Tag Archives: mondragon

Sustainability-Coops Leading the Way

Posted on November 4, 2019 by John McNamara

In the 2013 Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade, the ICA authors make the following case:

“Quite simply, a co-operative is a collective pursuit of sustainability. Co-operatives seek to ‘optimise’ outcomes for a range of stakeholders, without seeking to ‘maximise’ the … Continue reading →

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A New Year with Feathers

Posted on January 2, 2017 by John McNamara

The coming year brings, as always, hope. Given the rhetoric of the last year, that might seem a rather odd statement, but even if you feel that the abundance of hope has diminished, it still exists.
Indeed, in some of the … Continue reading →

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Managing Old Industries: A lesson for aging coops

Posted on November 4, 2013 by John McNamara

Last week, Mondragon’s General Consul announced that it had decided to cease its efforts to stabilize the FAGOR Cooperative Group. FAGOR electronics makes kitchen appliances: stoves, ovens, refrigerators, and even pressure cookers. It is the original Mondragon cooperative that began … Continue reading →

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AFL-CIO-NGO-TBD?

Posted on September 16, 2013 by John McNamara

At the recent convention of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization’s, the members spent a great deal of time surveying the reality of the labor movement in the United States and the significant changes since the last meeting … Continue reading →

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A Big Day in Pittsburgh

Posted on March 26, 2012 by John McNamara

For those of you who may not get the emails, the long awaited announcement by the USW and Mondragon will be made at 11:00 am EDT in Pittsburgh, PA. I haven’t really heard much about this project other than it … Continue reading →

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We Need New Laws

Posted on October 17, 2011 by John McNamara

Over the weekend, I wrote my Assembly Representative, Mark Pocan. The last time that the Democrats held the majority, Rep. Pocan co-chaired the powerful Joint Committee on Finance. Of course, today, his party is in the minority of a very … Continue reading →

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Contradictions in Paradise: When the Workers Become Bosses

Posted on January 31, 2011 by John McNamara

I have written extensively about Mondragon on these pages with almost all of it in a favorable light. There is, however, another side of Mondragon. As a matter of survival, Mondragon’s co-operatives have ventured abroad to place factories outside of … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Worker Rights | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Three Dimensional Business Integration

Posted on November 9, 2010 by John McNamara

The people who work in our businesses are not two dimensional, why should the structure be?
If you have studied business, or even US history, you have likely heard the term “vertical integration”. This concept was developed by US Steel as … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Human Relations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Can Syndicalism Help Worker Co-ops?

Posted on September 22, 2010 by John McNamara

If you talk to a lot of co-operative developers and community organizers in the United States about Mondragon, you will likely hear them extol the virtues of the Caja Popular (former the Caja Laboral Popular). The bank owned and controlled … Continue reading →

Posted in Worker Rights | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Agency Dilemma in Worker Co-operatives

Posted on September 21, 2010 by John McNamara

Last week at my other blog, Breathing Lessons, I discussed the Rochdale cul-de-sac as it applies to consumer cooperatives. This week, as part of this discussion over the future of US worker cooperatives, if not the labor movement in the … Continue reading →

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