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Since its modest beginnings in 1956 as technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters, the Mondragon Corporation is a worker owned collective of cooperatives that is the seventh largest Spanish company in terms of turnover (almost $2B) and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2008 it was providing employment for 92,773 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. This model is also prominent in Italy and other countries in Europe. The story in the US has been not so strong.

Today on Business Matters, we will explore the history of the worker owned cooperatives in the US. We will talk with several success stories and a financial collective that provides funding for these type of businesses. Finally, we will talk about a recent remarkable development that links the Mondragon folks and a large US union in a novel experiment.

Originally Broadcast on January 15, 2010
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Melissa Hoover

Executive Director

US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

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The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives is a national grassroots membership organization of and for worker cooperatives, democratic workplaces, and organizations that support the growth and development of worker cooperatives. Founded in 2004 as the result of several years of organizing on the part of worker cooperatives and regional groups from around the country.

They provide support to their members and educational outreach to the public through conferences and events, resource referrals, and networking and training opportunities. Check out the various sections of their site to connect to resources and see what’s happening in the dynamic and growing world of worker cooperatives!

Erbin Crowell

Outreach Coordinator

Cooperative Fund of New England

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Erbin worked for over ten years with Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-operative marketing fairly traded coffee, tea and chocolate from small farmer co-ops. He is currently working on a pilot program for Domestic Fair Trade. He has served in a number of elected roles with Equal Exchange, including chair of the board and worker-owner coordinator. Erbin brings to Cooperative Fund of New England a commitment to workplace democracy, community-based economics and sustainable agriculture. He holds a BA in anthropology and the visual arts from Brown University, and is currently working toward a Masters in Management (Co-operatives and Credit Unions) from St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The Cooperative Fund of New England is a non-profit organization supporting cooperative development in the Northeast area of the United States. The Fund provides alternative financial services and related technical assistance to cooperative organizations at favorable rates and terms. Its policies generally accord eligibility on the basis of community service, need and merit.

Operating on a small budget, the Fund has been successfully assisting a wide variety of cooperatives, non-profits, worker owned businesses, and community groups since 1975. Funds for program lending are provided by “social investment loans” from individuals, religious groups, cooperatives and other organizations. Social investment loans are furnished on a long-term basis at low to moderate rates of interest. This investment option may be of interest to persons with discretionary financial resources who have strong social concerns about the use of their funds. Support may also be provided through tax-deductible contributions.

Joseph Tuck

CEO/ General Coordinator

Alvarado Street Bakery

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Joseph Tuck is the General Coordinator/C.E.O. of Alvarado Street Bakery. Joseph started work at Alvarado Street Bakery in 1981 as a sanitation worker and over the years gained expertise both in the baking business and in worker cooperatives. Joseph has held his current position for over twenty years. In this period of time Alvarado Street Bakery has been fortunate in realizing significant growth both in its revenues and profits. Joseph has assisted the cooperative’s evolution organizationally in ways that meet the needs of their customers while giving good returns to its worker members. Currently the average hourly worker/member earns $30 dollars an hour that is augmented by a robust benefit and 401k plan. On top of the compensation package worker/members have also had yearly redemption of stock dividends that has averaged around $14,000 per year.

Joseph has provided technical assistance to various bakeries and food processors in the Russian Federation. His experience in managing a worker cooperative in a free market economy did give Joseph a unique perspective in terms of assisting Russian businesses during the first years of Perestroika. Before his employment at Alvarado Street Bakery Joseph lived in the western highlands of Scotland and was employed as a shepherd/ghille.

Alvarado Street Bakery is one of the most successful worker-owned cooperatives in the US. It provides quality baked goods to its customers nationwide. For over 20 years Alvarado Street Bakery has been a leader in producing healthy, organic whole grain breads.

Alvarado started producing whole grain organic baked goods for their local community in 1979. Their roots can be traced back to the “Food for People not for Profit” movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. They were originally part of a non-profit organization called Red Clover Worker’s Brigade. The brigade consisted of the bakery, a retail store (Santa Rosa Community Market), a trucking company, and a wholesale warehouse.

In 1981 five brigade workers decided to form a worker cooperative. They purchased the bakery and formed Semper Virens Bakery Food Cooperative. Semper Virens in Latin means “ever green” and is the botanical name for one of our area’s largest treasures, our ancient redwood forests. They decided to change the business name to Alvarado Street due to a serendipitous placement of a road sign stowed away in the bakery.

Michelle Matos

Co-op Development Trainer

WAGES Cooperative

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Michelle joined the WAGES team in November 2008 as a Co-op Development Trainer, and provides tailored technical assistance and workshops to foster skills for new and existing co-op members. Michelle is a promoter of social justice with over 10 years of experience in organizing, leadership development and facilitation. Together with community-based organizations, Michelle has developed the leadership of immigrant workers and communities of color by conducting issue-based research and facilitating grassroots leadership development, trainings and strategic planning processes for both short-term campaigns and long-term community initiatives. Michelle holds a degree in Cultural Studies from The New School University.In the years that have passed they have continued to grow and reach out to customers that now span the globe. Currently they employ over 100 people and produce and distribute over 30 organic baked goods.

For 15 years, WAGES, Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security, has worked with low-income immigrant Latinas to launch green business cooperatives, a model that enables women to work together to succeed.

As co-op members, women have healthy work, good pay, and a voice and a vote in key decisions – and they distribute business profits equitably. WAGES provides training and technical assistance to incubate the co-ops and a framework for continued learning and business growth through our Co-op Network.

In addition to building successful cooperative businesses locally, WAGES conducts community workshops throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and consults with other groups around the country. They offer an in-depth Co-op Development Toolkit to qualified organizations, and we have provided technical assistance for a number of new co-ops inspired by their model.

Rob Witherell

Organizer

United Steelworkers

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The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers or USW) is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members.[1] Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires,transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers andhealth care.
The United Steelworkers is currently affiliated with both the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), as well as several international union federations. On July 2, 2008 the United Steelworkers signed an agreement to merge with the United Kingdomand Ireland based union, Unite, to form a new global union entity called Workers Uniting.

Find our about their agreement with the Mondragon Corporation by clicking this link.

For Your Consideration

Find out about the grass roots campaign to move bank deposits from the “big banks” to community banks and credit unions.

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Originally broadcast on March 13, 2009

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Joe Badaracco, Author, Question of Character,
Professor of Business Ethics, Harvard Business School |
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Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., is the John Shad Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School. He is also Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA Program. Badaracco has taught courses on business ethics, strategy, and management in the School’s MBA and executive programs. Badaracco is a graduate of St. Louis University, Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar, and Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA and a DBA. He has also been chairman of the Harvard University Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and has served on the boards of two public companies. Badaracco has taught in executive programs in the United States, Japan, and many other countries and has spoken to a wide variety of organizations on issues of leadership, values, and ethics.

Badaracco’s research focuses on business ethics, particularly on leadership and individual decision making, and he has written four books on these topics. These are Business Ethics: Roles and Responsibilities, Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose between Right and Right, and Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing. His most recent book, Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature, was published in April, 2006. It presents the lessons for leaders suggested by works of serious literature.

David Whyte, Poet, Lecturer, Author, The Three Marriages;
Founder, Many Rivers Company |
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Poet David Whyte is the author of six books of poetry, and two best selling prose books, he holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes the Amazon and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.

In addition to his six volumes of poetry, including his latest volume River Flow: New and Selected Poems, David Whyte is the author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, an audio lecture series and an album of poetry and music. His newest prose book The Three Marriages: Understanding the Essentials of Work, Self and Relationship.

An Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace.

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Is it possible to have successful businesses that are good for everyone?

There is less diversity in our farming (just look a the mile after mile of corn or soybeans on the farms along our highways with no farm animals in sight to see it first hand) that has raised alarms with everyone from environmentalists to economists. Since the 1950s our government policies have created rewards for farmers who are larger, large agribusiness companies and made it harder to be a family farmer.

The companies selling the essential products in the agricultural food chain like seeds or feed or fertilizer have vertically integrated so that they control things from the farm to the dinner plate. What’s the impact of all this change? In our digging around, we have become alarmed. Many experts are raising concerns about risks we face because of this intense consolidation, and today we’ll explore these concerns on Business Matters.

(Originally broadcast February 19, 2010)

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Mary Hendrickson | Download MP3

Mary Hendrickson is director of Food Circles Networking Project, a program of the University of Missouri Extension. She currently is focusing her work efforts on consumer education and community building as well as connecting farmers with distributors and helping food service source locally produced food. Her work has led to several community-based processing activities, making local food programming a strong priority in the Kansas City and St. Louis urban extension programs.

She is the author of The Global Food System and Nodes of Power. Mary also serves as associate director of Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program where she works with mid-sized cooperatives in beef and pork processing from initial planning to start-up, researching potential opportunities in direct-marketing to restaurants and establishing connections between distributors and farmers.

Hendrickson was a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow. She was awarded the 2001 Cooperative Service Award by the National Farmers Union and received the Family Farm Leadership Award presented by the Missouri Farmers Union.

Doug Gurian-Sherman| Download MP3

Doug Gurian-Sherman is a senior scientist in the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) where he focuses on agricultural biotechnology and sustainable agriculture. He is the author of numerous papers and reports, including No Sure Fix: Prospects for Reducing Nitrogen Fertilizer Pollution through Genetic Engineering, Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops, and CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations.

From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Gurian-Sherman was senior scientist at the Center for Food Safety in Washington, DC. Previously, he was founding co-director and science director for the biotechnology project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. He also worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where he was responsible for assessing human health and environmental risks from transgenic plants and microorganisms and developing biotechnology policy. Before joining the EPA, he worked in the Biotechnology Group at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. From 2002 to 2005, Dr. Gurian-Sherman served on the Food and Drug Administration’s inaugural advisory food biotechnology subcommittee.

Dr. Gurian-Sherman holds a doctorate degree in plant pathology from the University of California at Berkeley. He conducted post-doctoral research on rice and wheat molecular biology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Albany, California.

Union of Concerned Scientists

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

UCS began as a collaboration between students and faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 is now an alliance of more than 250,000 citizens and scientists. UCS members are people from all walks of life: parents and businesspeople, biologists and physicists, teachers and students. Their achievements over the decades show that thoughtful action based on the best available science can help safeguard our future and the future of our planet.

Vandana Shiva | Download MP3

Dr. Shiva is a physicist, ecofeminist, philosopher, activist, and author of many books, including: Water Wars, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis.

She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. This institute is dedicated to high quality and independent research to address the most significant ecological and social issues of our times, in close partnership with local communities and social movements. Vandana Shiva is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization, (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, etc.), and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as anti-globalization movement.

Vandana is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’) “…For placing women and ecology at the heart of modern development discourse.”

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Colin Bennett

Colin is a Professor in th e Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria and was also a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

His research has focused on the comparative analysis of surveillance technologies and privacy protection policies at the domestic and international levels. He is the author of the  The Privacy Advocates (MIT Press 2009) and Security Games: Surveillance and Control at Mega-Events.

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Ginger McCall – Assistant Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center Government Program

Ginger McCall is Assistant Director of EPIC’s Open Government Project. Ms. McCall works on a variety of issues at EPIC, including consumer protection, open government requests, amicus curiae briefs, and national security matters. She litigates EPIC’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and is a co-editor of Litigation Under the Federal Government Laws 2010. Ms. McCall has co-authored several amicus curiae briefs on privacy issues to the Supreme Court of the United States.

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Rebecca Jeschke - Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Director

Rebecca Jeschke is EFF’s Media Relations Director. Before joining EFF, she worked in television and Internet news for more than ten years, including stints as an Internet producer for CBS 5 in San Francisco and as a senior supervising producer for TechTV.

About the Electronic Frontier Foundation

From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 61,000 concerned citizens through its Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.

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Dmitry Orlov

Emigrating from the Soviet Union at 12, Dmitry Orlov became an eye witness to the collapse of the Soviet Union. These lessons have informed his observations and writing about the collapse of the U.S economy and our preparedness to handle the fallout.

In 2005, Dmitry wrote Closing the Collapse Gap, about how Russia was much better prepared for the collapse after the fall of communism that America is after the fall of consumerism. `He has also written other articles on culture change include The New Age of Sail , The Despotism of the Image, and That Bastion of American Socialism and Thriving in an Age of Collapse

In 2008, Orlov’s book Reinventing Collapse was published. It has received numerous awards including the 2009 independentPublisher Silver Medal. Expect Reinventing Collapse 2.0 is out in April of this year. His website is cluborlov.blogspot.com.

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Catherine Austin Fitts

Catherine Austin Fitts understanding of the global financial system and the inner workings of the Wall Street-Washington axis are unparalleled. As the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner, Catherine was one of the first to warn of an approaching housing bubble. Her prediction that a ‘strong dollar policy’ would ultimately lead to a weakened federal credit is currently being proven correct.Catherine is the founder and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC.; and President of Solari, Inc. an online media company focused on ethical investment. Earlier she was a Managing Director and member of the board of Wall Street investment banking firm Dillon Read & Co. Inc. (She writes about her experience there in Dillon Read and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits.)

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Tim Sanders

Tim has valuable experience in cutting-edge businesses, sales and marketing. He’s weathered the quality movement as well as the dotcom crash and emerged with precious insight. He was the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! and later their Leadership Coach. He was also an early member of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s broadcast.com, the most successful opening day IPO in history.

His first book, Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends is a New York Times and international business best seller, translated in a dozen languages. It stresses the importance of knowledge sharing, networking and compassion. His newest book is Today We are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence. Tim now runs Deeper Media, conducts research on business trends, new media and human behavior.

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Marilyn Krichko

Marilyn is the founder of The OARS Program team building company. Over the past decade she developed “The Rowers Code”, which is a foundation for team building programs.  Wanting to share the lessons learned from her successes with corporate teams, Marilyn wrote The Rower’s Code: A Business Parable of How to Pull Together as a Team and Win.

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Debbie Robins
Author, Shovel It

Debbie Robins is an executive, career and life coach with deep roots in the entertainment industry. For over twenty years Debbie was a Hollywood film and television producer, now she’s been named one of the top 600 executive coaches in the country by Marshall Goldsmith and Brian Underhill. She’s also the author of Shovel It: Kick-Ass Advice to Turn Life’s Crap into the Peace and Happiness You Deserve and a recent blog post on the Huffington Post, CEOs: Here’s One 4-Letter Word You Need to Start Using.

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Lawrence J. White

Lawrence J. White is Arthur E. Imperatore Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and where he is also the Deputy Chair of the Economics Department.  During 1986-1989 he was on leave to serve as Board Member, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, in which capacity he also served as Board Member for Freddie Mac; and during 1982-1983 he was on leave to serve as Director of the Economic Policy Office, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.

Larry is co-author of the book, Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the debacle of Mortgage Finance

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Bill Black
(From our December 2009 interview)
Bill Black is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Senior Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement. He is also author of the book, The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One. You can watch the Bill Moyers interview that Black references in his interview with Business Matters here


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Joe Bageant

Joe Bageant
Author, Rainbow Pie and Dear Hunting With Jesus

JJoe was in the Navy, an anti-war hippie in communes, a Marxist and a “half-assed Buddhist.” He’s written about the American counterculture and third world issues since 1971. He’s lived on an Indian reservation in Idaho as well as in small Central American towns. His newest book is “Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir” and before that he was the author of “Dear Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War“. He wrote regularly at his blog, JoeBageant.com and at the Huffington Post.

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Lynne McTaggart

Lynne writes a newsletter on the risks of some medical practices and has authored a book of the same title, “What Doctors Don’t Tell You: The Truths about Modern Medicine.” She discusses scientific discoveries that support the theory that the universe is unified by an interactive field in the book “The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe“. Her latest book, which is the topic of this interview is “The Bond: Connecting the Space Between Us“. She uses scientific data to support how our orientation to bond with each other may be the force that overcomes many of our societal challenges.

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Chris Martenson

Chris received his PhD in neurotoxicology and then went on to receive a MBA from Cornell. He was very successful at climbing the corporate ladder becoming  a Vice President of a global Fortune 300 company. At some point, Chris began to realize that something wasn’t right. He was reading world events and knew that the perspective presented by the media and government assurances just didn’t make sense.

Chris decided to leave behind his high paying job and move to rural western Massachusetts. He wanted to share his perspectives with others and created The Crash Course. This program helps people see the truth and make sound decisions for themselves and their families. Chris now shares his insights in his new book The Crash Course.

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Daniel Lerch

Daniel is Program Director of Post Carbon Institute. He is the author of Post Carbon Cities (2007), the first major municipal guidebook on peak oil and global warming, and the lead editor of The Post Carbon Reader (2010), a collection of original essays by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers on the 21st century’s interconnected sustainability crises.

One of the few experts specializing in local government responses to global fossil fuel depletion, Daniel has delivered presentations and workshops to elected officials, planners, and other audiences across the United States, as well as in Canada, Ireland, the UK, and Spain.

Daniel has worked with urban sustainability and planning issues for nearly fifteen years in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Master of Urban Studies from Portland State University in Oregon.

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