The cooperative Titi Floris hires 70 people in one year

The cooperatve Titi Floris, located in Saint-Herblain (Loire-Atlantique), shows since its creation in 2006 a rapid growth and has become well known in the regional market of passenger transport. The Staff has increased in one year from 80 to 150 workers. "35 employees are now shareholders. “This provides transparency of operation while it is also a tool to retain employees," says the boss, Boris Couilleau.

At Titi Floris the school bus generates the most activities, half from local authorities and half with associations working with persons with disabilities. The main objective of the cooperative is to promote an access to transport, mobility and care for children, elderly or disabled people. The cooperative seeks first to bring new services to vulnerable people in isolated rural areas.

Creating Titi Floris under the cooperative status is the desire of his manager, Boris Couilleau, who wanted to highlight his values because this legal form ensures the best right to the employees and a fairer redistribution of the surplus (reserves, employees, shareholders). "I worked on a similar project within a typical enterprise in which working conditions were very difficult. I wanted to establish in this project the values of respect, participatory management, transparency and accountability of individuals. Cooperative status gives full coherence to the project". A psychologist and special educators are involved with employees to educate and train them in the care of the disabled public. "Our drivers are first and foremost trained and specialized to cope with disabilities. We are working and taking the time to make passengers more comfortable.”

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What is a cooperative

Cooperatives a sustainable employment solution!

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

Enterprises represented by CECOP are enterprises in which workers unite to satisfy their needs in terms of creation of sustainable jobs. They can be industrial enterprises or services rooted in the territories and having a long-term strategy. They are a genuine solution for sustainable jobs in Europe: they are broken down into workers’ cooperatives, social cooperatives and other types of enterprises owned by their workers.

Workers’ cooperatives: Workers’ cooperatives are enterprises subject to the same restrictions of competition, management and profitability as other companies. Their originality lies in the fact that their workers hold the majority of the shares, at least 51%. In doing so, the workers decide jointly on the major guidelines of their enterprises and appoint their leaders (managers, boards of directors, etc.). They also decide on how to share the profit with a twofold aim: to give the preference to the workers of the enterprises, in the form of refunds based on the work done and to consolidate the enterprises with a view to handing it over onto the future generations, i.e. creating reserves to reinforce the equity and ensuring thereby the sustainability of their enterprises. In all cooperatives, the internal democratic control is based on the principle of “one man, one vote” whatever the capital share held by the respective workers. Finally, the cooperative spirit promotes its employees information and training, a prerequisite to develop the autonomy, the motivation and responsibility, accountability required in an economic world which has become insecure. (Source: www.scop.coop)

Social cooperatives: Social cooperatives are specialised in the provision of social services or reintegration of disadvantaged and marginalised workers (disabled, long-term unemployed, former detainees, addicts, etc.). A large number of such cooperatives have been set up in Italy but also in other EU countries. Most of them are owned by their workers while offering the possibility or providing for the obligation (according to the national laws) to involve other types of members (users, voluntary workers, etc.).

Other types of enterprises owned by their workers: There are other types of enterprises owned by their workers such as for example the “Sociedades Laborales” in Spain which are real driving forces of economic and social activities which have contributed to lower the unemployment level and to revamp a sustained growth in Spain.