A bill in Rhode Island would require that employees be notified about their right to make a bid to purchase the business in the event of a mass layoff or closure. The Local Ownership Opportunity Act (H.7799 and S. 2871) would require a poll of employees to measure interest in a worker buyout.
Attentive readers may recall that startup ridesharing company Juno made a big splash when it promised to be a different kind of ridesharing company, one that treated its drivers well, including sharing equity with them. This year, Juno was bought out for $200 million by a private equity group.
Loren Rodgers, the NCEO's executive director: "I feel lucky because a big part of my job is talking with people about their dreams for their companies.
Robert Fulton, the founder of ESOP owned Web Industries, died on November 18 at the age of 86. We at the NCEO wanted to include this in our update because Bob and the company he created have been such seminal figures in employee ownership.
Employee-owners visited the Colorado legislature on March 29 to advocate for legislation that would support employee ownership. They met with legislators and agency leaders.
Employees of three rural businesses in Maine worked with the Cooperative Development Institute and the Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative to form a new business, the Island Employee Cooperative (IEC), which bought the three businesses from their original owners.