The new workers.coop website has launched! Thanks to creative.coop and our communications group for all their work. Do go and check it out. There is still lots to do, here are some headlines from our first few months:

We’ve raised £100,000 so far in our start-up phase. Roughly half of this has come from worker co-ops either directly or through Solidfund with the other half coming from friendly foundations. Budgets have been set, and our member working groups now have the resources needed to make good on our Strategy.

Everything we do is member led. We have seven small, hands on groups, focusing on the day-to-day decision making in the federation. They are agile, flexible, and likely to change as the federation gets established - they're the perfect place for you if you want to have an impact and make something happen.

Two new groups have been recently created: Member Learning and Finance.  If you want to get involved in what the federation does - and how it does it – then all our groups are looking for new people. Click on the links below to find out more and sign-up:

• Communications Group
• Digital Infrastructure Group
• Events Group
• Finance Group
• Member Learning Group
• Mobilisation Group
• People, Policy and Culture Group

Our forum is starting to come alive with people posting questions, jobs, and events. Most of our communication and organising takes place here. We are gauging demand for our first two peer networks aimed at helping worker co-operators share knowledge, trends and challenges in two areas, if you want to join take a look:

• People and HR Network
• Business Development Network

We’ve also started a conversation with CoTech, the network of worker co-ops in technology and digital services, about becoming our first industry network.

If you want to organise with other co-ops like yours, get in touch.

To help us deliver more significant pieces or work we sometimes offer larger contracts for paid works. We have recently recruited for digital communications support and have two more areas we are looking for support:

•  A supporter organiser role working with our mobilisation group to scale up the number of supporters delivering our strategy
• A events organising role role working with our Board to design our first large scale members event.

Recruiting or looking for jobs in a worker co-op? - Check our forum

Suma is one of the UK’s largest worker co-ops, and they’re an inspiration because of how  they’ve stayed true to a model of equal pay and distributed work for over 45 years. One of Suma’s suppliers, Hip Pop drinks, made this video with personal testimony from members. One of our favourite lines is: “At Suma, we don't see humans as a resource".

Calverts is another founder member of the new federation, this time in the printing and design sector, and based in east London. Because Calverts is a one-site 'non essential' manufacturing firm, the COVID crisis brought production to a complete halt in 2020. While there were no redundancies, the recovery was tricky, but 2022 saw a full return to action. They’ve just recruited three new people, and will be 13 strong by the end of this month.

Timicha women's co-op connected with our 4,000-strong Facebook group last month. Timicha process local agricultural products in Aghbala, Morocco, to make apple vinegars, spreads and culinary herbs. Here’s a message from last week: “On the occasion of International Women's Day, Timicha has established a cooperative to recognize the beauty of its ambitious women who take the time to paint the most beautiful picture of cooperation. Thank you, and happy women's day to all the women of the world!”

Workers at GKN Drivetrain, an automotive engineering company with a key site in Florence, Italy, have been occupying for eight months while resisting redundancies and closure. They're now proposing a technical and social plan to convert and restart production as a worker co-op under workers' self-management. A national demonstration in Florence, drawing wide support from the workers' and environmental movements, has been called for March 27th. More