Peachy Green Clean Cooperative The Economic Justice Coalition A cleaning business parading around as a Cooperative with no votes, no benefits, unequal pay, and a joining fee Athens Georgia

I had the unfortunate pleasure at getting a behind the scenes look at one of the greediest and most unethical business ideas ever coming to fruition in Athens, Ga. A business that on the outside looks like a Cooperative but in all actuality is not. A Cooperative is a democratically owned and operated commercial entity. This was a business ran by a few for the few with the people actually doing the work getting almost none of the profits. If you have ever purchased from them please think for a moment how much you paid and how many hours the employee worked. Then check the labels I made that clearly list the ingriedents and see for yourself how much vinegar, ammonia, beeswax, and baking soda cost. During my three months the average person was paying anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour an or more depending on the "detail" of the clean and all the actual employees were given was $11 an hour and generally only one employee did the entire job (well besides quote it and pocket the sweet cheese huh Patrick Davenport and Mrs Lloyd?). No benefits, no vote, and an occasional hint at equity in the future.  For those of you who don't understand equity, its a guaranteed percentage of the money earned if and when a company is sold. This makes no sense in a cooperative because even if it was truly a cooperative it no longer would be a cooperative after someone else bought it kinda ruining the whole "cooperative edge." This edge and I quote "78% of people said they were more likely to purchase from a cooperative" is word for word why this business tried to appear to be a cooperative.

If the fact that the employees only get roughly 10-20% of the earnings and are being paraded around as coowners to outsiders while in all actuality they are "independent contractors", wasn't bad enough in and of itself lets take a minute to weigh the costs/donations that went into making the Peachy Green Clean Cooperative. First and foremost before the first house was cleaned the Peachy Green Clean Cooperative raised nearly $3000 through a gofundme account. First cost there was a $100 business license. Then enough vinegar, ammonia, beeswax, and water to clean a hundred houses or more would be another $20 if these items were imported from a foreign country but they aren't in fact most of the supplies were donated or given at a discount through a local supplier. Then another $60 was spent on software which Ill discuss further in a second. Basically virtually no overhead cost yet someone at the top thinks that not only do they need 4 to 9 dollars for every dollar the employee gets but they also feel the need to charge that employee $25 to join and have a vote when as I already stated in my four month internship there was not one vote on anything at all. No votes or elections at all whatsoever Not the color of the shirt, nor the logo, nor the need to hire an outside accountant, nor the decision to take government contracts, nor the decision to use the Economic Justice Coalitions non-profit status to obtain microsoft products at a discounted rate for the use of the Peachy Green Clean Cooperative (P.G.C.C.).

Thats right not only are they parading independent contractors around as coowners while simultaenously making a killing off of them, but they are at the same time charging them for the opportunity and putting them at risk for a lawsuit from microsoft for theft by deception, fraud, and violation of the terms of service for nonprofit companies offered by techsoup. They ripped Microsoft off on 5 operating systems and commercial edition Microsoft office suites for the total price of $60. Pretty sure that amount of savings equals a felony and I hope Microsoft reads this before they launch a suit against innocent bystanders the ones who are guilty are Patrick Davenport and Linda Lloyd

Now if all this wasn't bad enough the parent company who started this "the economic justice coalition" ( EJC for short) has set themselves up to be the leader in the fight for a living wage and they consider it to be $11 an hour without benefits and you should have to pay $25 for the opportunity. Shame on you Linda Lloyd (President of the E.J.C. and founder of the P.G.C.C.) and Shame on you Patrick Davenport (operations manager : didnt know cooperatives had those, oh wait they don't they have votes and elections managing operations) Spread the word we do not support wolves who don sheep attire.