The Industrial Cooperative Association, Inc., was founded in 1978 in Somerville, Massachusetts as a nonprofit cooperative, in part as a response to an epidemic of plant shutdowns in New England. ICA's purpose, as outlined by its by-laws, was to 1) create, maintain and improve jobs for the unemployed, underemployed and economically disadvantaged through the development of workers' cooperatives and to promote the understanding of job creation as a solution to poverty and underemployment; 2) relieve the poor, eliminate prejudice, lessen neighborhood tensions; and combat community deterioration in certain economically depressed areas; 3) conduct public discussions, forums, lectures and other similar programs relating to the principles of cooperatives and democratic worker ownership; 4) conduct research to aid communities or geographic areas in attracting new industry and encouraging the development or retention of an industry; and 5) make grants or otherwise distribute funds to organizations with purposes consistent with the charitable purposes of the ICA. At the time of its establishment ICA was the only such association of the kind in the country. In 1991 ICA became the ICA Group.
Since its beginning, ICA has provided assistance of various kinds to worker-owned companies, eventually becoming the leading source of technical assistance to worker cooperatives in the United States. These services have included feasibility studies, advice on incorporation and the drafting of by-laws; computerized business planning; legal, tax, and accounting advice; management consultation; worker education; and advice on democratic decision-making systems. ICA offered most services on an ability-to-pay fee structure, as work with low-income groups, minorities, and blue-collar workers was a high priority. Funding from outside sources (especially the Ford Foundation) allowed the ICA to make its services available to organizations that were unable to pay.
Over the years ICA's own internal structure evolved in order to carry out its purpose more efficiently and more democratically. ICA began as an organization of volunteers drawn from academic, business and community organizations, all of whom also acted as the organization's board of directors. Later this self-perpetuating governance was altered so that the staff selected a board that also included public members.
ICA's first executive director was Steven L. Dawson, who had an extensive background in community organizing including work as field director of the National Association for the Southern Poor. Dawson continued as ICA executive director for ten years and was followed by James D. Megson, a business consultant who had assisted worker-owned companies throughout the world.
Other early staff included David Ellerman, a member of the Economics Department faculty of the University of Massachusetts, who served as staff economist, and Christopher Mackin, of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, who served as education specialist and director of policy. He was replaced as education coordinator by Chuck Turner and, from 1985 to 1993, by Frank Adams. By 1986 the staff had grown to seventeen employees and an operating budget of $660,000.
In 1981 ICA formed a Legal Department which was headed by Peter Pitegoff, who had began working with ICA on a part time basis in 1979. In 1986 this structure was revised after which ICA worked through the affiliated law firm Arrington and Pitegoff. Pitegoff and Ellerman were active in the enactment of the Massachusetts law which governed democratic corporate structure. This legislation was subsequently adopted by several other states.
In 1983 the ICA Revolving Loan Fund, Inc., was formed as a supporting organization in order to provide temporary financing to cooperating members. Founding support of the RLF included the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Ford Foundation, a number of Catholic religious orders and Protestant denominations, and other individuals. Together, they provided a $1 million capitalization to launch the RLF, which was headed by Laura Henze. Subsequently the fund was headed by Vickie Scott Grove and Karen Jacobson, and, after 1993, by T. David Reese. During its first decade the RLF loaned a total of $1.2 million, which leveraged an additional $10 million in financing.
ICA's first client was the Colonial Press of Clinton, one of the largest book manufacturing companies in New England. With ICA assistance it was reorganized as the Colonial Cooperative Press. Other companies to which ICA provided ongoing consultation were the Workers' Owned Sewing Company of Windsor, North Carolina, a racially-mixed sewing company, and Moose Creek Restoration Company, a construction company. By 1982 ICA could claim that it had helped set up more than 50 worker-owned and controlled businesses, over 18 of which were still in existence. Among the casualties, however, was the Colonial Cooperative. Such experiences suggested that ICA was over-extending its resources and some subsequent feasibility studies such as those undertaken for Paragon Gears, Taunton, Massachusetts, recommended against worker buy-outs.
During the mid-1980's ICA also began a more active involvement with conventional, non-democratically managed ESOPs and their relation to labor unions. The ICA also developed a publishing program that included technical books and reports and, beginning in 1987, a newsletter, ICA Bulletin edited by Frank Adams, that included information about worker-owned companies.
