History shows that worker cooperative movements do best when those involved feel a significant degree of social, political, or economic distress. Recent widespread interest in rural self-help efforts may be attributed, in part, to the existence of similar social, political, or economic distress. People with disabilities who live in rural areas may collectively feel an even stronger sense of social and economic distress, due to the additional social and physical barriers they often face. Not only has experience convincingly demonstrated that the worker cooperative can be a viable form of business organization, it has also shown us an organizational structure that is both stable and socially responsible. Most of these are still conventionally organized businesses.
Cooperation begins long before and ends long after the actual point of market transaction.
While cooperators also gain whatever selling or buying advantage they can, they actually own and manage the entire business. Because they are formed through conversions of existing businesses, ESOPs tend to be larger than worker cooperatives. As of May 1999, the largest were Publix Supermarkets, with 109,000 employees, and United Airlines, with 81,000. Directory of workers' enterprises in North America . The ICA Group.