In a perfect world, more businesses would be operated in a worker-owner co-op fashion.
“We all have childhood memories of parents, teachers and others encouraging us to work together,” Stronger Together Co-op’s website reads. “A co-op is what “working together” looks like all grown up.”
Instead of relying on outside investors and rewarding those outside investors with profit shares, co-ops reward its members with shares of surplus revenue. Each member’s share is calculated based on how much they use the co-op. That way, the people who contribute to the day-to-day operations of the co-op directly benefit from its success.
However, Gainesville’s own food co-op, Citizens Co-op, has been struggling for months to right itself after five co-op workers were fired for misusing the company’s email database system to send a message to the membership’s email list about the group’s efforts to unionize. Protests from the member-owners and those who were fired have put pressure on the co-op’s board of directors to make changes, and a meeting of co-op members on Sunday culminated in a proposal to the board to take serious action. The proposal called for the resignation of two board members and rejected the terms of one of the board member’s resignation.
To say that the members and the board of directors don’t see eye-to-eye is, however, an understatement. The compromised proposal drafted on Sunday has no legal force or backing in the organization’s bylaws — which are not currently available online.
In short, secretary of the board Rob Brinkman told the Alligator the proposal won’t accomplish anything until the June 24 board of directors election. Brinkman said the members can only force a vote by submitting a petition to the board of directors of 10 percent of the membership, and Sunday’s meeting “did not constitute 10 percent.”
Co-ops exist to benefit its members and the community at large, but currently, no one is benefitting from Citizens Co-op. Furthermore, it hasn’t been running in the democratic fashion that co-ops require. Member-owner Davis Hart told The Gainesville Sun, “There is no leader of this beast and it has been difficult to make decisions because everybody feels very scared to stand up and say, ‘This is what we are doing.’”
The board of directors budged by moving elections from September to the end of June, but the fact remains that workers are underrepresented in the board and its bylaws are outdated. The group of members who gathered on Sunday are driving a hard bargain, but they don’t appear to be supported by the entire Citizens Co-op community, since they represent less than 10 percent of the membership.
It’s a shame, given Gainesville’s reputation as one of the nation’s best small towns in which to live. A city with such a reputation should have a fairly organized food co-op that operates with the community in mind — not one mired in politics and self-interest.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 5/13/2014 under the headline "Citizens Co-op not working as co-op should"]
