www.geonewsletter.org/GEO74BostonAlliance.html -
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Published on: 8/15/2007
Last Visited: 12/9/2007
Aaron Tanaka, an organizer for the BWA, is working with their job creation committee to gain support from local employers and the community for the temp agency project."The temp agency is our first economic development project.The reason we decided to do this is because we want to use worker co-ops as a job creation strategy," he said.
Tanaka believes that if successful the temp agency could be a powerful mechanism to leverage existing jobs."The temp agency will allow us to place people into places of employment where they might not ordinarily get hired," he continued.
He admits it may be difficult run a cooperative temp agency due to the high rate of employee turnover but feels it is not impossible.The BWA is working in partnership with the Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA) which has set up three successful temp agencies.He pointed to a temp agency in Baltimore, M.D. created by the ICA as a working model for the BWA's vision.
"The structure of the temp agency is different than other temp agencies because it is a non-profit temp agency," Tanaka said.Though it may not be a worker owned cooperative by textbook definition, he explained that being a non-profit "will allow workers to have full control over their wages."Unlike for-profit temp agencies that take a certain percentage of each of their clients earnings, the BWA's temp agency intends to develop a method to cover its overhead costs but will, "take nothing away from its workers," at the end of each pay period.
"The temp agency will be geared towards negotiating positions for people with criminal records, by breaking down barriers that may exist for such people in their search for employment," Tanaka explained.
In order for BWA to be successful in establishing worker cooperatives, Tanaka feels the group must first meet people's "immediate financial needs."
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