not without discussion.

I do not think it is a stretch to call these continuing, unexplained demands for increased sales an intrusion. Especially when they do not seem to be accompanied by a commensurate increase in staff hours to be able to service the extra work.

A year ago, I began a dispute process (as allowed under Employee Policy 5.1 – you can find that in the Employee Policy Handbook, which is probably serving as the base to your kitty litter). I said that, since the decision that year to increase sales by 15% in 2011 had not involved shopfloor workers, it was in breach of Board Policy 2-3 (4).

I got a one hour meeting with our General Manager. He promised that increasing sales in 2011 would be matched with an increase in staff hours. Hasn’t happened. That is in breach of co-operative values of openness and honesty.

One of the primary features of the feedback from workers in the WSM Employee Survey this past year was that we workers felt we were overworked, understaffed and underpaid. We were promised our grievances would be addressed in action plans.

Frankly, the ‘real’ action plan seems now to be to find new ways to compel us to greater sales, while slipping and sliding our way to a ‘de facto’ hiring and staff hours freeze, without actually telling us why (breach of co-operative values of democracy, openness, transparency and honesty; breach of the corporate office’s own declaration in their Six Point Goal Plan to increase communication).

Of course, the reason the WSM corporate office management won’t actually come out and tell us what’s what is that it would leave them open then to my repeated charge that they continually make major decisions affecting our workplace without including us in the decision-making process.

What can we do?

A) Demand department meetings (of which we were promised more, under WSM's own Six Point Goal Plan), where we can ask our managers why the need for all these increased sales, and if staff hours will match increased sales, as promised.

B) Begin disputes under the Employee Dispute Process (Handbook 5.1). Make the dispute with ‘management’ generally. Say that management is in breach of Board Policy 2-3 (4) for not including workers in decisions about sales goals and staffing levels.

C) Become worker-owners. Stand for the Board of Directors. Vote for a worker-owner Board candidate who actually speaks up for workers at Board meetings. And make sure that, in future, the WSM Board of Directors and its corporate office are always in compliance with the Mission Statement, which requires that workers have a fulfilling work experience.

D) Maybe consider my Six Point Goal Plan.

I know it is difficult to stand up and speak out. But I look across America, and see Occupy every day. I look across the world, and see the Arab Spring. Folks are prepared to risk civil disobedience, in order to make points they know to be valid.

In our co-op, there should not even be the risk. There is no ‘civil disobedience in speaking up. Board Policy 2-3 (3) specifically protects employees against any action brought if employees have been expressing ethical dissent.

Remember this. Power is not given to the people. It is won by them.

#OccupyWeaverStreet?? -- Social Justice AND Sales Growth ...

What does it mean when the employee 'Market Messenger' for Weaver Street Market Co-operative announces that we are making more of a profit so far this year than last; but urges workers to increase sales in any event; while a financial report of confusing figures, posted quietly on the break-room noticeboard, grimly declares that our payroll costs are ahead of our sales growth?

Hmm. Before I answer that, let me quote the Editor of The Co-operative Grocer, from his Editorial Notes in the October issue of CG:

"Investor-driven corporations are eroding the world’s human communities and the natural environment that makes those communities possible. Giving primacy to return on investment is key to why privately held corporations are doing so much damage. Cooperatives’ foundation in democratic ownership, with shared responsibilities and benefits, is why they offer a better direction and a more trustworthy structure. Cooperatives offer a well-defined alternate means of addressing social injustice and organizing enterprise that meets basic needs."

Ooh. Sounds good. Like spreading a thick layer of Occupy all over your morning muffin, isn't it? Dave continues - and this is where it gets relevant to WSM:

"However, cooperative and capitalist firms alike, along with public and governing institutions, are challenged to shift their outlook to a recognition of limits: limits to debt, to resource consumption, and even to THE GOD OF ECONOMIC GROWTH. If conservation and governance are not grounded in a more stable and democratic economy, many shared improvements will be lost. Private capital’s social war will spread until its productive forces are themselves destroyed by the collapse of debt-based growth and by climate chaos."

If Occupy is about anything, it is about getting off the consumerist/capitalist/economic-growth-is-all bandwagon. And yet here is our very own local co-op whipping us into a frenzy to sell, sell, sell, at whatever cost, using all the marketing gimmickry in the consumerist handbook. Why?

Why did we need to achieve a 9% sales growth in 2010, and what happened to it? Why do we need to achieve yet more sales growth this year, and what is happening to it?

And what payroll growth? I'm not aware of massive new hiring. Certainly not of my department taking on 10% more staff, or of my receiving a 10% pay increase (my Southern Village store is currently recording a 10% sales increase for 2011).

And what is the starting point for saying that payroll is growing too quickly? The common view around the co-op (at least among shopfloor workers) is that The Great Recession left payroll too light in any event.

Co-op's exist solely for the purpose of providing for the common needs of their stakeholders - and that includes employees, consumers and owners, not just the management in the WSM corporate office.

I do not hear consumers demanding to buy 10% more. And I do not hear workers demanding to work 10% harder. Indeed, the talk in my department (kitchen) in SV is that we are overworked already.

So, what does this all mean? It means that workers are going to be asked to work even harder for the remainder of this year, without seeing a commensurate growth in payroll. That means working harder for less, as we go along. All over again.

And. What is worse. Workers are not being given any opportunity to discuss these figures, or debate what effect they should have on our working environment, notwithstanding the fact that one of the primary clauses of WSM's Mission Statement is that workers should experience a fulfilling work environment.

I write elsewhere that, in future, companies should be responsive not only to investors, but also to employees and the community. In our co-op, as Dave says, that should already be a reality.

It is not in Weaver Street Market Co-operative. It should be. Some consumers told me that they had been joking recently about #OccupyWeaverStreet. Why joke ... ??

Worker-Ownership Just Became More Affordable !!

After some five years of campaigning, the Board of Weaver Street Market Co-operative finally decided to make it easier for ordinary workers in the co-op to become Worker-Owners.

The details, my friends, are on the third page of this week's Market Messenger. This is a victory for every ordinary worker in The Weave. We can now all of us afford to have a voice in our affairs, and to share in the rewards of our labor.

As the same MM attests, every single day, we workers are being asked to work harder and harder, to achieve a never-ending increase in sales, an increase which many of us do not understand, and few of us are able to question, or even discuss.

You now have an opportunity to be a part of the decision-making process at the highest level. And then to share in the benefits flowing from all those extra sales.

The only way to have a real voice in the co-op is by electing Worker Owner Directors to our Board who truly represent ordinary workers (our very own 99%).

At the moment, our two Worker Owner Directors are a Manager and a Corporate Office staff member (our very own 1%). The only way to have a vote in those elections is by being a Worker-Owner.

The only way to share in the rewards of all of our extra labor is to get a dividend. And you can only do that by being a Worker-Owner.

The very moment you start paying to be a Worker-Owner, you get the right to vote, and you start earning towards your end-of-year dividend. You do not have to wait until you are paid in full.

And. When you leave The Weave, you get back all of what you paid - with interest. You can not lose.

So, what are you waiting for? Become a Worker-Owner today. #OccupyWorkerOwnership!! Contact Brenda Camp Orbell, at Brenda.c@weaverstreetmarket.coop.

Give yourself a voice in decision-making. And get what you have earned from all of your hard work. Good luck to us all ... !!

Co-op's, Not Corp's, Work In A Recession ...

And so, the Great Recession, Act II marches ever closer (ok, not according to the corporate office management here at Weaver Street Market Co-operative).

I truly hope that these new pressing times will be met in our co-op with mutual resolve, mutual respect and a mutual sharing of the burden, and ultimately, a mutual sharing of the rewards of perseverance.

Yet, I fear we will experience only what happened in the Great Recession, Act I – silence, closeting, imposition, demand; decisions taken at the center (not consensually), ever-insistent poking in the back, and rewards eventually shared unequally, only among the few.

How sad. The beauty of the co-operative business model, based as it is on democratic and consensual decision-making, is that it realizes that the grim, tight fist of central control does not work, especially in hard economic times.

What works is happy and engaging democracy, among consumers, owners and workers. As this highlighted article, written back when times were tough before, amply attests …

Worker Democracy InAction ...

Sorry to say this, but it appears that the Board of WSM at its Meeting last Wednesday may have ducked the issue of making worker-ownership in Weaver Street Market Co-operative more affordable.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been campaigning these past five years to give workers a bigger voice in the co-op our General Manager proudly boasts is half-owned by its workers.

36% of us stated clearly in the recent Employee Survey that the reason more of us did not become worker-owners was the cost. I have been proposing for some time now that the cost be reduced from $500 to $200.

In recent weeks, it seemed that that Board had, finally, got the message. But, apparently not. What happens next, I do not know. I’m still trying to find out. In the meantime, I will continue to press.

Every worker in our co-op works their hardest. Every worker has sacrificed these past couple of years. Every worker contributes to our co-op’s performance. And every worker should be given the chance to vote, to have a voice and to share in the rewards of his or her labor, with a dividend.

It should not be dependent on whether or not we have enough money to buy into worker-ownership …

Improving WSM Employees' 'Market Messenger' ...

Workers in WSM are today invited to submit ideas for improving what used to be the employee Market Messenger, but what has become simply a mouthpiece for the WSM corporate office.

Manfully, I restrained myself from all of the immediately obvious, yet inappropriate, suggestions (topless pics (blokes and blokesses); my blog; sports section; print it on toilet paper, so that it can be dual-use (oh, it is already ... ).

And instead, I came up with the grown-up version of a letter to our Human Resources Manager. Not as much fun. But more likely to be read:

"Hey Deborah,

Thank you for your note in today's Market Messenger inviting ideas for improving it.

Even I can remember a time a few years ago when it was several pages long, and was more of a communication vehicle for employees, and less of the platform for administrative office missives than it is today.

I appreciate that the tough times of the past few years may have accounted for the truncated content. But we've moved on from that point. And the Employee Survey was quite clear that employees wanted more communication.

I set out in a previous letter how I felt that, taking into account all of the commentary in the Survey results, it was not difficult to form the view that, when employees talked of more communication, they wanted that communication to be more than just communication to them from the center - http://tinyurl.com/3g7da4o.

I understand the desire of the center to use the Market Messenger to improve the financial performance of employees. But you will know that our Triple Bottom Line (financial, social and environmental), our Mission Statement and Board Policy regard financial performance as only one part of the interaction between workers and their co-op.

Employees are required to have a work experience that is fulfilling and are supposed to be consulted on decision-making that affects their workplace.

Improving the Market Messenger offers a wonderful opportunity to assist in achieving those ends by helping to create more of a sense of belonging and team between the Units, and more of a sense of identity and involvement for each worker within WSM.

I think one of the the best ways of enabling such ends would be to have more involvement of ordinary workers in the production of the Market Messenger.

There could be an Editorial Committee of Unit workers, one per Unit, with each Unit deciding for itself how to choose that representative (but the representative not simply to be chosen by the Unit Manager).

I would be happiest to see that Committee, perhaps headed by someone from the Marketing Department, in charge of publishing the entire Market Messenger, with the administrative office given access to it - but not sole access.

That might be a step too far for some. So, why not let the Committee have one page to do with as they wish? There could be announcements for individual worker concerts, art exhibitions. Letters. Even competitions between the Units. Dodgeball has been mentioned more than once.

My next point is that, at the Southern Village Unit Meeting in 2010, there was an exchange about improving the financial literacy of employees in 2011.

In the context of the Triple Bottom line, our Mission Statement and Board Policy, I wondered in response if one of the reasons folks felt that not as much heed was paid to our being a co-op as it was to our being a grocery store might be that we placed too much emphasis on financial literacy, and not enough on co-op literacy.

Ruffin nodded his head vigorously.

The Market Messenger this past year has been full of information aiding financial literacy, but not one mention of co-op literacy. Maybe, an improvement of the Market Messenger would see more space devoted to our Triple Bottom Line, the Mission Statement and in what fashion we try to behave as a co-op?

In this latter regard, what about a regular report from our Worker-Owner Directors? Not some standard piece about what the Board is doing. But notes about what our Worker-Owner Directors are doing. Maybe more information more regularly about Worker-Ownership, as well?

Finally, what about putting the Market Messenger online? With opportunity for feedback?

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to comment.

All the best,
Geoff"

Worker-Ownership: Reducing The Cost; NOT Spreading The Cost ...

There is suggestion from the Board of WSM that workers will be encouraged to pay the $500 cost of Worker-Ownership if they are allowed to pay it over two years. My feedback is that workers will only be encouraged if the cost is actually reduced.

The Board will be meeting to discuss this issue next Wednesday (September 14). Time for one last letter, to let the Board know what workers are truly feeling:

"Dear Board,

Since publishing my last letter to you about the cost of Worker-Ownership on my various blogs, I have had some feedback from fellow workers which may interest you.

At the same time, I know that the sole candidate this year for the position of Worker-Owner Director has made the rounds of some Units, discussing his views on the same subject.

It is possibly the case that, in the absence of more formal consultation with workers in our co-op, this combined feedback may represent the only contact you have with the views of the workforce on this issue.

While on that subject, I would mention in passing that I am somewhat surprised that there has not been more formal consultation – even a vote – with the workforce, on an issue that is of primary concern to them.

Indeed, I wonder if this is not in non-compliance with Board Policy which requires that the workforce be consulted meaningfully on matters which affect them (2-3 (4)).

There is, of course, still time for such consultation. And when you meet soon to consider this issue, it may well be that you decide the best course of action is to initiate a consultation exercise, setting out the various options which I know you have been discussing, getting more formal and comprehensive feedback, and then holding a vote of all workers.

In the meantime, you have the feedback from me and from the sole candidate for Worker-Owner Director.

Our feedback is necessarily subjective and anecdotal. But this does not dismiss it. Merely sets it in context.

You will know, well, some of you may know (!), that I have been campaigning on the issue of increased democracy within our co-op, which we proudly declare to the public is half-owned by its workers, for some five years now.

I have gone out of my way not only to impart my views, but also to listen carefully to the views of as many workers as I can reach.

That reach has included setting up my own blog, and creating a network of almost 30-40% of the workforce through the platform of my Facebook account.

I have stood for the Board four times, attended every election table, and have, throughout the years, been assiduous in visiting Units and talking with all workers in between elections.

No-one is capable of being an uncompromisingly objective voice for other people. But, as a former lawyer, I think I am reasonably capable of imparting the difference between my opinions and those passed onto me by workers who feel nervous about giving voice to their own concerns.

The views I express about the cost of Worker-Ownership are not merely those given to me in the past few weeks, but are views that have been expressed to me over the past five years.

Indeed, as long ago as 2008 (specifically in the WSM Elections Task Force) I submitted the opinion, based on what I had been told, that a lot of workers were unhappy about becoming Worker-Owners precisely because of their perception that it was too expensive. This viewpoint found quantitative expression in the 2011 Employee Survey.

I did not mention this in my last letter, but I believe that Board Policy requires that everything be done to encourage new Ownership of the co-op. Frankly, I can't find the reference. It may have been 4-9. But that appears to be under new consideration.

In any event, if the Board are aware that there is an impediment to workers becoming Worker-Owners, and they know how to address it, and they do not, then the Board may well be in non-compliance with Board Policy as it currently stands.

In recent discussions with workers, I have raised two options: simply reducing the cost of Worker-Ownership to $200; and spreading the cost of $500 over two years. Indeed, to be fair, I have been raising variations of these two options with workers since 2007.

The result has always been the same. The majority viewpoint expressed to me is that simple reduction would encourage workers to become Worker-Owners. Spreading the cost of $500 over two years would not.

The concern with the latter proposal is that it would confuse workers, who feel that too many would be discouraged from making a commitment to anything for two years.

Again, with reference to Board Policy, I wonder if the Board might not be in non-compliance with Board Policy if it opted for a measure that it has been told might well discourage Worker-Ownership.

Which, of course, might bring us back to the notion that the only way to know what workers think quantitatively is to consult them and to allow them to vote. Don’t take my word for it. Ask workers. As eventually you did with the Employee Survey.

A real concern flows from simple reduction of the cost of Worker-Ownership. There are existing Worker-Owners who have expressed to me their sense that it would be unfair for new Worker-Owners, who are paying less for Worker-Ownership, to receive the same dividend.

To be honest, I think this concern is answered by the nature of the beast.

The first point to make is that you can not have different classes of the same type of Ownership. This would be in non-compliance with co-operative principles and policy of equality.

That is the whole point behind having a single Ownership fee. So that no one individual may build up a larger stake in the co-op than any other stakeholder, and so that every stakeholder benefits at the same rate of return.

Frankly, as I say, I do not see this as an insurmountable issue. If you paid $500, you will get $500 re-imbursed to you when you cash out, plus interest. If you paid $200, then you get $200 back, plus interest. Doesn’t that deal equitably with the difference in initial cost?

Another option might be to re-imburse $300 (plus interest) to each $500 Worker-Owner with the next payment of dividend. Another might be to go through a slightly more tortuous process of immediately re-imbursing all existing Worker-Owners their $500 (with interest to that point), while subtracting the ‘new’ Worker-Owner fee of $200, putting all Worker-Owners on the same footing.

The point here is that there is a difference between some complexity and a little inequity in implementation of a fairer and more policy-compliant system, and an intrinsic inequity in the final result.

The final result cannot have an inequity of return. But you don’t not implement a fairer and more co-operative policy just because the implementation is a little bit difficult.

After all, the Board decided it would be more equitable between Worker-Owners and Consumer-Owners to have a system of return where all Owners received a dividend. Implementation of discounts-to-dividends was not easy. But the co-op found a way and the will to overcome the problems.

There is no good reason why the Board and the co-op should not find the same will to introduce a system of Worker-Ownership for all workers, that is demonstrably fairer, more affordable and more inclusive, and is more compliant with Board Policy.

Whatever the outcome of all this consideration, the principles and policy remain the same: you can not have two classes of return on investment; and the Board is bound by duty and by common sense to encourage Ownership, and to choose an option which it has been told will more likely encourage more Ownership, over an option it has been told will not.

Or, at the very least, it is bound by Board Policy to test competing options with the workforce it will affect with its decision.

I hope this has been helpful. I look forward to an equitable and democratic outcome. I am unable to attend the meeting on the 21st as I will be working, and have already taking time off for personal matters.

All the best,
Geoff"

Democracy Inaction ...

I have just discovered that, for the first time since I have been with Weaver Street Market Co-operative (six years now), there will be no contest in the Annual Election for Consumer-Owner and Worker-Owner Board Directors.

Three years ago, I sat on a WSM Elections Task Force, and we grappled with all sorts of ways of increasing Owner democracy in our co-op. I do not think uncontested Elections this... year are a sign of the success of our deliberations.

In my opinion they reflect the fact that Owners have simply given up on a co-op that has given up on them.

Demonstration of this unhappy truth is the fact that the bulk of the suggestions put forward by our Task Force to encourage participation and democracy in our co-op were simply tossed aside by the self-appointed few in the WSM corporate office who have undemocratically abrogated power to themselves.

More importantly, the lack of contest this year for Worker-Owner Board Director leaves workers in our co-op represented by a Manager and a member of the Finance Department of the WSM corporate office. Hardly what you'd call shop-floor representation.

This could have serious impact in a couple of weeks, when the Board will be considering a reduction in the cost of Worker-Ownership, a step I regard as vital if we are to allow all workers to share in the rewards of their labor, and to vote for real worker representation on their Board of Directors.

I think it extremely unlikely that our two existing Worker-Owner Directors, both of whom were specifically recruited to run against me, so that they could be voted in by the existing inbuilt management bloc vote, in order to prevent the disaster that might befall the co-op if it had a real worker's voice on the Board - sorry, letting my personal petticoat show there for a sec ...

Anyways, I think it extremely unlikely that the Finance Department or the Management Team would want to extend Worker-Ownership, such that it would become affordable for mere grunts. I mean, who knows what sort of 'communist' those grunts might elect to ensure the co-op is in compliance with its Mission Statement requirement that co-op workers have a fulfilling work experience?

Hmm. I could be on an incoherent rant here ...

Bottom line: democracy in our co-op just took another hit - on several levels. But, it does not have to stay that way. So, my fellow workers, when the one candidate for Worker-Owner Board Director (Curt Brinkmeyer - Finance Department) comes visiting your Unit in the next couple of weeks, grab him by his ... emoticon ... and demand he votes to make Worker-Ownership affordable, so that next year, you can vote -- or maybe even stand for the Board yourself ...

Reducing the Cost of Worker-Ownership ...

Every last worker in the Weaver Street Market Co-operative contributes to the profit that allows a dividend to be paid to Worker-Owners and Consumer-Owners.

It is only fair that all workers be given the opportunity to be able to afford Worker-Ownership, so that all workers may be able to share in the rewards of the labor of us all.

This is not the case at the moment.

Those of you who know me will know that I have been campaigning for several years now to reduce the cost of Worker-Ownership, so that we can all afford to share in the rewards of our labor, and so that we can all vote in Board Elections.

I am told that the Board will, at last, be considering the cost of Worker-Ownership this Autumn. So, I wrote to them, with one final plea:

"Dear Board,

At the Southern Village Unit Meeting this past week, in answer to a question from me, Ruffin announced that you would be considering the cost of Worker-Ownership in Weaver Street Market Co-operative this Autumn.

I write to you now to ask you to reduce Worker-Ownership to $200, to give all workers in our co-op the opportunity to be able to afford to share in the rewards of their own labor, and the right to be able to vote for their Board Directors.

You will know that one of the six goals for 2012 presented to Unit Meetings by Ruffin was improvement in communication. As things stand at the moment, the only meaningful opportunity workers in WSM have to communicate views such that they find their way into policy-making is through Worker-Ownership.

You allowed for a dividend to Worker-Owners this year for the first time in three years. This is due not least to the magnificent effort of ALL workers in improving sales in 2011 by 9%.

However, even though every last worker in WSM contributed to this sales increase, and to the profit that led to the dividend, not every last worker will be able to share in the rewards. Not every last worker will get a dividend.

Only some 50% of workers in WSM are Worker-Owners. The 2011 WSM Employee Survey elicited the information that some 36% stated that their reason for not being a Worker-Owner was the exorbitant cost.

I understand that, when it was only Worker-Owners who received the patronage dividend, it was necessary for tax reasons to have the Worker-Ownership cost high, so that there was a sufficient patronage capital base - created as it was only out of Worker-Ownership contributions.

Now that both Consumer-Owners and Worker-Owners receive the patronage dividend, and we can count Consumer-Owner as well as Worker-Owner contributions for that patronage capital base, there is no need to keep the cost of Worker-Ownership so high (it is $100 for Consumer-Owners -vs- $500 for Worker-Owners).

Ruffin confirmed to me last Autumn, when I met with him, that there was no reason to keep the cost of Worker-Ownership so high.

In all of the circumstances, I can see no good reason to keep Worker-Ownership at $500, and many good reasons for reducing it to, say, $200. When it would become more affordable for Worker-Owners, while still maintaining a differential with Consumer-Ownership; fair, since Worker-Owners receive a higher amount by way of individual dividend.

I can not believe that there is any worker or Worker-Owner in WSM who would want to deny the person working next to them, doing the same work as them, the opportunity to be able to afford to share in the rewards of their same labor.

I can not believe Worker-Owners would want to deny their fellow workers the opportunity to have the same input to policy-making, and the same opportunity to vote for Board Directors.

More to the point, I can not believe that there is any Worker-Owner who would want to create a sense in our co-operative of a two-tier worker system. Where those who have money and can afford Worker-Ownership are the only ones who get to benefit from the labor of all, and are the only ones who get to vote and to have input to policy-making - simply because they have more money.

It could be seen as the antithesis of the principle of equality to which we, as a co-op, are supposed to subscribe.

And I can not imagine our Consumer-Owners thinking any differently, can you?

I look forward to your decision, finally, to introduce equity to the distribution of financial benefits in our co-op and to the system of electing our Worker-Owner Board Directors.

All the best,
Geoff Gilson"