Mondragon Corporation
The Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC ) is the world's largest co-operative and the seventh largest company in Spain. It has its headquarters in Mondragón in the Basque country and operates globally. MCC to include more than 100 companies from various sectors such as engineering, automotive industry, household appliances (among Fagor ), construction, retail trade (among supermarket chain Eroski ), banks and insurance companies.
Foundation
The cooperative was founded in the small town of Mondragón in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, where it is headquartered to this day. During the Spanish Civil War the city suffered from mass unemployment. The young priest Arizmendiarrieta (1915-1976) decided to reduce the misery of the population with cooperative principles of self-help.
1943 built Arizmendiarrieta to a democratically organized Fachhochschule, which played a key role in the later co-operatives in the Basque Country. Three years after founding the first cooperative by five graduates of the vocational school founded by Arizmendiarrieta Caja Laboral was launched, a credit union, cooperatives and cooperative start-ups financed. The special aspect of this that the real cooperatives to service role by the low interest rates on borrowings for start-ups.
The cooperative idea
The cooperatives are characterized by solidarity among workers who are involved at the same time the share capital of the cooperative group of companies and are involved in the decisions of the managing personnel through democratic voting processes. The Basque cooperatives of MCC have a people-oriented character, which is to highlight the work and not have the capital to the fore. This should contribute to a positive climate, which increases motivation and productivity of farms. The employees share in the profits. An operation is in financial difficulty, it can be absorbed by wage cuts with the consent of the employees. For large business problems or order peaks workers work briefly in other cooperatives. Almost all revenues generated are reinvested. Great importance is also attached to the ( further) education. Thus, the cooperative would not only economic needs, but also their social responsibilities.
Of the 103,000 workers in 2009 are 84,000 and cooperative. The contribution to be made by a so-called socio after six months of trial work, is 12,000 euros. A portion thereof is used as the investment capital. The rest is capital stock and is topped with the profits of the company. A pensioner may refer its capital or to continue to participate in the company's success. Unable to work receive benefits until the age of retirement, long term care even 150 % of remuneration. Executives earn a maximum of eight times of ordinary employees.
Organization
The supreme decision -making body is the cooperative congress with 650 members, composed of delegates from the individual cooperatives. The Annual General Meeting elects the " Governing Council " (Executive Board), which is responsible for the daily operations. Each individual cooperative has a works council, which elects a chairman, who advises the management of the company.
Problems
The size has produced tensions between the traditional values and ideals and the economic reality. There were allegations that factories were relocated there and would workers not granted the same rights. Nevertheless, the end of 2005 were still 81% of the 78 455 workers full members of the cooperatives. Job creation still has precedence over the interests of capital. So no job cuts was carried out since the establishment of the cooperative, in contrast to other industrial companies.
Unrest also produced the perceived growing distance between management and workers. While there is still the rule that the managerial staff may earn a maximum of eight times the workers salary. However, many workers do not feel more involved in the decision-making processes and so will indicate the common cooperative spirit and cohesion have subsided in the last generation.
Some cooperatives have already split off because they want to enforce more operational democracy in their unions.