Back when I was living in Boston, there was something that I ran into called The Woodworker's Guild. It wasn't really a union to speak of, but, what it was, was a bunch of woodworkers who got together and found a place to rent in an industrial area and set up a shop. Members paid dues to cover rent and brought in their own tools and used excess dues to purchase public use tools, the big ones, tablesaw, bandsaw, planer, etc.

I'm in the Bay area, anyone know of anything like this in my area?