| Type | Worker cooperative |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1956 |
| Headquarters | Basque Country, Spain |
The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (Spanish: Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa - MCC) is a group of manufacturing and retail companies based in the Basque Country and extended over the rest of Spain and abroad. A worker coperative is a Cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its employees Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Basque Country ( Basque Euskadi, Spanish País Vasco) is an autonomous community in northern Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque Country ( Basque Euskadi, Spanish País Vasco) is an autonomous community in northern Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is one of the world's largest worker cooperatives and one important example of workers' self-management. A worker coperative is a Cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its employees Worker self-management (or autogestion) is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices (for issues like customer care general production
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Foundation
The company was founded in Arrasate, a town in Gipuzkoa known as Mondragón in Spanish. Arrasate or Mondragón ( Basque and Spanish official names Mondragoe is an unofficial Basque name - is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Guipúzcoa ( Spanish) or Gipuzkoa ( Basque and official is a province of the Basque Country, in Spain. The town had suffered badly in the Spanish Civil War and there was mass unemployment. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of A young priest, Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, arrived in 1941 and decided to focus on the economic development of the town, settling upon co-operative methods to achieve his goals. Father José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga ( 22 April, 1915 - 29 November, 1976) was a Catholic priest and founder of the Mondragón cooperative Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Co-operatives and self-help organisations had a long tradition in the Basque Country but had died away after the War.
In 1943, Arizmendi set up a democratically-managed Polytechnic School. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The school played a key role in the emergence and development of the co-operative movement. In 1956, five young graduates of the school set up the first co-operative enterprise, named ULGOR (now Fagor Electrodomésticos) after their surnames, which during its early years focused on the manufacture of petrol-based heaters and cookers. Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1959, they then set up the Caja Laboral Popular ("People's Worker Bank"), a credit union that both allowed the co-operative members access to financial services and subsequently provided start-up funds for new co-operative ventures. The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A credit union is a Cooperative Financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift providing credit New co-operative companies started up in the following years, including Fagor Electrónica, Fagor Ederlan and Danobat.
It has also extended by inviting other co-operatives to join the group and offering rescue for some failed companies on condition of co-operativization.
The group companies give preference to fellow co-operatives. Co-operative workers manage their finances through Caja Laboral, hold health insurances and pension funds at Lagun Aro and have discounts at Eroski markets and on Fagor appliances. Fagor is a large domestic and commercial appliance manufacturer based in the Basque Country, Spain. Eroski stores are furnished by co-operative trucks. Members may have studied at a group ikastola and extended studies at the Mondragoón University while having a labor stage at a co-operative. An Ikastola (plural Ikastolak) is a type of school in the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre and (to a much lesser extent the French Basque Country
When a cooperative has got in economical trouble, workers have preferred to take pay cuts over layoffs. If the situation deteriorates seriously, redundant workers are provided with positions in other group co-operatives.
Current developments
In the 1980s, the various companies responded to pressures of globalisation by joining together as the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation . The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. The MCC is now the Basque Country's largest corporation, the seventh largest in Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is considered the world's largest worker co-operative. In 2006 the MCC contributed 3. 8% towards the total GDP of the Basque Country.
Education has always been key to MCC and its development, hence the conversion of the old school into the University of Mondragón in the 1990s, a private university to promote further development. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 Some 4,000 students attend the university campuses in Oñati , Eskoriatza and Mondragón. Oñati is a town located in the province of Guipúzcoa, in the Autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. Eskoriatza (Escoriaza is a town and Municipality in Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in northern Spain Arrasate or Mondragón ( Basque and Spanish official names Mondragoe is an unofficial Basque name - is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa
MCC now constitutes over 150 companies, with important manufacturing and engineering interests, as well as retail, financial and educational arms. Its supermarket arm, Eroski, is the largest Spanish-owned retail food chain and the third largest retail group in Spain. Eroski is a Basque Supermarket chain with nearly 1000 outlets spread across Spain (excluding franchises
The Basque government and the tax authorities of the Basque provinces have special measures to help co-operatives. The Deba county around Mondragón has kept a very high employment rate even during Basque industrial crisis. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development defines the employment rate as the percentage of the working age population (ages 15 to 64 in most OECD countries
Organization
The sovereign body is the 650-member Co-operative Congress, its delegates elected from across the individual co-operatives. The annual general assembly elects a governing council which has day-to-day management responsibility and appoints senior staff. For each individual business, there is also a workplace council, the elected President of which assists the manager with the running of the business on behalf of the workers.
Further reading
- Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex (1991), William Whyte. ISBN 0875461814
- We Build the Road as We Travel: Mondragon, A Cooperative Social System, Roy Morrison. ISBN 0965890317
- The Mondragon Cooperative Experience (1993), J. Ormachea.
- Cooperation at Work: The Mondragon Experience (1983), K. Bradely & A. Gelb.
- Values at Work: Employees participation meets market pressure at Mondragon (1999), G. Cheney.
- Mondragon: An economic analysis (1982), C. Logan & H. Thomas.
- The Myth of Mondragon: Cooperatives, Politics, and Working-Class Life in a Basque Town (1996), by Jarrin Kasmir, State University of New York Press.
- From Mondragon to America: Experiments in Community Economic Development (1997), by G. MacLeod, University College of Cape Breton Press. ISBN 0-920336-53-1
External links
- MCC homepage (multi-lingual--English, French, German, Spanish, and Basque (Euskara))(uses Macromedia Flash, but it's not required)
- CEPES MCC is member of the Spanish National Confederation of social economy Enterprises. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently Social economy refers to a third sector in economies between the private sector and business or the public sector and government
- Work Changes within Mondragón
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