Lawmakers hear broad support for bills to expand employee ownership and give workers a right to buy

The Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies heard hours of testimony in support of bills that would include worker‑owned businesses in state economic development programs and give employees a formal right to purchase firms when owners sell.

Supporters said the package — filed as H.491 and H.503 (and companion S.305 in the Senate) — would preserve jobs, expand local ownership, and give retiring owners an additional buyer option. “Before the closure ... I realized that without taking the power directly into the workers' hands, employees would not be able to mitigate the impact of these sorts of business decisions,” Caleb Zadehk, a founding co‑owner of Circus Cooperative Cafe in Cambridge, told the committee.

Backers described three main pillars in the proposals: (1) explicitly naming worker‑owned businesses as eligible for state economic development programs; (2) creating a formal right of first refusal that gives employee groups advance notice and time to organize if an owner seeks to sell; and (3) a…