Women from Rocinha, the largest carioca1 slum, established COOPA-ROCA. The present research aims at arriving at an answer to the following question: in setting up a popular cooperative, have women from Rocinha invented a genuinely new model of labor organization or have they merely reproduced models already existing in the market? The methodological procedures obeyed principles drawn from the ground theory. Thus, five categories emerged: a) motivation for association; b) sense of cooperativism; c) decision-making process; d) labor organization model; and, e) the meaning of being a craftswoman. In addition to these, one central category came into view: The Third Sector-based Instrumentalization. As a result, the following proposals were set up: a) considering that it is part of a network organization, the spirit of craftsmanship in its original sense is modified due to pressing demands arising from the production-end; b) the socioeconomical context determines the organizational model of cooperative work.