[Scpg] FILM/Shift Change/Investigates employee-owned businesses that provide secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces even in today's economic crisis

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

PREVIEW TRAILER http://vimeo.com/38342677

FILM/Shift Change/Investigates employee-owned businesses that provide 
secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces even in today's economic 
crisis

BULLDOG FILMS
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/shift.html

At a time when many are disillusioned with big banks and big business, 
the economic crisis and growing inequality in our country, employee 
ownership offers a real solution for workers and communities. Shift 
Change: Putting Democracy to Work is a new documentary (to be released 
in fall 2012) that highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America 
and in Mondragon, Spain. The film couldn’t be more timely, as 2012 has 
been declared by the U.N. as the “International Year of the Cooperative.”
www.shiftchange.org


Shift Change

Investigates employee-owned businesses that provide secure, dignified 
jobs in democratic workplaces even in today's economic crisis.
69 minutes
SDH Captioned>>

Directed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin
Produced by Melissa Young
Associate Producer: Natasha Dworkin, Tony Harrah
Photography, Editing: Mark Dworkin
A Moving Images Production


"A compelling story of real possibilities at a time when many think 
there are no solutions to this current difficult economic situation." 
Paul Hazen, President & CEO, National Cooperative Business Association
SHIFT CHANGE: PUTTING DEMOCRACY TO WORK tells the little known stories 
of employee-owned businesses that compete successfully in today's 
economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.
With the long decline in US manufacturing and today's economic crisis, 
millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. 
The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and 
public officials are ready to think outside of the box, to reinvent our 
failing economy in order to restore long term community stability and a 
more egalitarian way of life.

There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their 
workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more 
committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has 
little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a 
better life.

Amongst the organizations featured in SHIFT CHANGE are:

Mondragón Cooperative Corporation - Begun in the 1950s, the Mondragón 
co-ops have transformed a depressed area of Spain into one of the most 
productive in Europe with a high standard of living and an egalitarian 
way of life. They are owned and managed by their workers. Seeing the 
achievements of the MCC helps to overcome the idea-widespread in North 
America-that worker run cooperatives can only exist on the economic fringe.

The Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, OH - This is an ambitious urban 
redevelopment model, directly inspired by Mondragón, where local 
institutions and public officials are supporting green cooperatives of 
previously marginalized, predominantly African American workers, who 
provide commercial laundry services, install solar energy systems, and 
grow vegetables in vast urban greenhouses.

Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives, San Francisco, California - 
Started 30 years ago, there are now six of these independent worker 
owned and managed cooperative bakeries that work together to provide the 
financial and legal services they need, and to incubate new coop bakeries.

Equal Exchange, Boston MA: Founded in 1986, Equal Exchange is one of the 
largest roasters of fair trade coffee in the world.

Other films by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young are We Are Not Ghosts, 
Good Food, Argentina: Hope in Hard Times and Argentina: Turning Around, 
Net Loss, Another World is Possible, Not for Sale, Gene Blues, Islas 
Hermanas and Risky Business.



Grade Level: Grades 10-12, College, Adult
US Release Date: 2012 Copyright Date: 2012
DVD ISBN: 1-93777-238-1



Reviews
"This is a very important film on a very important topic that is almost 
completely neglected by business schools. As our current economic 
structures veer ever closer to collapse, the cooperative alternative has 
become more important and more attractive. Seeing the sophistication of 
these businesses and listening to these co-op member/owners talk about 
their work is totally inspiring. Another world IS possible - and it 
looks like this!"
Jill Bamburg, Core Faculty, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Author, 
Getting to Scale: Growing Your Business without Selling Out

"Shift Change offers us living examples as well as an inspiring vision 
of what a productive, just, and sustainable economy can look like. The 
film's core message can help to build bridges across different groups 
who are united in their commitment to the economic vitality and fairness 
of their own communities. The overall message, the cases, and the 
analysis are exactly what we need to help chart pathways out of the 
global economic crisis."
George Cheney, Professor and Coordinator, Doctoral Education in 
Communication and Information, Associate Investigator, Ohio Employee 
Ownership Center, Kent State University, Author, Values at Work: 
Employee Participation Meets Market Pressure at Mondragón

"One of the barriers to fostering cooperative values and businesses in 
North America is the lack of awareness of the benefits that well 
organized cooperatives with good business practices can offer to workers 
and communities. Educating the public to the cooperative approach to 
business is an important contribution which Shift Change can make."
Ted Howard, Executive Director of Democracy Collaborative, University of 
Maryland

"A refreshing and thoughtful response to those who argue there are no 
better or even viable alternatives to our current for-profit, top-down 
market-based economic organizations...The film exposes the viewer to the 
wide range of workers (from highly skilled engineers to newly arrived 
immigrant workers) as well as workplaces (from household appliances to 
industrial laundry) engaged in cooperative production. Shift Change 
could easily be used effectively in economics, sociology, political 
science, and management courses."
Randy Albelda, Professor of Economics and Senior Research Associate at 
the Center for Social Policy, University of Massachusetts-Boston

"A first-rate documentary...A unique educational film. Shift Change 
persuasively demonstrates the success of worker cooperatives in building 
industry through democratic ownership that also paves the way to 
advancing new forms of democracy in capitalist society. What makes the 
film so convincing is the overwhelming evidence that is conveyed to all 
that cooperatives are imperative in advancing the American Dream of 
worker control and democratic governance. Shift Change is a sweeping and 
indispensable documentary!"
Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City 
University of New York, Co-Editor, Ours to Master and To Own: Worker 
Control from the Commune to the Present

"The world has changed but most businesses are still run as they if it 
were last century with a few on top operating with as little concern for 
their workers as for the community or the environment. Fortunately, 
against this model stands a vibrant group of worker cooperatives 
stretching from the Basque region of northern Spain to the rust belt 
cities of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Madison Wisconsin. Shift Change 
tells how workers are creating a new business model, one that is 
democratic, egalitarian, and concerned for the community; a model that 
is also, ultimately, more productive because it draws on the talents and 
the skills of the workers themselves."
Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at 
Amherst

"The North American worker cooperatives and the Mondragón cooperatives 
in Shift Change tell a compelling story of real possibilities at a time 
when many think there are no solutions to this current difficult 
economic situation."
Paul Hazen, President and CEO of the National Cooperative Business 
Association