On May 13, 2025, Bard MBA in Sustainability student Shelby Mack ’25 stood before a crowd of advocates, small business owners, and elected officials at the Rhode Island State House with a clear message: worker ownership is not only possible in Rhode Island — it is essential.
The occasion was the first-ever Rhode Island Worker Cooperative Advocacy Day, cohosted by the Rhode Island Worker Cooperative Alliance (RIWCA) and Fuerza Laboral. The event brought together Lt. Governor Sabina Matos, Rep. Jennifer Stewart, worker cooperative members, and dozens of community supporters to rally behind the Rhode Island Opportunity for Employee Ownership Act, legislation that would give workers the chance to purchase their businesses when owners look to sell.
For Mack, a Pawtucket resident, founding member of the Lefty Loosey Bike Collective, and Bard MBA student, the gathering was also the culmination of her capstone project: “Growing the Worker Cooperative Ecosystem in Rhode Island through Advocacy, Education, and Organizing.”
“Supporting worker cooperatives is an effective economic development strategy, building community resilience and creating sustainable, dignified jobs,” Mack said.
She pointed to research from the National Center for Employee Ownership showing that wages are 33% higher, median job tenure is 53% longer, and net worth increases 92% when workers have an ownership stake in their workplaces.
Mack also highlighted international examples, such as Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, where cooperative ownership forms a significant portion of the economy, saying that “The results can be transformative — lower unemployment, higher quality of life, and greater economic resilience than most of the country’s other regions.”
Michael Shuman, Bard MBA faculty member and Mack’s capstone advisor, underscored this point: “There’s lots of evidence that workers in worker-owned enterprises are more productive, happier on the job, secure high salaries with more benefits, and build more personal and community wealth. And yet our country, rooted in the myth of the rugged individual, has far less worker ownership than other industrialized countries.”
Mack also pointed to the broader economic realities facing Rhode Islanders. She noted that wages often fail to keep up with the cost of living: “Nowhere in RI does minimum wage enable you to rent affordably. One in ten of our neighbors are living in poverty, and many more are struggling to make ends meet.”
For her, worker ownership offers a practical solution to these challenges. “We can build our economy from the ground up, from the people up. Worker ownership expands the benefits of small business ownership to the many, instead of the few,” said Mack.
Beyond immediate affordability, Mack raised long-term concerns about business continuity. Citing research from Project Equity, she also noted that 56% of small business owners in Rhode Island are over the age of 55, raising concerns about what is referred to as a “silver tsunami” of retirements.
Shuman connected these risks to the importance of the pending legislation, saying that “Across the country we are facing what experts have called a ‘Silver Tsunami.’ Millions of important small businesses may be lost in the coming years because there is no obvious succession plan. If passed—and I believe it will pass—the Act provides a process where workers get informed of a sale of their company and have an opportunity to organize and present a worker-ownership deal. If the deal is accepted, the business owner receives capital gains tax breaks.”
Mack’s belief in the power of worker ownership is not only academic — it comes from lived experience. For the past five years, she has served as a member-owner of the Lefty Loosey Bike Collective, a community bicycle shop in Pawtucket that is run collectively by the workers.
“Making decisions together has helped me feel personally how precious democracy is — and how important it is that we fight for it,” she reflected. The cooperative model has enabled the shop to repair thousands of bicycles, donate hundreds more to community members, and teach repair skills that build independence. “We’ve done so much more together, we harness the creativity and initiative of so many more people, than we would if just one or two people ran it,” Mack said. “That’s a pride I want everyone to have the opportunity to feel.”
That sense of pride and possibility carried into Mack’s closing remarks at the State House. She urged Rhode Islanders to rally behind the Opportunity for Employee Ownership Act: “With this Act, we invite Rhode Islanders to imagine a future where worker ownership is the norm, not the tiny exception.”
As the event wrapped up, Mack emphasized the collective effort that brought the legislation this far. “This project has given me immense joy. I’ve been able to work alongside so many amazing collaborators who share a vision for an economy based in care, solidarity, democracy — and joy.”
Although the bill did not pass this session, Mack and her collaborators remain committed to advancing worker ownership in Rhode Island — and will be back at the State House next year.
The Bard MBA in Sustainability is one of the nation’s leading graduate programs preparing leaders to transform business for a sustainable future. Ranked among the top green MBAs, Bard’s program fully integrates sustainability into a rigorous business curriculum, equipping graduates with the tools to build organizations that prioritize people, planet, and profit.
Delivered in a low-residency, hybrid format with monthly in-person weekends in New York City, the program combines cutting-edge coursework with experiential learning, real-world consulting projects, and a culminating capstone that positions graduates as leaders in sustainable business.
Editor’s note: Portions of this article were drafted with the assistance of AI technology and reviewed for accuracy and clarity by Bard College staff.