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Dear Race and Colleagues,
The question of democratic shop floor management is
clearly very important but let me raise two other issues.
- As we watch the corporate global economy gathering
strength and momentum, Mondragon (and co-operatives around the world) needs to
ask what is the co-operative alternative. Can Mondragon continue
indefinitely with co-operative democracy for the Basques but non-co-operative
ventures outside the Basque Country? Can any regional or national
co-operative business or set of businesses compete with no transnational
linkages? What form can these linkages take that is consistent with
co-operative values and principles? What is a "co-operative joint
venture"? A "co-operative strategic alliance?" An "international
co-operative merger"? How will co-operatives in Northern Italy link
co-operatively to Mondragon and to our consumer co-operatives in lets say
North America?
I have been trying to interest the MCC in a "joint
venture, and while the door has not yet closed (one way or the other) it is not
an area where much thought has been given. I would like to see this come
up for discussion as well.
- How do the enormous number of 'consumer' based
co-operatives begin to convert to stakeholder co-operatives (like Eroski) that
reflect the mutual interests of consumers and workers? Who is studying
attempts to do this? Legislation that allows it?
I have started a more lengthy response to your
paper Race but I must admit it is a slow process taking the back seat to more
mundane concerns. Yet one day it will arrive on the list
serve.
Tom Webb
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 9:13
AM
Subject: Re: Mondragon: Re:
Mondragon
Dear Race, Chris and mondragon@cog:
Lots of, uh, challenging short-term
deadlines in Mondragon. Lean production, you know. Hope to add
my two cents to the discussion when things slow down a bit at the end of the
month or in August. I was just scratching out a handful of "key"
factors I think have been in play in Mondragon in recent years and the list
quickly grew to a dozen or fifteen. Reminds me of the comment made by
a Canadian who visited the co-ops a year or so ago. She said,
"Whenever we ask you a question about Mondragon, your first response
is: 'It's complicated' or 'Yes and no' or 'It
depends.' "
Regards,
Fred
----- Original Message -----
From: Hsq95@aol.com
To: mondragon@cog.kent.edu
Cc: lr@ownershipassociates.com ;
ff@ownershipassociates.com
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: Mondragon: Re: Mondragon
Race -
I believe that through
past correspondence you have acknowledged an acquaintance with my partner
Fred Freundlich who teaches on the faculty of Mondragon University.
He and his colleague Luxio Ugarte have a long standing theoretical and
practical interest in the democratization issues you describe as they are
being played out in Mondragon. Those questions are also a major
focus of our work here at Ownership Associates in ESOP and cooperative
companies that are our clients.
If you aren't in touch with Fred
and Luxio on these topics, you may want to consider doing so
(ff@ownershipassociates.com). You can see for yourself if our work
at Ownership Associates has anything to contribute to these
questions. My partner Loren Rodgers who takes the lead on our
Ownership Culture Survey (OCS) work and other responsibilities is nearly
finished with a re-tooling of our web page that will provide easier access
to people who wish to make use of our work. This note will hopefully
spur him on to get the revised web page done in the coming
week.
Loren will be presenting on some of that work at the
Eastern States Worker Cooperative Conference along with Tim Huet and
others July 10-21 at the University of Maryland. I will
unfortunately be tied up at a competing conference in Philadelphia most of
that weekend on behalf of the Mondragon inspired Sweat X project. I
may be in there that Friday night. Are you planning to
attend?
Finally, in my opinion Tim Huet and his colleagues in the
Bay area have gone further than anyone else in this country in digging in
to the details of how to make Mondragon style cooperative structures
work. As far as the gray hairs go though David Ellerman, Robert
Oakeshott and probably yourself still set the standard.
Chris
Mackin
www.ownershipassociates.com
Dear Fred
Thanks for your message. I'll look forward to your Luther-like nailing up
on the Portalon of your fifteen or so propositions of Mondragonian ambiguity
in August or sooner. Meanwhile, as you will see from my reponses to Chris
Macken and Shann Turnbull, one aspect of the mission of COG's Mondragon page
seems to me to be to encourage as many industrial relations, human resource
management and industrial democracy scholars and practitioners as possible to
apply their minds to the question of how the excellence of corporate
governance in the Mondragon mould can be replicated at the shopfloor level,
and it is very much my hope that people on the COHG page list who know of
prospective sources of advice will alert them to the discussion.
Correspondingly, there is a need for respondents within the co-operatives and
I wonder if you have any views as to how the interest of prospective
candidates can be engaged? Best wishes, Race --
Dr Race Mathews,
Senior Research Fellow,
Government and
Governance Unit,
Faculty of Business and Economics
Monash
University.
Postal Address:
123 Alexandra Avenue,
South Yarra,
Vic, 3141,
Australia.
Phone/Fax: (03) 9826 0104.
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