Exploringthe Businessand
Social Benefitsof
Alternative Labor Models
An interview with Bená Burda, Founder of Maggie’s Organics
and Mike Woodard, Cooperative Development Liaison at Jubilee
House Community
When Bená Burda, founder of Maggie’s, was looking for a partner to sew
her line of organic clothing, she discovered that most textile manufac-
turing had moved overseas and domestic options had pretty much dried
up. Not wanting to support sweatshops, she was in a quandary…until she
met Mike Woodard. Woodard, who works with the
Jubilee House Community (JHC), a non-governmental
organization (NGO), was helping hurricane vic-
tims in Nicaragua get back on their feet and
find work. Many of these victims had sewing
experience, but Burda wanted to do more than
just give them a job. Instead, she gave them a
choice—saying to them, “I can either have
some company come in and build this facility
and you can work for them, or you can build it
and you can own it.” They chose the latter and
today “The Fair Trade Zone” women’s sewing coop-
erative is thriving. This partnership has been so suc-
cessful that Burda is not only working on vertically integrating worker-
owned co-ops throughout her supply chain, but she also wants to
encourage other companies to embrace this alternative model.
Burda and Woodard took some time to chat with Organic Processing
about worker-owned cooperatives and the key steps to implementing a
project like this.
