Many of the members of the Island Employee Cooperative, an employee cooperative that will purchase Burnt Cove Market, The Galley, V&S Variety and V&S Pharmacy.
Cooperative Development Institute – Employees of three rural Maine businesses – Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley – are now the owners. All of them. By forming the Island Employee Cooperative , the largest worker cooperative in Maine and one of the larger worker co – ops in the United States, the employees were able to purchase the businesses from retiring owners Vern and Sand ra Seile.
Combined, the three businesses are one of the island’s largest employers and provide the community with a full array of groceries, hardware, prescription drugs, pharmacy items, craft supplies, and other goods and services. The employees were concerned when word first circulated that the Seiles were thinking about selling the stores and retiring. Potential buyers who were not part of the community would doubtfully have maintained the same level of jobs and services, and other employment options on the island are limited.
As a result, last summer, the Seiles and the employees began meeting with the Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative, a purchasing cooperative of independent grocers in New England, and the Cooperative Development Institute , a nonprofit group that provides technical assistance to all types of cooperative businesses. These conversations explored the idea of transferring ownership of the companies over to the workers.
The employees began to work with IRSSC, CDI, Specialized Accounting Services and other advisers for nearly a year to create the worker cooperative, secure financing, purchase the stores, and ensure their livelihood whil e keeping ownership and profits local. Now that they own their jobs, IEC president Alan White said, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Many of us have worked in these stores for decades and never imagined this possibility. We know we have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do to be successful, but success means we will really achieve the American dream – economic security and building wealth through ownership, both for our families and our community.”
In a worker co-op, each worker-owner has one share in the corporation and one vote in its governance. Co-ops typically get their start when workers band together to launch a new business. Conversions from conventional corporations are much less common, especially ones of the size and scope of the IEC.