In Spain, Mondragon has been out there since the priest started the technical college, and then the graduates borrowed money from the villagers and bought that paraffin plant back in the 50's. At the end of 2011 it was providing employment for 83,869 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge.
In 2010 they posted revenues of $14.8 billion euros, around $20 billion US$ at the time.
They have not been unaffected by the global slowdown,but have yet to lay off anyone. Instead the owners - workers - shuffled their hours, and moved people to other plants, because they think work is a necessary part of living.
It has to be driven by the workers, however, and the Basque area is much more egalitarian than the US in general. They started with a technical college back in the late 40's, early 50's or so, and it's whole curricula is based on the idea that workers CAN do this, in sharp contrast to the US. Because control is spread across the org it also doesn't lend it self to private equity\junk bond firms overpaying, loading the business up with debt and taking money out to put in the pocket of some dirty, thieving, predatory company owners, leaving a bankrupt shell with debts for the taxpayer to pick up and no future for the employees who have worked there, sometimes for decades. No wonder the WSJ isn't all that interested.
The United Steelworkers signed an agreement last year to explore cooperative opportunities with Mondragon.
The U.S. had about 48,000 cooperatives listed last year, iirc. And the IWW supported, and still supports this concept.
Thank you for this.
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