HISTORY OF WORKER COOPERATIVES
From Wikipedia: "Historically, worker cooperatives rose to prominence during the industrial revolution as part of the labour movement. As employment moved to industrial areas and job sectors declined, workers began organizing and controlling businesses for themselves. Workers cooperative were originally sparked by "critical reaction to industrial capitalism and the excesses of the industrial revolution." (Adams et al. 1993: 11) The formation of some workers cooperatives, such as those of the Knights of Labor in 19th century America, were designed to "cope with the evils of unbridled capitalism and the insecurities of wage labor".

Most early worker co-ops did not adhere to clear cooperative structures or ideologies. Starting in the 1830s, worker cooperatives were formed by hat makers, bakers, and garment workers.

In the United States there is no coherent legislation regarding worker cooperatives nationally, much less Federal laws, so most worker cooperatives make use of traditional consumer cooperative law and try to fine-tune it for their purposes. In some cases the members (workers) of the cooperative in fact "own" the enterprise by buying a share that represents a fraction of the market value of the cooperative.

When the current cooperative movement resurfaced in the 1960s it developed mostly on a new system of "collective ownership" where par value shares were issued as symbolic of egalitarian voting rights. Typically, a member may only own one share to maintain the egalitarian ethos. Once brought in as a member, after a period of time on probation usually so the new candidate can be evaluated, he or she was given power to manage the coop, without "ownership" in the traditional sense. In the UK this system is known as common ownership.

Some of these early cooperatives still exist and most new worker cooperatives follow their lead and develop a relationship to capital that is more radical than the previous system of equity share ownership.

In Britain this type of cooperative was traditionally known as a producer cooperative, and, while it was overshadowed by the consumer and agricultural types, made up a small section of its own within the national apex body, the Cooperative Union. The 'new wave' of worker cooperatives that took off in Britain in the mid-1970s joined the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) as a separate federation. Buoyed up by the alternative and ecological movements and by the political drive to create jobs, the sector peaked at around 2,000 enterprises. However the growth rate slowed, the sector contracted, and in 2001 ICOM merged with the Co-operative Union (which was the federal body for consumer cooperatives) to create Co-operatives UK, thus reunifying the cooperative sector.

In 2008 Co-operatives UK launched The Worker Co-operative Code of Governance. An attempt to implement the ICA approved World Declaration.

Inauguration Prayer: Latino Episcopal Priest Luis Leon Becomes 'Pastor Of The Presidents'
The Huffington Post | 01/18/2013 5:23 pm EST
At the age of 12 -- with only $3, the clothes on his back, and no parents -- Luis León arrived to the United States from Guantanamo, Cuba. But today, after making his religious faith a lifestyle, the Latino Episcopal priest has become the "Pastor of the Presidents of the United States."

As the minister of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, León has been chosen to deliver the closing prayer at President Barack Obama’s presidential inaugural ceremony on Monday, January 21 in Washington DC.

"It is an honor to be part of a milestone in American history," said Leon to El Nuevo Herald. "It is a special honor to be an immigrant in this country, the only country where an event like this can happen ... I feel that in some way I am representing the U.S. Hispanic community. We are an important part of this country."
This year's inauguration, to be held at the National Mall at 11:30 am (ET), will be witnessed buy a number of Hispanic figures. Obama chose Cuban-American Richard Blanco to recite an allegorical poem, making him the first Latino, the first openly gay, and the youngest poet to read on the historic day.