The Democracy at Work Institute, a strategic initiative launched by the U.S. Phoenix is one of the most recent examples of a growing interest in cooperatives in the Rust Belt, and is the fifth officially recorded co-op in Cleveland. Switching to a cooperative model we hope will let us do that.” “And so we needed to recognize that contribution and actualize it in some way. “The only reason we were able to stay in business as a carryout business or otherwise is because baristas were willing to put their bodies on the line to make this work,” says Phoenix co-manager Christopher Feran. A deal had been in the works with Evergreen Cooperatives for a year and a half, and their hope was that finalizing it might keep them afloat. So last October, the thirty-seven employees of the Northeast Ohio franchise decided to move forward with transitioning from a traditional business to a worker-owned cooperative. They knew they had to make a bold decision to survive the effects. Its employees, like many of their peers across the country, spent months on furlough.

One store temporarily shut down, and four others transitioned to takeout only. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Cleveland’s Phoenix Coffee changed the way it worked.

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