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> MIGRANT Home > Good practices database - Labour migration policies and programmes > Si Se Puede! Women's Cleaning Cooperative in New York City

Si Se Puede! Women's Cleaning Cooperative in New York City

Description

The Center for Family Life (CFL) - a social service organisation - has served as an incubator for a number of immigrant cooperatives in New York City, providing them with technical assistance, consultation support, and lengthy start-up training in social group work. One of these cooperatives is Si Se Puede! Women's Cleaning Cooperative, a women-owned, women-run worker cooperative for housecleaning services. Founded in 2006, it now has over 1,500 customers, and an annual group income of $600,000. One of the cooperative's key principles is that every member receives 100 per cent of their pay - there are no job placement fees and no organisational middlemen. Si Se Puede! workers receive more than $20 an hour for their work. Like all cooperatives, membership in Si Se Puede! requires active participation by all workers in the day-to-day management and marketing of the business. For example, members must attend regular organisational meetings, and must spend three hours a month marketing the coop. This might mean staffing a table at a street fair, marketing the coop at neighborhood meetings, or handing out Si Se Puede! flyers door-to-door. CFL provides cooperative members and their families with workplace-specific English language classes, family counselling, and after-school programmes.

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last updated on 20.05.2015^ top