strategy

Honouring business cooperatives

Synonyms:
Providing legal status for productive cooperatives
Implementation:
After 114 years, the last workers' production co-operative in Wallonia (Belgium) closed in 1999. The Modern Bakery of Jemappes went into voluntary liquidation, with the loss of 50 jobs, unable to match the prices of its industrial-scale competitors. The co-operative "Union-Progres-Economie" was founded in 1885 to supply wholesome food for the miners of the Borinage region, Wallonia's coal-producing heartland around Mons. A true social economy enterprise, it latterly offered not only a home delivery service to 8,000 often elderly people, but also employment training for unemployed people. The bakery had already been rescued once, in 1983, by the FGTB trade union.
Type Classification:
G: Very Specific strategies
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic GrowthGOAL 10: Reduced InequalityGOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and ProductionGOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions