That sound you hear just may be a tidal wave of worker owned cooperatives.
At least that’s what Esteban Kelly, executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, is hoping for and working for and dreaming about.
He believes that just now be the time for worker owned cooperatives.
Why? Because for so many of us our economic lives are grim. Income inequality is the economic buzz work du jour but it’s just that old saying, the rich are getting richer and the poor, well, you know what’s happening with them.
Kelly says that in a decade maybe 0% of Americans will have zero assets.
That’s busted, baby.
Worker ownership of businesses just may be the cure.
And a lot of it is happening today. Retiring Baby Boomer entrepreneurs are selling their companies to their employees, often as a worker co-op. Home health workers are joining together and forming co-ops. So are cleaning crews.
There’s soaring recognition that it just is better to own a slice of the pie.
And know we have three or four more worker cooperative podcasts in the pipeline. Now’s the time to learn more about this movement. And The Cooperators Podcast is where to learn.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
Say congratulations to Joe Bergeron – he’s in his 40th year of service to Vermont credit unions and he presently serves as CEO of the Association of Vermont Credit Unions where he has a close up view of the issues and ideas that rock his state’s 19 credit unions, which vary in size from a $1billion+ institution to tiny ones.
In this podcast Bergeron also talks about the relationship between the state leagues and CUNA, state government and the federal, and how small credit unions sometimes matter way beyond their size.
For a topical hook he also talks about CUNA’s GAC and what Vermont credit unions get from that confab.
It’s a wide ranging talk with an eye always planted on the future.
Mea culpa. I probably have misled you about road warrior Internet security in the past. But today I am here to make amends.
The problem is the public WiFi so many of us use daily. In coffee shops, hotel rooms, meetings venues, airplanes – we hear the Siren call of public WiFi and often succumb to the temptation. We tell ourselves we will be safe because we use VPN.
For some time I have said that probably is good enough protection.
Now I am rethinking that position. A small project I’ve done with Authentic 8, a security company that has developed Silo, a secure remote browser, is what’s persuaded me that oftentimes VPN just isn’t good enough.
The problem with computing on the road starts with public WiFi which is – well documented – a hacker’s paradise. Noted Kaspersky: “The biggest threat to free Wi-Fi security is the ability for the hacker to position himself between you and the connection point. So instead of talking directly with the hotspot, you’re sending your information to the hacker, who then relays it on.
“While working in this setup, the hacker has access to every piece of information you’re sending out on the Internet: important emails, credit card information and even security credentials to your business network. Once the hacker has that information, he can — at his leisure — access your systems as if he were you.”
If that didn’t scare you, read it again. It’s saying that when using public WiFi you are a sitting duck.
Enter VPN, the putative magic bullet. Many believe it makes public WiFi safe. I wrote as much myself. What VPN does is create a so-called secure tunnel and, they say, that’s ample protection against hackers.
Is it really? That’s not what I discovered. In fact VPN often is hacked. Here’s one write up that documents five ways VPNs can fail to deliver protection.
Here’s a headline from ComputerWeekly: “VPN hacks can be lethal, warns security expert.”
Here’s another headline: “DEF CON Update: Researcher Shows How To Hack VPN Services Via VORACLE Attacks.”
VPN can be hacked, it can be used to distribute malware, and, even worse, there are ever more bogus VPN apps that exist to herd the unwary sheep to hacker wolves.
Understand, I use VPN probably daily. It’s set up to self deploy on my Pixel phone when I’m in range of a public WiFi network. I agreed to that offer from Google Fi, my cellular provider. But I am very cautious about what info I access under that arrangement. And it’s a Google VPN in the bargain.
If you are accessing public WiFi and all you have is VPN, use it. Most of the time VPN will probably be good enough. And it’s definitely better than nothing.
But be very careful about what you access. Stay aware of VPN’s limits.
What if I want more access, and to access more sensitive data? For looking at brokerage accounts, company financial data, maybe even loyalty program balances, personal bank and credit accounts, VPN alone may not be good enough. That’s where I now say a user ought to deploy the secure, remote Silo browser or similar. Advantages are plentiful. With it, the user location is opaque. No Web data ever touches the endpoint – what’s distributed are pixels, no more.
This document tells you what you want to know about Silo.
What Silo does is process all web data remotely, inside a cloud container. It then transmits an encrypted display of the data back to the user. And when it’s done, Silo destroys the browser session, leaving no traces on the user’s device.
That’s the beauty of it. The web data is handled inside a secure, web based container. There can be all manner of bad stuff in it and it won’t matter to your user session because it will live only in the cloud.
Oh, and in my tests, I don’t see speed losses when using Silo. There of course are usually significant speed losses with VPN. If there’s a reason users don’t deploy VPN when they have it available, it’s the speed bump. That isn’t a problem with Silo.
Note: Silo does not run on phones. For them, you will still want to use VPN. It does run on iPad. Also laptops of course.
The key point is if you want something better – more secure – than VPN, know it exists.
Full disclosure: I have done contract writing for Authentic 8, which is how I grew aware of Silo. I was not paid by Authentic 8 for this column, which I wrote on my own initiative, in large part because I remember the many cases where I scolded friends and colleagues about public WiFi and told them they needed VPN. So I was half right. But also half wrong. Mea culpa.
Listen to Daniel Smith talk about cooperatives in the states where his Cooperative Network operates – Wisconsin and Minnesota – and you might think this has to be the promised land. Just about every legislator knows about cooperatives. Most belong to some. Just about every citizen does similar – many belong to three or five or more.
But listen closely and what Smith is discussing are the crucial issues cooperatives just about everywhere face: the war for talent, the struggle for support in government, and life and death issues that ag co-ops in particular now struggle with.
Smith’s Cooperative Network is a fascinating organization. It represents co-ops from 12 different sectors – everything from some of the nation’s largest ag co-ops to small Union Cab, a worker owned transportation company in Madison.
They seem diverse – they are diverse – but, said Smith, their cooperative foundation means they have more in common than might initially meet the eye.
Give Smith a listen and you just may hear a blueprint for how to fight for and win more respect for co-ops everywhere, not just the upper midwest. It’s an inspiring talk.
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
Does your comfort – or your employer’s costs – come first in making choices about business travel?
Every trip of course involves a panoply of choice. Fly economy or premium economy (or, lucky you, business class)? Stay at a Marriott or a Courtyard? Take Uber on the ground or the subway?
In recent years many business travelers have grumbled that to their employers, cost always prevails. But just maybe that is no longer true.
Certainly there’s a positive sign: many travel managers had already indicated they weren’t buying airline basic economy fares for business travelers. The gripe there however is that in many cases the total fare actually edged higher when travelers were coerced into flying basic economy.
The bigger news out of a recent survey of Global Business Travel Association buying members – conducted by GBTA, in association with Travel and Transport and Raditz – suggests that many companies are more broadly embracing higher comfort for their business travelers. The survey’s topline finding: “60 percent of respondents said that traveler satisfaction is the most important factor when evaluating corporate travel.”
The survey continued: “Traveler satisfaction beat out hard dollar savings (47 percent) and policy compliance (40 percent), which were the next two considerations. Interestingly, traveler satisfaction remained the number one factor.”
“The best policies are in place to protect employees and help a business achieve bottom-line growth, but when road warriors are running on fumes, they can’t deliver those wins that businesses need to remain healthy. When they’re satisfied and feel supported, they’re more productive and the bottom line is healthier as a result,” said Joel Bailey, SVP, Customer Solutions with Travel and Transport.
Absolutely right.
And companies, flush with profits in today’s economy, are apparently recognizing that a comfortable employee is a better employee. Will they think that way in the next downturn? Almost certainly they won’t but at least enjoy today’s largesse.
Fly from Newark to Shanghai – 15 hrs, 5 minutes on United – in economy and you will not arrive in China rested and ready to battle. You will arrive seriously disadvantaged.
There just is much more space in premium economy – wider seats – a tastier menu, and it simply is a less hectic setting. The price difference is $1000 for the basic to maybe $1800 to $2000 for premium economy.
But there really is no number to reflect the much higher employee comfort.
That’s probably why – in my impressionistic surveys – premium economy is selling out of many Shanghai runs this winter while plentiful coach seating remains. Many employers are bellying up to this bar and parting with the shekels for better employee comfort.
As for hotels, frankly I don’t need a five star hotel on the ground – but I sure prefer a three or four star over a no star or one star. If I were flying to Montreal tonight I’d stay at the Hotel Nelligan, at maybe $175, even though in Montreal winters there are plenty of rooms in town for under $100. I just know where my comfort zone is. And note I don’t need the $300+ hotels either; neither do most business travelers.
But I much prefer quiet, well located, well run hotels over their bargain brethren.
As for ground transportation I am a pennypincher’s dream. In Phoenix, where I live, I take the light rail to/from the airport. In San Francisco I take BART. At Newark Airport I’d probably take the PATH. Often public transit simply is faster than a taxi or Uber and it sure is cheaper.
When it comes to food, people know I’m a skinflint on business trips. A Shake Shack supper is a splurge. A Starbucks breakfast is the norm. Of course if it’s a shared business meal, that stinginess is discarded.
So maybe my expenses balance out. Some columns are slim, others a bit more plump.
Either way, though, I know that those who pay for my travel get a much better deal when I am a cheerful traveler. Put a frown on my face and my value plummets. So there is more value to be had when I am cosseted than when I am tossed stale bread crumbs and a sleeping bag.
Probably true for you too.
Just saying. Employers might take note. It’s how to get value for money.
Somehow it feels as though I am writing a period novel about the disappearance of an entire type of financial institution right in front of the eyes of millions – executives, regulators, consumers, and just maybe you too, dear reader.
Surely that plot is too strange to be believed.
But exactly this may in fact be happening.
Th nation’s credit unions are in real trouble.
Trouble as in life or death.
It starts with superficially good news. Mergers in 2018 were down from the prior year. Trumpets blare at NCUA HQ.
In 2016 and also 2017 200 mergers were approved per year. In 2018 the number fell…to 192.
But, wait, it gets worse. Exactly four credit unions merged out of existence because of their rotten financial condition. It was merge or die. And the regulator always prefers a tidy merger. Avoids bad headlines. Members accounts conveniently roll into another credit union. What’s not to like?
Actually there is nothing not to like about tidy mergers that are driven by financial duress.
But there is plenty to dislike when healthy credit unions merge out of existence and, apparently, in 2018 188 healthy credit unions did exactly that.
Why does a healthy credit union simply decide to vanish?
The other question has to become: at what point are there so few credit unions that the designation ceases to make sense?
Maybe the better question is, when will we hit that point?
Yes, there are more credit union members than ever – but how many of them are comparatively inactive borrowers of auto loans? How many are just there for the free checking? How many don’t know they belong to a credit union and that is a vastly different thing than a bank?
If 2000 credit unions vanish in the next decade – and that seems entirely possible – by 2030 there will be perhaps 3500 credit unions.
Is that enough still to matter? Is it enough to warrant its own regulator?
What’s especially odd about many of today’s mergers is that they seem pointless. When a $375 million credit union merges with a $600 million one in New England, what’s the point? At $1 billion in total assets can the merged institution go toe to toe with Chase? Of course not. That credit union will not be the largest in its state. Nearer the 8th largest.
So what’s the point?
What’s the point of the increasing number of institutions that have stripped credit union out of their name? And how’s a consumer supposed to know that the institution is different?
The real trend from where I sit is that the top five or ten banks are getting bigger and bigger.
What happens next already is known.
We saw similar in the world of department stores – remember when seemingly every state had a home grown mini chain? No more.
Look at auto dealerships. A generation ago, dealerships often were family owned and the family owned just one. Now it’s a business dominated by 100 or so very large groups that own many dozens of dealerships.
Similar is happening in financial services- but I see no evidence that bulking up with a merger will help a credit union compete more vigorously. In fact mergers of healthy credit unions are triggering irritations among bankers – and there also is mounting grumbling about pay to play compensation schemes for some credit union executives in mergers.
Neither does the credit union movement any good.
What I do believe is that a smart, well managed credit union that knows its community and is visible in its community can continue to do well. Capitalize on local, intimate scale, community focused and that is a massive differentiator from the money center banks.
Join other credit unions in sharing resources that better control costs and also to attain needed skills/talents.
And look broadly for opportunities.
Credit unions that go after consumers whom the big banks don’t want as customers also may do very well. (Listen to my podcast with Cathie Mahon, ceo of INCLUSIV, the association of community development credit unions.)
There are ample reasons to be optimistic about the future of credit unions – if only they stop cutting their own throats.
After 26 years at the legendary Union Cab co-op in Madison WI, John McNamara headed west to pursue a new mission: helping new co-ops come to life and also helping existing co-ops to survive.
What’s fascinating is how the Northwest Cooperative Development Center is bringing to life what might seem surprising co-ops such as mobile home owners who join together to create a co-op to buy the land their homes sit on and also home health workers, to name two areas where NWCDC has had great successes.
Along the way in this podcast McNamara throws light on a lot of what’s needed for a co-op to tick. He describes being a co-op manager as akin to Ginger Rogers’ role where she did everything Fred Astaire did – “but backward and in heels!”
It’s a fast romp of a guide to co-operative success. Listen in here
Like what you are hearing? The Cooperators Podcast seeks sponsors and supporters to help us spread the word about cooperatives and how they often are the better way. Contact Robert McGarvey to find out what you can do to sustain this podcast.
More of you lately have been asking me the same question: where to eat at Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix – which, for the record, is the nation’s 13th busiest airport – just behind Newark (11) and Orlando (12) and ahead of Miami (14) and Houston (15).
Makes sense that the questions are getting asked now, too. This is Phoenix’s busy season, the town is hopping with meetings, events, and Spring Training ball. There also have been recent, big culinary changes in Terminal 3.
Mainly, too, Sky Harbor is a pleasant facility. I can rant about JFK and am no fan of BWI but Sky Harbor usually seems well run, even calm. I cannot even complain about the TSAs at Phx.
Can similar be said about the food?
Commendable is the airport policy to nurture local chefs. Certainly there are the national chains – sometimes I believe there is a law requiring Starbucks at all airports – but in Phoenix your best choices may be places you’ve never heard of, by chefs you’ve also not heard about.
Thus the real need for local guidance.
Sky Harbor has three terminals and they are not equal. Terminal 4 is the busiest by far, handling perhaps 70% of Sky Harbor’s passengers.
The best food choices, not surprisingly, are found in Terminal 4.
By far the best.
AZCentral.com reporter Lauren Saria even managed to file a piece on the top 10 dining choices at Terminal 4. There actually are good options.
A top choice is Barrio Cafe via chef Silvana Salcido Esparza who may be cooking the most thoughtful Mexican food in Phoenix.
Also a good idea is Zinc Brasserie. Wrote Saria, “Zinc easily exceeds most expectations for an airport eatery. For a starter don’t skip the French onion soup gratinee, and for a more affordable entree the Zinc Burger can’t be beat. It comes with your choice of bacon and blue cheese or truffled gruyere and a side of crispy shoestring frites.”
It’s breakfast time? Lucky you. Eat at Matt’s Big Breakfast, the airport outpost of a downtown Phoenix classic that has won its fame by serving very good breakfast staples such as scrambled eggs and bacon, what I always order. The execution just is precise.
Save room for a stop at Sweet Republic – an outstanding local ice cream maker. Really good ice cream.
And have a cup of coffee at Cartel. Wrote Saria: “When it comes to craft coffee, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more serious operation in greater Phoenix than Tempe-based Cartel Coffee Lab.”
If you have to eat at the airport in Phoenix, you will do well in Terminal 4. You will do less well at the other terminals but you won’t starve.
Terminal 3 is a lesser used terminal. I can recall flying out of it only a few times. That is reflected in the dining options. But the good news is that, lately, there’s been a rush to open new venues. That’s giving diners much better choices.
Right now I would recommend Shake Shack and the Parlor Pizzeria (the airport location of a much praised Phoenix pizzeria that has sometimes been called the town’s best and that means better than Chris Bianco’s joints which is something. I don’t agree with that but Parlor is very good indeed).
I am also a longtime Shake Shack fan – so I won’t grumble when I can eat there.
Otherwise, Terminal 3 has a lot of blah choices – Starbucks, Habit Burger, Panera, and you get the drill. Here’s the complete list.
My advice: flip a coin. Heads you go for pizza, tails for a burger. Forget the other options.
Stay tuned however because shortly a new Terminal 3 restaurant created by James Beard award winner Christopher Gross – called Christopher’s – is slated to open. That will demand our interest. I know I will give it a try.
Also slated to open soon is The Tavern, a new restaurant via Mark Tarbell, a local Phoenix celebrity chef. Mainly a burger, sandwich and salad place but Tarbell will try to lift it beyond the humdrum. I’ll stop here too when it opens.
Terminal 2 also is a lesser used terminal. The best choice is NYPD Pizza, and fans of chef Silvana will want to stop at Barrio Avion. Other choices include Wendy’s and a grab and go.
Terminal 2 is a backwater. Obviously. But at least you can get a decent burrito.
At what cost? Excellent question. Consumer alert: in December the Phoenix City Council repealed a policy that set airport restaurant prices at street plus 10%. Restaurants may now set their own prices. So regular airport diners almost certainly will detect higher costs.
Is the food worth it? Remember my rule about inflight food: just don’t. Don’t eat the stuff, certainly not on any domestic flight. So that often means eating at the airport.
