this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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I’ve heard people claim that Mondragon depends on a lot of workers who aren’t members of the co-op but this isn’t really mentioned. Perhaps this change happened after the period this piece is focused on?
Definitely a valid critique of Mondragon in the modern era, its commitment to the 10% ratio has atrophied somewhat. It's still something that ebbs and flows, for example there is a current push to transfer 35,000 non-member workers in their retail coop into full members (from a total of 50,000 workers). From numbers I've seen, 85% of employees are still members, which is pretty good.
Oh! I am so happy to see one! I have soo many question!
> Do you like the member status?
Of course. Being a member of such a project entails many challenges, both individually and collectively. It involves answering many questions, which are sometimes very difficult since they stand face to face as contradictions to be resolved.
> Did you join because of the coop?
It was important to me that my work be carried out in a cooperative, both for the way things were done and the long-term sustainability of the project.
> How much are people in Mondragon aware/proud of the coop status? Do some just not care?
This question is difficult to answer, given that we are 40 cooperatives and 70,000 people directly involved. (https://www.mondragon-corporation.com/people/en/about-us/) Within each cooperative, there are different ways and realities, and this also impacts the connection to the project. Some people opt for the project from a more ideological perspective and others from a labor perspective, and in this sector, there are people with little connection to the project. Within Mondragon, we have our own university, and there is a department dedicated to studying the reality of the Mondragon project. You may be able to find interesting papers and research on the topic on their website: https://lanki.mondragon.edu/en/home
> Do the management/discussion part of the work take a lot of time?
Within each cooperative, there are different organizational structures, as each cooperative is autonomous in managing its internal structure. Typically, two structures are distinguished: productive and organizational. The productive responds to day-to-day operational needs. The organizational or social structure focuses on member participation. Remember that we are employment cooperatives, as you can only become a member if you work for the same cooperative, and you cease to be one the moment you leave. Participation times in these forums can vary greatly from cooperative to cooperative, ranging from two hours a month to two hours a week.
> I would love to have something similar around where I live (Isère, France) to do industrial robotics. Any tips on how to start? Does Mondragon help seed other coops?
First of all, I want to tell you that I love the Isere region. The Ecrins are a wonderful area for mountaineering, another passion of mine. Giving some tips from a current perspective is difficult, since I joined a consolidated project with a few years of experience. I think the biggest difference to clarify is the aforementioned consumer and worker cooperative. In our case, there are no investing members like in food purchasing cooperatives. And this is sometimes difficult to understand from the perspective of more general consumer cooperatives. Mondragon doesn't encourage the creation of other projects in other countries, as cultural differences and lack of precise knowledge of the methods used make the process very difficult. What it does offer are knowledge courses and a 10-day stay to learn about the project locally. https://www.mondragon.edu/en/keys-mondragon-cooperative-experience
I don't know if I've clarified your doubts. If you'd like, we can continue discussing the topic.
Hi! Sorry for the late answer, I am not sure why I did not see an answer notification until now.
That's really interesting.
I am not sure I understand what the different between productive and organizational structures are?
I have a few down to earth questions:
How is the hierarchy organized/avoided? I guess there must be some managers, but are they considered like peers, are they elected with a mandate?
My understanding is that wages are public. Are there wage differences? How big? How does that gets decided?
You metion cultural differences, do you have any specific in mind when it comes to France? I know in the past there were frictions with unions, as Mondragon did not consider unions useful anymore as they have their own control structure, but is that debate still active? Are there any other cultural differences that can hurt?
Do cooperatives compete between them? I could see reasons to do so, if one is dysfunctional, but I can also see scenarios where they would prefer to simply merge. Does this type of things happen? Has it happened in Mondragon?
I did not know about the knowledge courses, that's a good information, thanks! I guess I need to start scheduling middle-term to find a window to go there.
Yes I know that there are many different things that are called cooperatives and that not all of them are workers cooperatives, one indeed needs to be precise when using that word. In theory consumer cooperatives should be called "mutuals" but we rarely see that word used outside of banking and insurance mutuals.