This 1980 article tells a great story about Workers' Owned Sewing Company in Windsor, NC. WOSC started in 1979 and operated for a couple decades as a majority Black worker co-op in rural eastern North Carolina. It wasn't easy. "Outside Bertie County and eastern North Carolina $3.10 per hour sounds pretty poor for a worker-owned coop, especially since the stock may never bring great financial dividends. But in Bertie County, with few industrial jobs existing, especially for women, and given the national standard for cut-and-sew, the pay at WOSC is a welcome contrast to unemployment or low-paid seasonal farmwork. Bazemore is not joking or exaggerating when he says that 'At minimum wage, we’re average.'” https://www.facingsouth.org/1980/12/workers-owned