Taharka Bros: Ice cream with a side of worker ownership

In service industries that traditionally pay and treat workers poorly, worker-owned cooperatives serve as a humane alternative. Worker-owners at eight co-ops in four states describe the difference their jobs make in their working conditions and their lives. They also tell how larger collectives and cooperatives pool resources to help smaller co-ops with the funding and expertise they need, especially when confronted by a disruptive event like the pandemic.

Two Baltimore restaurants, Red Emma's and Joe Squared, show how running or starting as worker-owned cooperatives gave them pandemic-survival skills in a business climate that killed many other small businesses. By tapping into larger networks providing financing on favorable terms and other expertise, these co-ops used their workers' ingenuity to offer services that didn't depend on sit-down dining. Like many co-ops, they were able to survive the pandemic and preserve jobs where so many traditionally run businesses were not.

To save dozens of restaurants in San Francisco during the coronavirus lockdowns, a restaurant owner launched an organization that "provides monthly contracts to its restaurant partners to cook meals for underserved populations." The organization, which has 160 restaurant partners so far, helps fill the gaps left by the government-funded Paycheck Protection Program.

Employees at 7 Yakima Valley fruit packing plants, who are predominately Latinx, went on strike to protest inadequate protection and pay during the Covid-19 pandemic. Agricultural workers accounted for nearly one-fifth of the county’s positive cases. The worker initiated strikes and picket lines were supported by community members, union representatives, and non-profit legal centers. Workers returned to work after gaining concessions on better pay, safety protections, and the formation of worker advocacy committees. The state also issued new workplace safety standards for agricultural workers after protests.

The owners of an iconic pomade and Chicano hipster fashion manufacturing factory in Santa Ana, California have made the switch to hand sanitizer manufacturing in an attempt to reemploy furloughed employees during the coronavirus pandemic. Functioning like a start-up, their new product goes to hospitals, postal workers, UPS drivers, and cashiers and helps to spread the message to the Latino community that this virus should be taken seriously.

Meatpacking workers protested Covid-19 safety concerns and a coalition of advocacy groups filed a civil rights complaint with the government accusing Tyson and JBS USA of racial discrimination during the pandemic because the safety issues disproportionately impact line workers, who are largely people of color. Nevada’s Culinary Union also sued Las Vegas Strip casinos for unsafe working conditions. Two casinos have been dropped from the suit after deciding to negotiate privately with the union and Tyson has since instituted some safety measures, but broader impacts of the complaints remain to be seen.

Georgia’s Racial Justice Centering Committee, part of the University of Georgia’s United Campus Workers, runs the Racial Justice, Labor, and the South Book Club at the Avid Bookshop. The moderator-led discussions provide attendees with exposure to diverse literature and an opportunity to learn about the intersection between labor and race. While University of Georgia students are the target audience, the book club is open to the public. Meetings are currently held on zoom, but in-person meetings at the bookshop introduced a wider audience to the diverse books and increased support of the local business.

The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the ways in which the food system is broken, but governments, NGOs, and philanthropists are working to address the discrepancies by connecting small-scale farmers of color with businesses that can purchase their produce at fair rates. “For the first time, they felt connected with a real community. For the first time, they felt they were getting paid what’s right for what they’re growing,” a business advisor for one of the operations explains.

In Montana, a handful of manufacturers have adapted their facilities to make products and materials that help healthcare workers safely work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic. From face shields to liquid transport mediums, these businesses are finding new ways to play a larger role in the efforts to contain the virus, while also keeping their employees working.

The Netherlands approach of balancing the potential for future economic hardship with the current risk of Covid-19 spreading has appeared to have helped the country to flatten the curve of cases faster than other areas that implemented mandatory lockdown measures. Although critics of this "controlled distribution" approach point out that the country has still seen thousands of deaths and could see future waves of outbreaks, at this point in time, "the Netherlands has both flattened the curve and kept life tolerable."