Now Filming at the Mondragon Coops in Basque Country
“We started with nothing, and everything we have achieved was because of our own hard work and dedication,” explains Jose Maria Ormaetxea, who was one of the five founding members of the Mondragon coops in 1956. Now these worker owned coops employ 85,000 people and had revenues of about 25 billion dollars in 2010.
We have to interrupt our reports on worker owned companies in the U.S., because we are now visiting the Mondragon coops in the Basque region of northern Spain. Our days are long and intense as we film in numerous factories, universities, research centers, the coop bank and social service agency. We’ve been given complete access to coop managers, regular workers and others in the region to report on what these remarkable cooperatives have achieved and the complex ways they work together to benefit their worker owners and the economy of the entire region.
People here are feeling the effects of the economic crisis, of course, but unemployment in the Basque country is half what it is in the rest of Spain. The cooperatives take a variety of measures to prevent layoffs of members. They can vote to reduce their own hours or pay, or workers may be transferred temporarily to other cooperatives that are not as affected by the downturn. These worker owned coops employ 85,000 people and had revenues of about 25 billion dollars in 2010.
This worker owned bike factory builds some of the finest bicycles in the world. The Orbea sponsored mountain bike team now holds the world and Olympic championships.
We look forward to sharing more stories, both from here and from North America, in the coming weeks, as we wrap up our Mondragon filming and begin editing the documentary, Shift Change. Stay tuned.
Filed in: Basque Country • Blog
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It would be so nice if more people knew about Mondragon Cooperative here in the us. Since we now have the OWS continuing its teach ins around the country now would be the time for people to begin focusing on a new way of doing business.
It is our hope, with a new kind of food maker, to see small worker owned coops produce healthy food for the local community in small shops.
We need to get the idea of Mondragon onto a show like C Span or better yet an interested news person from one of the main stream media since that is where most people still receive most of their news.
We very much agree with how important it is to get these stories out! That is why we are making this film which will be available in mid-2012. Many of our films have been broadcast on PBS, include 5 that aired nationally. We have similar high hopes for SHIFT CHANGE as well. Stay tuned and spread the word.
Mark and Melissa,
You’ll want to know about a business model that spreads power and responsibility and is the whole set of guidelines that an enterprise can follow in order to optimize each participant’s autonomy. It’s worked great for decades and is called Sociocracy, Dynamic Governance, and Dynamic Self-Governance. http://www.BeyondDemocracyTheFilm.com
My “film” turned into a 28-minute video. I’d love to send you one.
I desperately need another film about Mondragon. I use a documentary from the mid-1980s in my classes at Michigan State University, but it is dated and really not suited to today’s digital generation. Please let me know when you’re ready to distribute your video.
SHIFT CHANGE is now available for purchase and rental. More info and online ordering here: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/shift.html