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| Dan Clore... |
 Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:07 am |
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Steelworkers Form Collaboration with Mondragon
by Dollars and Sense
Steelworkers Form Collaboration with MONDRAGON, the World's Largest
Worker-Owned Cooperative
Pittsburgh (Oct. 27, 2009) -- The United Steelworkers (USW) and
MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for
collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the
manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and
MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt
collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model
of "one worker, one vote."
"We see today's agreement as a historic first step towards making union
co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower
workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada," said
USW International President Leo W. Gerard. "Too often we have seen Wall
Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and
hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants. We
need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in
communities."
Josu Ugarte, President of MONDRAGON Internacional added: "What we are
announcing today represents a historic first -- combining the world's
largest industrial worker cooperative with one of the world's most
progressive and forward-thinking manufacturing unions to work together
so that our combined know-how and complimentary visions can transform
manufacturing practices in North America."
Highlighting the differences between Employee Stock Ownership Plans
(ESOPs) and union co-ops, Gerard said, "We have lots of experience with
ESOPs, but have found that it doesn't take long for the Wall Street
types to push workers aside and take back control. We see Mondragon's
cooperative model with 'one worker, one vote' ownership as a means to
re-empower workers and make business accountable to Main Street instead
of Wall Street."
Both the USW and MONDRAGON emphasized the shared values that will drive
this collaboration. Mr. Ugarte commented, "We feel inspired to take this
step based on our common set of values with the Steelworkers who have
proved time and again that the future belongs to those who connect
vision and values to people and put all three first. We are excited
about working with Mondragon because of our shared values, that work
should empower workers and sustain families and communities," Gerard added.
In the coming months, the USW and MONDRAGON will seek opportunities to
implement this union co-op hybrid approach by sharing the common values
put forward by the USW and MONDGRAGON and by operating in similar
manufacturing segments in which both the USW and MONDRAGON already
participate.
The full text of the Agreement is available here.
About MONDRAGON:
The MONDRAGON Corporation mission is to produce and sell goods and
provide services and distribution using democratic methods in its
organizational structure and distributing the assets generated for the
benefit of its members and the community, as a measure of solidarity.
MONDRAGON began its activities in 1956 in the Basque town of Mondragon
by a rural village priest with a transformative vision who believed in
the values of worker collaboration and working hard to reach for and
realize the common good.
Today, with approximately 100,000 cooperative members in over 260
cooperative enterprises present in more than forty countries; MONDRAGON
Corporation is committed to the creation of greater social wealth
through customer satisfaction, job creation, technological and business
development, continuous improvement, the promotion of education, and
respect for the environment. In 2008, MONDRAGON Corporation reached
annual sales of more than sixteen billion euros with its own cooperative
university, cooperative bank, and cooperative social security mutual and
is ranked as the top Basque business group, the seventh largest in
Spain, and the world's largest industrial workers cooperative.
About the USW:
The USW is North America's largest industrial union representing 1.2
million active and retired members in a diverse range of industries.
WEBSITES:
http://www.usw.org
http://www.mondragon-corporation.com
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms" |
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