Cyberunions Talk Show talks #OccupyBoston and Worker Run Cooperatives...Mondragon
Submitted by marxistvegan on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 15:52
"This is not heaven, and we are not angels"
Link to the cyberunions blog post http://wp.me/p1yNTT-cu
0:54 Stephen's updates
- Stephen has been at Occupy Boston
- There was a stand off between the Occupy movement and the Boston police
- Stephen manages to avoid getting arrested, so he was able to record this show
- The police attacked Veterans for Peace
- It's too early for the Occupy movement to formalise demands
10:17 Interview with Rob Witherell
- Rob is an organiser at the United Steelworkers
- Rob negotiated the cooperation between the USW and Mondragon
- Mondragon is the largest worker owned cooperative in the world
- It has 100,00 worker owners
- Can we rebuild our manufacturing sector with cooperative ownership?
- At Mondragon, people are more important than profit
- Keeps people in quality manufacturing jobs
- "This is not heaven, and we are not angels" - Mondragon runs a lean business, but to benefit workers rather than shareholders
- A successful co-op in the US is Evergreen in Cleveland, Ohio
- Some tech co-ops include GAIA Host web hosting and The Software Co-op
45:40 Walton and Stephen are suitably impressed
