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Shift Change

"It's the Economy, Stupid!" • 1h 10m

Directed by Melissa Young & Mark Dworkin • Documentary • 2012 • 70 minutes

SHIFT CHANGE: PUTTING DEMOCRACY TO WORK tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that compete successfully in today's economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.

Amongst the organizations featured in SHIFT CHANGE are:

Mondragon Cooperative Corporation - Begun in the 1950s, the Mondragon co-ops have transformed a depressed area of Spain into one of the most productive in Europe with a high standard of living and an egalitarian way of life. They are owned and managed by their workers. Seeing the achievements of the MCC helps to overcome the idea-widespread in North America-that worker run cooperatives can only exist on the economic fringe.

The Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, OH - This is an ambitious urban redevelopment model, directly inspired by Mondragon, where local institutions and public officials are supporting green cooperatives of previously marginalized, predominantly African American workers, who provide commercial laundry services, install solar energy systems, and grow vegetables in vast urban greenhouses.

Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives, San Francisco, California - Started 30 years ago, there are now six of these independent worker owned and managed cooperative bakeries that work together to provide the financial and legal services they need, and to incubate new coop bakeries.

Equal Exchange, Boston MA: Founded in 1986, Equal Exchange is one of the largest roasters of fair trade coffee in the world.

Tags
african-american workers, american studies, americas, arizmendi, basque, boston, bullfrog films, business, cleveland, commercial laundry services, community stability, decline in us manufacturing, democracy, dignified workplaces, doc, econjustice, economic crisis, economics, employee-owned businesses, employment, environment, equal exchange, europe, evergreen cooperatives, expository, failing economy, foreclosures, growing vegetables, installing solar, isthmus engineering, labor and economics, labor studies, madison, mondragon cooperative corporation, oakland, ovid, ovid_ca, ownership, political philosophy, politics and political science, s_0085, s_0166, s_0299, s_0306, s_0396, s_0447, s_0611, secure jobs, shift change, spain, sustainability, the, the industrial heartland, title_nopqrs, title_s, united states, urban greenhouses, western europe, work, worker-owned bakeries, worker-owned factories, world regions

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