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Mondragon Corporation

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111–120 of 291 posts

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#111

There are lots of small tech worker coops in the U.S. and Canada. See https://techworker.coop . I co-founded one, Sassafras Tech Collective, in Ann Arbor. It's been an amazing journey. I don't think I could ever go back to working in a non-democratic workplace.

Can you speak to the downsides of a democratic workplace? How do you avoid the pitfalls of a union where people end up getting compensated for things like seniority instead of skill?

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#112

There are lots of small tech worker coops in the U.S. and Canada. See https://techworker.coop . I co-founded one, Sassafras Tech Collective, in Ann Arbor. It's been an amazing journey. I don't think I could ever go back to working in a non-democratic workplace.

> It's been an amazing journey.

So you sold it, eh?

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#113

I thought Chomsky's quote was interesting. "Take the most advanced case: Mondragon. It’s worker owned, it’s not worker managed, although the management does come from the workforce often, but it’s in a market system and they still exploit workers in South America, and they do things that are harmful to the society as a whole and they have no choice. If you’re in a system where you must make profit in order to survive…

Is the alternative 100% top-down central-managed solution to ensure no externalization happens ever? In theory that's appealing (especial from the view from Chomsky's academic ivory tower), but then in practice every time it's been tried it hasn't worked well at all.

Chomsky is smart, but not very useful because "In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is" - Yogi Berra

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#114
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a weak and low effort post. This is not reddit. If you didn't find anything then that's were you should stop, otherwise you're only trying to entertain your biases and push them onto us.

I love how everyone here thinks they are above bias. It's precious. I'm just honest about mine.

Nobody said any of that, just told you to not accuse people of BS without proof.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#115

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…

Very interesting (and refreshing) counterpoint! Makes me think about Norway/Finland and whether something similar is going on here

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#116

I thought Chomsky's quote was interesting. "Take the most advanced case: Mondragon. It’s worker owned, it’s not worker managed, although the management does come from the workforce often, but it’s in a market system and they still exploit workers in South America, and they do things that are harmful to the society as a whole and they have no choice. If you’re in a system where you must make profit in order to survive…

It's easy for anyone to take potshots from the sidelines, but surely Chomsky sees the economic, and humanitarian disasters that non-market based systems ALWAYS result in. What's the alternative here?

The quote there seems to have issues with the profit motive, not market systems.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#117
post #5

They even run their own university. https://www.mondragon.edu/en/home for people who want to do their degree there and then I guess have a path into the company itself ?

General Motors used to run a university as well (they split in 1982, and renamed from General Motors Institute in 1998): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettering_University

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#118
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 distribu…

Oh, I didn't know the English term. In my country we literally say what it would mean "Catholic social doctrine" instead.

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#119
post #47

I wouldn't hold Mondragon Corporation to a very high standard. Back in 2005-06 the company I worked in was intending to acquire Mondragon's wind turbine business (Ecotecnia). This was finally acquired by Alstom. During the due diligence we saw the high level of political corruption, and terrorism financing Mondragon was involved in. Very distrubing. Once we saw this, we stopped looking at the acquisition.

By that measure you shouldn't really consider any of the large Spanish companies, as all of them have extremely close ties to francoism. At least for Mondragon they are a drop in the other bucket. Still, I would be very skeptical about these "terrorism financing", since the data you acquired was very probably massaged by the Spanish authorities to look as bad as possible.

> any of the large Spanish companies, as all of them have extremely close ties to francoism

Come on dude, is this really necessary in HN? Don't you think you're stretching it a bit?

Re: Mondragon Corporation

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that measure you shouldn't really consider any of the large Spanish companies, as all of them have extremely close ties to francoism. At least for Mondragon they are a drop in the other bucket. Still, I would be very skeptical about these "terrorism financing", since the data you acquired was very probably massaged by the Spanish authorities to look as bad as possible.

> any of the large Spanish companies, as all of them have extremely close ties to francoism Come on dude, is this really necessary in HN? Don't you think you're stretching it a bit?

Sure, comparing the basque struggle to the francoist genocide was quite a stretch of my part. Sorry about that, mate!
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