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Basque Co-operative Mondragon Defies Spanish Slump
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Dan Clore
Aug 16, 2012, 4:34:13 PM8/16/12
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
[Also see this story:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/message/15367
--DC]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19213425
13 August 2012
Basque co-operative Mondragon defies Spain slump
By Tom Burridge
BBC News, Arrasate, Spain
Arrasate, Spain
Economic success stories are rare in recession-hit Spain these days but
one can be found in the small northern Basque town of Arrasate, nestling
in rolling green hills.
Here lies the headquarters of Mondragon, reckoned to be the world's
largest worker co-operative. The name is the same as the town's, when
translated from Basque into Spanish.
The unemployment rate in the Basque Country is 15%, and lower in the
province of Guipuzcoa, where Mondragon is based. The rate in Spain as a
whole is now 25%.
The Mondragon co-operative is a collective of around 250 companies and
organisations. They include Mondragon Assembly in Guipuzcoa, which
employs some 85 people.
The firm produces machines for making industrial components, for example
the room-sized plant for making solar panels.
According to the company's commercial director, Inaki Legarda,
government subsidies for renewable energy have dried up in much of
crisis-hit Europe, and therefore, so has much of the company's business
closer to home.
A worker at a Mondragon plant, Spain Workers have been protected from
the worst of the financial crisis by the co-operative system
"We used to sell a lot in Spain and in Europe," says Mr Legarda, but the
company is now targeting places like South Africa, Brazil, China and
North Africa.
Their two biggest projects at the moment are in Kazakhstan and Lithuania.
People's voice
Partly because of falling sales closer to home, Mondragon Assembly had
to lay off several workers throughout 2008 and 2009.
But those workers who lost their jobs were taken on by other companies
within the co-operative.
By 2010, the company's fortunes were on the up again, and those people
were able to return to their former jobs.
"Today we fortunately have work for everybody," says Mr Legarda.
"We are actually recruiting people from other companies within the group
because they are now having tougher times than us."
Map
Fagor Arrasate is another company within Mondragon, which employs around
600 people. They make house-sized machines which manufacture parts for cars.
The majority of the firm's workers are "socios", which translates
literally as "members", but also means they are all shareholders in the
business.
The socios, some of whom are managers, all have one vote in a general
assembly, which makes important decisions affecting the business.
Other decisions have to be approved by a governing council, elected by
the assembly.
Anoitz, a 34-year-old engineer working at Fagor Arrasate, argues that
"if many people are thinking about a problem, then the solution is better".
An example he gives is that if the business is not doing well, the
employees can vote to reduce their own salaries.
Interestingly, the pay of bosses working at Mondragon is capped at six
times that of the average worker.
'Egalitarian culture'
Oskar Goitia, head of Mondragon Automocion, a conglomerate of Mondragon
firms which do business in the automotive sector, says that for the
business model to work it requires "consensus".
Machine that makes parts for cars at Fagor Arrasate None of the firms in
the Mondragon co-operative have gone out of business
He admits it "takes a little bit more time to explain what the plans and
projects are.
"But once we agree� it's much easier because everyone pushes in the same
direction."
Firms within Mondragon are not immune to the eurozone crisis, but none
of its companies has gone out of business.
And although the Basque economy is expected to shrink by around 1.2% of
GDP this year, and the Spanish economy by approximately 1.5-1.8%, many
of the co-operative's companies are doing more of their business further
away from home.
However, according to Manuel Escudero, an economist at the prestigious
Deusto business school in Bilbao, the Mondragon model is difficult to
export.
He argues the region enjoys "a deep culture of egalitarianism".
And that is why, he believes, so far people who have travelled to
Mondragon to learn about the co-operative have been unable to replicate
this particular business model elsewhere.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
[Also see this story:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/message/15367
--DC]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19213425
13 August 2012
Basque co-operative Mondragon defies Spain slump
By Tom Burridge
BBC News, Arrasate, Spain
Arrasate, Spain
Economic success stories are rare in recession-hit Spain these days but
one can be found in the small northern Basque town of Arrasate, nestling
in rolling green hills.
Here lies the headquarters of Mondragon, reckoned to be the world's
largest worker co-operative. The name is the same as the town's, when
translated from Basque into Spanish.
The unemployment rate in the Basque Country is 15%, and lower in the
province of Guipuzcoa, where Mondragon is based. The rate in Spain as a
whole is now 25%.
The Mondragon co-operative is a collective of around 250 companies and
organisations. They include Mondragon Assembly in Guipuzcoa, which
employs some 85 people.
The firm produces machines for making industrial components, for example
the room-sized plant for making solar panels.
According to the company's commercial director, Inaki Legarda,
government subsidies for renewable energy have dried up in much of
crisis-hit Europe, and therefore, so has much of the company's business
closer to home.
A worker at a Mondragon plant, Spain Workers have been protected from
the worst of the financial crisis by the co-operative system
"We used to sell a lot in Spain and in Europe," says Mr Legarda, but the
company is now targeting places like South Africa, Brazil, China and
North Africa.
Their two biggest projects at the moment are in Kazakhstan and Lithuania.
People's voice
Partly because of falling sales closer to home, Mondragon Assembly had
to lay off several workers throughout 2008 and 2009.
But those workers who lost their jobs were taken on by other companies
within the co-operative.
By 2010, the company's fortunes were on the up again, and those people
were able to return to their former jobs.
"Today we fortunately have work for everybody," says Mr Legarda.
"We are actually recruiting people from other companies within the group
because they are now having tougher times than us."
Map
Fagor Arrasate is another company within Mondragon, which employs around
600 people. They make house-sized machines which manufacture parts for cars.
The majority of the firm's workers are "socios", which translates
literally as "members", but also means they are all shareholders in the
business.
The socios, some of whom are managers, all have one vote in a general
assembly, which makes important decisions affecting the business.
Other decisions have to be approved by a governing council, elected by
the assembly.
Anoitz, a 34-year-old engineer working at Fagor Arrasate, argues that
"if many people are thinking about a problem, then the solution is better".
An example he gives is that if the business is not doing well, the
employees can vote to reduce their own salaries.
Interestingly, the pay of bosses working at Mondragon is capped at six
times that of the average worker.
'Egalitarian culture'
Oskar Goitia, head of Mondragon Automocion, a conglomerate of Mondragon
firms which do business in the automotive sector, says that for the
business model to work it requires "consensus".
Machine that makes parts for cars at Fagor Arrasate None of the firms in
the Mondragon co-operative have gone out of business
He admits it "takes a little bit more time to explain what the plans and
projects are.
"But once we agree� it's much easier because everyone pushes in the same
direction."
Firms within Mondragon are not immune to the eurozone crisis, but none
of its companies has gone out of business.
And although the Basque economy is expected to shrink by around 1.2% of
GDP this year, and the Spanish economy by approximately 1.5-1.8%, many
of the co-operative's companies are doing more of their business further
away from home.
However, according to Manuel Escudero, an economist at the prestigious
Deusto business school in Bilbao, the Mondragon model is difficult to
export.
He argues the region enjoys "a deep culture of egalitarianism".
And that is why, he believes, so far people who have travelled to
Mondragon to learn about the co-operative have been unable to replicate
this particular business model elsewhere.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
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