Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | April 6, 2026 | wbjournal.com A small Worcester print company is on the cutting edge of a statewide push toward employee ownership BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor S en. Elizabeth Warren is a fan of Worx Printing Coop- erative. Gov. Maura Healey would like to see more com- panies like it. Even Sen. Ted Cruz has offered support to similar companies. At its heart, Worx is a printing shop, producing customized T-shirts, hats, and other merchandise for more than 200 clients, generating millions of dollars in revenue each year. What sets it apart from its competitors is an own- ership structure governed by one ideal: one worker, one vote. "Every year we help hundreds of organizations with their merchandise, millions of dollars in sales," Worx Co-Founder Kevin O'Brien said. "We're finally, aer 12 years of fits and starts, finding our plateau and our groove and really focusing on us and how to strengthen our cooperative." Founded in 2014, Worx is a union- ized worker-owned cooperative, where the eight worker-owners all have a stake in the business occupying the upper floor of an unassuming 110-year-old brick manufacturing building south of Downtown Worcester. As Baby Boomer business owners retire, Massachusetts is pushing employee ownership as a succession strategy, with cooperatives like Worx and employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, posi- tioned as alternatives to private equity or closure. In October, Gov. Healey launched the Massachusetts Center for Employee Ownership to help businesses explore and adopt employee-ownership models. "Whenever you visit Worx, every- one's happy to tell you about it," said Kevin Kuros, interim director of MassCEO. "Most employee-owners are part worker and part evangelist. ey love talking about their business. ey love talking about what worker ownership has meant to them." Worx is one of five active worker cooperatives in Central Mass. and several dozen throughout the state, according to MassCEO. e state is home to at least 130 ESOPs; in Central Massachusetts, the largest one is the 2,500-employee Consigli Construction in Milford. The go-to printer Worx's values and its business model has made it the go-to printing part- ner for a variety of labor unions and pro-labor politicians, including Sen. Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Other clients include Doctors Without Borders, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the Service Employees Interna- tional Union. e company filled 60,000 orders from Warren fans aer she announced the end of her presidential campaign in 2020. "ere are over 100,000 businesses in the country that represent that they sell custom merchandise," O'Brien said. "Because we've chosen the highest bar for ethics is one reason people seek us out. To choose the union cooperative model means having to do a lot more work, and people appreciate that. I think they also appreciate having a clean supply chain they can believe in." Before he co-founded Worx, O'Brien was involved in SweatX, a 2002 attempt by Ben and Jerry's Co-Founder Ben Cohen to push against the hollowing out of America's textile industry and the increasing reliance on overseas child labor. From a small Los Angeles workshop, SweatX attempted to hire experienced garment workers, educate them on running a cooperative, and then sell the business to the workers. SweatX faltered aer two years. e support network for worker coop- eratives had yet to form, but it had sufficiently grown by the time O'Brien helped form Worx in 2014, he said. Worx was inspired by Mondragon PHOTOS | MATT WRIGHT Cooperative ownership Sheri Williams, one of the eight worker-owners at Worx F O C U S MANUFACTURING Kevin Kuros

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