In 2009, a group of 16 Italian workers in Padova in Italy saw their lives turn from bad to worse. A 30 year old foundry business they worked for had been in economic trouble for years, and had been bought by a businessman from Egypt, in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He was not good at his job, and had failed to pay the workers for 5 months before filing for bankruptcy. With the support of trade unions and cooperative organisations, the workers chose to restart the activities, but as a worker cooperative. The founding workers secured initial share capital via advances on their unemployment insurance and their severance pay. They also managed to gain the financial support of three customers who they had maintained good relations with, and received further funding and support from four other cooperatives. The beginning was not easy; the contracts with the firm’s utility providers had already been cancelled, resulting in the workers receiving a plant without electricity, water, or natural gas. The members had to shrink salaries to the minimum required by their contracts. Regardless of the difficulties, the cooperative managed to close the first year of business with a balanced budget. By 2011 they had a turnover of more than 1 million euros, which has been sustained ever since.
They were enabled to do this through an Italian law, known as “Marcora Law”; this gives workers a preferential right to buy businesses when they are closed or put up for sale.
Read the rest at Coop Exchange
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