Co-operative in Basque country sets example
Tuesday 29 January 2013
Printable
EmailIt is almost two years since the Star published my letter in praise of the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation - the world's largest worker combined co-operative of 250 companies.
Since then I had been unable to find published accounts or any other indicator of how things were.
I feared the worst until recently when I came across a short piece on the BBC news website with the headline "Basque co-operative Mondragon defies Spain slump."
It describes some of the notable features of the co-operative in recession-hit Spain where unemployment is 25 per cent. It is 15 per cent in the Basque country and less than that in the the province of Guipuzcoa where Mondragon is based.
But despite these shocking figures not a single person in the corporation has been made redundant, though a small number of workers moved from one company to another.
Also the pay of bosses working at Mondragon is capped at six times that of the average worker.
Being the BBC the piece ends with a warning that this form of organised labour is not applicable outside the Basque country.
More surprisingly, there was only the shortest possible comment on the Co-operative News website, which was buried on some obscure page.
Who is following whose lead here?
John Baker
Sheffield
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