NYC Worker Co-op Community Comes Together for Annual Onboarding Event

The New York City worker cooperative community showed up strong for this year’s Onboarding to the Coop Community event, hosted by the ICA Group and the Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative (WCBDI).

Without a doubt, this was the best year yet for the annual gathering—thanks to the continued efforts of our initiative partners and the businesses they work with to share resources, experiences, and insights about the city’s worker cooperative ecosystem.

Building a Thriving Ecosystem

In a city as large and complex as New York, ecosystems made up of nonprofits, community-based organizations, political advocates, educators, and many others play a vital role in how residents access critical services. The cooperative ecosystem is no different.

For the past decade, the ICA Group and WCBDI partners have created and supported cooperatives across the five boroughs, with the number continuing to grow each year. This thriving network is a testament to the collective power of the solidarity economy in NYC.

New Faces in the Co-op Community

This year, we were excited to welcome Bike Plant and Simple Brewing—two very different companies united by a shared commitment to democratic governance.

Emily from Simple Brewing shared how their team navigated their first year of operations as a worker cooperative, crediting the Green Workers Institute for giving them the structure they needed to succeed.

"My partner and I have a background, a history of social change, and that's where the idea to open a brewery came from. We wondered how we could make the world a better business and at the same time have something to sell. Our path led us to become a worker cooperative because we felt that was the best way, the best practice was to have the people who make the beer be the ones who benefit from it. And so we became a cooperative."

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ICA’s Role in Converting Bike Plant into a Worker Cooperative

Mike, Senior Strategist for Worker Cooperatives at ICA Group, shared the story of Bike Plant, a Bed-Stuy neighborhood bike shop that recently transitioned to worker ownership with ICA’s support. For four to five years, Bike Plant has been a hub for community biking—offering a repair fund for low-income riders, hosting barbecues, and fostering local connections. When owner Robin learned about cooperatives, he recognized it aligned with their already democratic, consensus-driven decision-making style. ICA worked with Robin to evaluate the business, assess financial flexibility, determine its value, and develop a governance structure. Just last month, they completed their operating agreement—making Bike Plant an official worker cooperative. 

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If you’re in Brooklyn, they welcome you to stop by for a bike purchase or repair.

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Wisdom from a Model Cooperative

Our opening speaker, Mariana from Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA)—the largest worker-owned cooperative in the United States—spoke about her 19 years with CHCA, her leadership on their board, and her tireless advocacy for care workers.

"Forty years ago, we had a vision to create a home care worker cooperative—a vision for it to grow and be able to change the industry."

CHCA remains a model for the home care industry, demonstrating what’s possible when workers own and govern the businesses where they work.

Learn more about CHCA’s story here: https://www.viewpointproject.com/features-postidda90e71a/

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Explore WCBDI Partners

To help attendees get familiar with WCBDI’s work, we created a series of short video vignettes highlighting the initiative and its partners. You can watch the full playlist here: WCBDI Video Playlist.

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