The Worker-Owned Recovery California (WORC) Coalition needs your help in asking the State of California to invest in employee ownership! In 2022, Governor Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 1407, the California Employee Ownership Act, which creates the Employee Ownership Hub within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. The Hub is designed to establish the infrastructure necessary to increase employee ownership throughout California. We are asking the State of California to invest $1.5 million to fund the newly-created Hub at a basic level for three years.

Employee ownership is a well-proven strategy for business resilience and productivity, wealth-building and quality jobs for workers, and strong local economies. Given California’s significant budget deficit this year, this is the right time for California to invest this modest amount in worker ownership, as it will preserve small businesses, protect jobs, and save the state money. We at the WORC Coalition ask that you sign on to the letter below to ask the State of California to invest in worker ownership now, to the benefit of workers, small businesses, and local economies!

It’s been a while! Thanks for bearing with your Core planning team as we recalibrate after some departures, including of our brilliant coalition coordinator, Bernadette King Fitzsimons. But your volunteer Core team has continued strong, and we owe you an update.

Please save the date for a WORC Coalition Update Call:  Wednesday 3/13, 3 pm

We were last in touch with y’all after the disappointing move by the California legislature last budget season to reject our budget request to staff and resource the California state Employee Ownership Hub amidst a historic deficit. Not great, but we have a plan.

Senator Becker was the lead sponsor of the California Employee Ownership Act (SB1407) back in 2022; WORC Coalition co-sponsored. Last year, the budget ask was $5 million, this year, in consultation with CalOSBA which will house the Hub, he reduced the request to $1.5 million which is just enough to staff the Employee Ownership Hub for three years, and a more feasible ask given this year’s $30M+ budget deficit.

There is also some federal news to share, so stay tuned.

We say all this to peak your interest in our coalition-wide call on March 13th. We will discuss these recent developments — and opportunities — in depth.

Keep in mind, there will also be work to do in the near future (e.g., sign on letters, emails, texts, etc), and we could use your help not only by joining the call on the 13th, but also by getting the word out. We want to make it easy to make your voice heard.

We will be as timely as scheduling allows (sometimes we find out a deadline only 48 hours in advance), and we won’t spam you. When we send an “ASK” email, we really need your help.

Hope to see you on the 13th!

WORC Coalition Core Team