Worker cooperatives -- a viable third way needed now more than ever

[IrateCitizen]

I found this article on one of my favorite sites -- Energy Bulletin -- about the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of Spain. It describes how the companies have been able to not only sustain themselves in good times, but also how their worker-centered approach has enabled them (and, more importantly, the surrounding communities where the workers live) to weather the economic downturn. It certainly makes me think about the ideas of egalitarian cooperation as a more resilient alternative to cutthroat competition combined with top-down management.

Published Jun 4 2009 by Yes! Magazine, Archived Sep 4 2009

Mondragón Worker-Cooperatives Decide How to Ride Out a Downturn
by Georgia Kelly, Shaula Massena

The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC), the largest consortium of worker-owned companies, has developed a different way of doing business—a way that puts workers, not shareholders, first.

Here’s how it played out when one of the Mondragón cooperatives fell on hard times. The worker/owners and the managers met to review their options. After three days of meetings, the worker/owners agreed that 20 percent of the workforce would leave their jobs for a year, during which they would continue to receive 80 percent of their pay and, if they wished, free training for other work. This group would be chosen by lottery, and if the company was still in trouble a year later, the first group would return to work and a second would take a year off.

The result? The solution worked and the company thrives to this day.

The central importance of workers permeates every aspect of the Mondragón Cooperatives. Even though the MCC businesses are affected by the global financial crisis, there is no unemployment within the MCC businesses. People are moved around to other jobs, or hours are cut without cutting pay. The wages for unworked hours are to be repaid through extra hours worked later in the year.

Contrary to what some advocates of top-down management say, this worker-centered focus hasn’t been an obstacle to growth. Founded in 1956 by Father Don Jose Arizmendi, a Basque Catholic priest, the Mondragón cooperatives today comprise more than 100 cooperatives, as well as more than 100 subsidiaries that MCC has purchased and hopes to convert. Altogether, MCC companies employ more than 100,000 worker/owners and in 2007 generated revenues of more than $24 billion.

This empire of egalitarianism grew from humble roots. Father Arizmendi brought together the residents of this Basque community through study circles and workshops. His aim was to confront high levels of unemployment that kept the region in poverty and isolation. The philosophy that emerged from those meetings put the rights and well-being of workers first, with growth mainly aimed at providing additional jobs and job security to employees.

These principles drive everyday practice at MCC companies. For instance, while most businesses determine voting power based on how many company shares a person owns, MCC cooperatives allocate each worker one vote. They also stick to an egalitarian pay scale—top management is rarely paid more than six times the lowest-paid worker. Profits and losses are distributed among all the members equitably because their efforts together determine the success of the company....

READ THE REST HERE

[patrice]

1. a.k.a. Personal Responsibility for your job & work place. nt

[IrateCitizen]

2. Exactamundo!!!!

A sense of responsibility flows from a sense of ownership, not from being told from on high.

I am hopeful that if one thing emerges from the unraveling of the current economic order (and yes, it is as dead as Dillinger now, only inertia is keeping it afloat for the time being) it will be space to create more cooperative, commonwealth-oriented enterprises such as this.

[patrice]

3. I am hopeful for this too.

And I'm lucky enough to be able, in my own job, to see a way forward to this. Still much up in the air (Health Care especially) so I'll have to see how things work out, but I actually think Labor Cooperatives are becoming more possible.