Worker Ownership

The MONDRAGON Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Euskadi. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters.

Cross-posted from LaborNotes

By Jane Slaughter

Part 2 of a two-part series on the TRADOC workers' cooperative in Mexico. Part 1 is here.

A tire is not just a piece of rubber with a hole in it. I learned this when I visited the workers’ cooperative that makes Cooper tires in El Salto, Mexico. A tire is a sophisticated product that comes about through a chain of chemical processes, lots of machine pounding, and still the intervention of human hands.

A fervent inspection worker pointed out that every single tire is tested under road-like conditions: “If not, it could kill people,” he noted. And, he added practically, “keeping the tires safe saves our jobs.”

Two workers of the 1,000-member TRADOC cooperative, which builds tires in Mexico for the U.S. market. The hiring of women in the plant was one of the many gains of worker ownership. Photo: Bob Briggs.

Cross-posted from LaborNotes

By Jane Slaughter

Part 1 of a two-part series on the TRADOC worker cooperative in Mexico. Part 2, about how the co-op is functioning today, is here.

“If the owners don’t want it, let’s run it ourselves.” When a factory closes, the idea of turning it into a worker-owned co-operative sometimes comes up—and usually dies.

On the 879th day of their strike, Mexican tire workers sought help in Germany, where the multinational that wanted to close their plant was based. After a determined 1,141-day campaign, the company sold them the plant, which they now run as a cooperative.

Cross-posted from Common Dreams

by Atlee McFellin

The future of the labor union is increasingly coming into question with the relentless assault on the rights of workers to organize, resulting in the lowest levels of union membership since the 1930s. Part of this comes from the “Right to Work” or “Corporate Servitude” legislation passed in states across the country, Michigan being the latest victim. The now infamous Citizens United ruling further unleashed the power of corporate coffers to influence politics, furthering a vitriolic hatred for unions by Tea Party dogmatics following the Koch Party line. Labor unions are in dire need of innovation to move past their 19th and 20th century models into a 21st century form that’s capable of weathering economic, political, and environmental turbulence. The future of unions rests with their ability, just like the green economy and new economy movements, to create immediate solutions for marginalized communities along with overarching, systemic alternatives to our broken economic and political systems.

By Tory Field and Beverly Bell

“Over a half-century ago, Mahatma Gandhi led a multitude of Indians to the sea to make salt in defiance of the British Empire’s monopoly on this resource critical to people’s diet. The action catalyzed the fragmented movement for Indian independence and was the beginning of the end for Britain’s rule over India. The act of ‘making salt’ has since been repeated many times in many forms by people’s movements seeking liberation, justice and sovereignty: César Chávez, Nelson Mandela, and the Zapatistas are just a few of the most prominent examples. Our food movement – one that spans the globe – seeks food sovereignty from the monopolies that dominate our food systems, with the complicity of our governments. We are powerful, creative, committed and diverse. It is our time to make salt.”

Cross-posted from Business Day Live

By Linda Ensor

The Chamber of Mines is keeping a close watch on developments at Harmony Gold’s troubled Kusasalethu mine, near Carletonville, fearing that contagious worker unrest there could spread throughout the industry if not nipped in the bud.

Cross-posted from The Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Slow pace of progress through court system underscores swift response, justice of Fair Food Program

The December 20 edition of the LaBelle, Florida, weekly, The Caloosa Belle, included these four short lines of text in its "Arrest Reports" column:

By Virali Gokaldas and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives

Mumbai’s rapid growth, high density, and sheer size present significant challenges for its waste management system. The enormous quantity of waste generated in the city makes large-scale, technologically driven “solutions” tempting. However, the opposite approach—a highly decentralized, people-powered model of waste management—has proven successful. Dry waste is separated out for recycling while organic waste, Mumbai’s largest and heaviest waste stream, is treated close to its source through composting pits and biogas. This approach has reduced the need for costly transportation and landfill space while providing green jobs for waste pickers.

Cross-posted from In These Times.

BY Nyki Salinas-Duda
December 4, 2012

As public awareness of sweatshop labor has increased, Adidas has been doing some fancy footwork to preserve its image. In addition to working with groups like the Fair Labor Association to monitor production, the sportswear company conducts internal audits and “supplier education” in order to show that working conditions in its more than 1,200 contract factories worldwide are improving. But after the company denied a group of Indonesian workers $1.8 million in severance pay, university students are calling foul.

Cross-posted from In These Times.

Cross-posted from In These Times.

BY Michelle Chen
December 2, 2012

Once upon a time in the labor movement, a rebellious vanguard emerged at the margins of American industry, braiding together workers on society’s fringes—immigrants, African Americans, women, unskilled laborers—under a broad banner of class struggle.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies, raised hell in the early 20th century with unapologetically militant protests and strikes.