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Mondragon Corporation

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Re: Mondragon Corporation

#71

Post by nickbauman »

mojuba wrote: post #64

There's a "sister" concept of this called steward-ownership, promoted by this German organization: https://purpose-economy.org/en/ They have a lot of interesting materials and case studies (Bosch, Zeiss and others). Basically you can form an LLC the majority of which will be owned by the employees and will also guarantee that the company can never be acquired. There are a few schemes that can attract investments on s…

This is another form of cooperative, especially in early stage. Once the cooperative gets established, you eventually want to become a C Corp to be able to manage investments for your employees and plan on an orderly succession.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#72

Post by pharke »

Arkhaine_kupo wrote: post #14

So some thing that are a bit less glamorous than described on the article is that one reason this works so well is because of the conditions of the place it runs in. This coop comes from the basque country, a northern autonomous region of Spain. It is a fairly rich area, with a huge port and industrial past and a pretty tight knit community. This generates an environment that allows for certain things to happen. One…

It sounds like the strategy is working. I wonder how many of the current successes would be possible if it operated the same as any other region of Spain. I'm not sure how far the xenophobic attitude you mention extends but it sounds more like the 'buy local' movement the way you describe it here.

In regards to game theory, the outcomes of this particular game may even be more optimal given that the set of actions is more constrained and the strategies are better known.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#74

Post by denzil_correa »

cies wrote: post #50
kumarharsh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nothing compared to Amul - a dairy behemoth in India which employs about 3.6 MILLION people. They brought in the "White Revolution" making India the largest milk producer in the world! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul

This Amul a worker coop? I'm only interested in worker coops, should have specified that.

I guess so.

> It is important to note that Amul Federation passes on 80-85% of consumer rupee back to milk producer members thus encouraging them to produce more milk.

https://amul.com/files/pdf/GCMMF-sales-Turnover-2017-18-0104...

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#76

Post by jawns »

TurboHaskal wrote: post #19
hkt wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forget the influence of the church. Much of the origins of the coop businesses come from church oriented communities serving their needs in some way. I'd also argue that lots of relatively limited local maxima where everyone is happy and materially comfortable is a million times better than centralised hell of capitalism as it stands. Limited maybe, but most people won't approach the ceiling in more dynamic place…

Well it's Catholic doctrine after all. Edit: Downvoters should read about distributism.

Hi, I'm a big fan of distributism and co-ops, and I'm also a Catholic. But I have to quibble with you.

Distributism is not Catholic doctrine. It's a third-way economic system that is compatible with Catholic social teaching, and several influential Catholic figures, such as G.K. Chesterton, helped promulgate it. But you don't have to be Catholic to be a distributist, and you can be a Catholic without being a distributist.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#77

Post by Ygg2 »

tasogare wrote: post #41

In France, in the game industry, there is Motion Twin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Twin "Motion Twin is run as an anarcho-syndicalist workers cooperative with equal salary and decision-making power between its members." Also, this is where the Haxe programming language was created.

Also, they made the awesome rougelike Dead Cells.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#78

Post by weberc2 »

cies wrote: post #2

From the article: At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1. That is, the general manager of an average Mondragon cooperative earns no more than 5 times as much as the theoretical minimum wage paid in their cooperative. For most workers, this ratio is smaller…

Fixing the quote format so people can read it:

> At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1. That is, the general manager of an average Mondragon cooperative earns no more than 5 times as much as the theoretical minimum wage paid in their cooperative. For most workers, this ratio is smaller because there are few Mondragon worker-owners that earn minimum wages, because most jobs are somewhat specialized and are classified at higher wage levels. The wage ratio of a cooperative is decided periodically by its worker-owners through a democratic vote.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#79

Post by m-i-l »

cies wrote: post #2

From the article: At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1. That is, the general manager of an average Mondragon cooperative earns no more than 5 times as much as the theoretical minimum wage paid in their cooperative. For most workers, this ratio is smaller…

> Does anyone know of any sizable examples of this ownership-model in tech?

There is a tech-aligned version of the worker co-op called a platform co-op, with some examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_cooperative#Examples .

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#80

Post by TheNorthman »

LatteLazy wrote: post #66

Does anyone know how you become an employee-owner (or cease to be one) at Mondragon? Is it a matter of buying in or length of service or are some roles owners and other roles just not?

https://drpop.org/mondragon-how-do-you-become-a-member/

> The path to becoming a member of one of the cooperatives begins much like any other employment relationship – a position must be available, and the individual needs to be the right person for the job, as well as pre-disposed to cooperation. Once that is established, the worker is hired into a six-month contract as a temporary employee, much like the provisional period for many employees in a conventional enterprise.

> Depending on the proven suitability of the employee for the job and the availability of long-term work in the company, a good employee may be proposed for membership, or in cases where long-term work is not yet available, offered a renewed contract (for no more than three years). In some cases, “unsuitable” workers, who just don’t work out, may be asked to leave.

> Once membership is mutually accepted, the worker has 36 months to contribute his or her initial capital share of €15,000 , which represents the system’s minimum annual salary. This can be amortized through salary deductions, or in some cases borrowed from a bank as “capital to work.”

> At any given time at least 80% of the workers of any Mondragon cooperative must be full-fledged members.

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