Niki (far right) poses with some of her staff. She makes accommodations for employees struggling with prior convictions or legal status. Walter Thompson-Hernández
The labor movement and labor unions have had a tough time in recent years. But there are still new ideas, new ways of thinking about how to create truly democratic work spaces.
A few years ago, Niki Okuk started a tire recycling company in Los Angeles. RCO Tires is run along the lines of a worker-owned cooperative. Its employees are people who would ordinarily have a hard time finding any job — many with criminal records, or limited connections and education to leverage. Niki told Shannon Henry Kleiber she got the idea for it when she was working on her business degree at MIT.