WEBVTT - Spain: A Time-Tested Model for Economic Security 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.200 About six months into the pandemic, an Ohio based cooperative 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.280 network received an influx of requests from small businesses that 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.320 wanted to turn themselves into worker owned co ops. For 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.800 a lot of folks, they have been unhappy with how 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.080 their current jobs, the current economy has been working for them, 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.000 and the idea of being part of something truly holding 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:30.200 workers as a most important piece is really really attractive. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.080 That's Ellen Vira. She's the director of coop Organizing at 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.240 co op Sincy, a network of around dozen cooperative businesses 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:43.120 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where workers manage, own, and ultimately share 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.159 in the profits of their labor co ops. Since has 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.120 been around for about a decade, but in that fall 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.480 of alone it got applications to help another dozen businesses 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.880 go coop. One of the businesses that reached out was 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.560 the Shine Nurture Center, a Monostori style day air next 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.920 to the lush mount Airy Forest in Cincinnati. As the 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.080 pandemic dragged on, its founder and owner wanted to move on. 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.400 Like many people, she was reevaluating her life and decided 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.920 to go back to school, but she didn't want to 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.280 shut down the center she'd built and run for the 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.280 last six years, so she decided to sell it to 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.639 the teachers who worked there. My name is Beth Heya. 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.360 I work here at Shin Nurture Center Cooperative and I'm 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.679 currently the office manager and we are a nature based center, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.880 so we're mostly outside in Mount Airy. We're very lucky 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.280 we have a path right out of our parking lots 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:36.800 and we get to go back there a lot with 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.560 the kiddos. Beth is one of four teachers who went 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.240 from working in the center to owning it. Before, she 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.240 says she was at the whims of administrators and parents 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.000 and at times found herself in less than ideal working conditions. 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.680 Now she's a business owner. She and the other teacher 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.560 owners have a say in how things get run. That 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.320 includes increasing pay and benefits and making sure class rooms 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.360 aren't understaffed, and at the end of the year, she 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.080 and the other owners will share in its profits too. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.000 There's not a lot of like groping about, like why 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.040 we're doing something, because we all understand why we got 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.120 to those steps. You can see why co ops would 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:20.079 be attractive during a pandemic that created enormous economic uncertainty. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.400 It gives people some power over their work lives, if 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.760 they can work from home or take sick days, or 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.680 when they clock in, and what they get paid. Looking 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.640 at the childcare crisis, being an educator, there's just a 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.760 lot of pressure put on childcare and there's not a 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.840 lot of voice given to the folks who are in 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.880 charge of it. So I think for post pandemic I 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.040 think this might be a really good solution for teachers 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.639 at centers who feel like they want to have a voice. Yet, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.360 cops are still relatively rare in the US. Just around 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.720 a hundred people work at the companies and coops and 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.960 see for example. But there is somewhere worker co ops 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.400 abound and it's a place of notable equality. Mandragone is 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.120 a group of around a hundred cooperatives in the Basque 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.480 region of Spain that's been around for half a century. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:16.560 It covers nearly eighty thousand workers across all sorts of industries. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.680 Nobody there is wildly rich, but there isn't much poverty either. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.000 It's the kind of place that often gets dismissed as 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.520 a special place doing a special thing that can't be 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:34.560 replicated elsewhere. But now more and more people are thinking 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:41.280 maybe they can be the next mandragone jobless claims coming in, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.080 I mean really jumping from the week before, pretty brutal, 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.520 three point to a million record six point six million 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.680 Americans filed for unemployment last week and then working for 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.000 the worst infected by the pandemic. Prices of public housing 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.560 resail flats have hit an old time high in the 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:04.080 first well. Now to the billionaire boom. According to Bloomberg, 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:09.280 super riocht charters are up over three and a billionaire 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:13.119 was created every twenty six I was during this pandemic. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:23.600 Is time for a wealth tax in America? Welcome back 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:28.480 to the paycheck. I'm Rebecca Greenfield. For the last seven weeks, 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.280 we've gone around the world to see how the pandemic 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.800 made things more or less equal. The answer depended on 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.640 all sorts of variables, a country's pre existing economic conditions, 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:45.479 how it managed the virus itself, and what financial decisions 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.479 were made facing a global economic crisis. In some places, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.680 there were some pleasant surprises, like in the US, where 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.359 the poorest got some stability and economic security for the 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:03.120 first time in decades. In others, like India, economic desperation 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.480 lad people to make life altering choices that derailed their futures. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.800 The question as we head into the next phase of 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.359 the pandemic is how lasting will any of these trends be. 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:17.800 That's what led us to work our own co ops. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.720 Interest in worker own co ops tends to spike during 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.039 times of crisis. At a very basic level, worker co 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.039 ops they tend to emerge where there's a market failure. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.960 That's Mike Paul Mary, an associate researcher at the Ohio 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.520 Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University. He says that 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.400 people who feel left out of the economy seek out 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.960 alternatives to traditional business models. After the two thousand eight recession, 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.440 for example, he says, the number of co ops in 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.520 the US has more than doubled. To him, they are 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.080 key to closing wealth gaps. A lot of our beIN 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.920 a quality today is driven by inequality and wealth and assets. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.000 What employee ownership allows you to do and not just 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.440 provide a higher wage via income, but it gives individuals 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.560 who otherwise wouldn't have wealth and assets wealth and assets, 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.440 providing them that cushion and closing that gap as well. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.240 And some employe ownership kind of attacks I would say 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.760 economic inequality at its fruit. While the pandemic isn't over yet. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.640 Mike says there's been a notable uptick and interest in 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.480 the co op model. People see it as a gateway 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:28.080 to greater equality and security when the next pandemic or 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:33.040 whatever crisis comes around. But how realistic is that and 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.359 how did it work? My colleague Jeanette Newman went to 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.679 the Basque region in Spain to visit them Undergone co ops, 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.440 the mecca of worker cooperatives, to see how they fared 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.239 during the pandemic and what lessons can be learned about 0:06:47.279 --> 0:07:01.920 creating a more equal world. Here she is with the story. 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.200 I'm standing on an assembly line watching some workers build 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.000 washing machines. The company is called fog Or Industrial. It's 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.280 one of the hundred or so cooperatives that are part 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.360 of the Moundergo network. One of the workers on the 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.320 assembly line is Baltasar Garcia Leone. Balta, as he's called, 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.280 is fifty nine years old. He has a clean shaven 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.200 head and an athletic build thanks to frequent outings with 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.760 his cycling buddies. He's been building washing machines at Mundergone 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:38.720 cooperatives for more than three decades. He's telling me how 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.440 the assembly line works. Balt and his colleagues on the 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.040 line build twenty two washing machines every day. They're sold 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.520 to hotels and restaurants. When the pandemic hit, Balta's assembly line, 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:54.880 like many around the world, down shifted. Every Friday, they 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.360 sent us home, so we missed out on a lot 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.840 of ours. Bolt and his colleagues also worked fewer hours 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.840 on the days they went into the factory. Those were scary, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.320 uncertain times. Balta was worried about the virus like everyone else, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.320 but he was less worried than many people about his 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.320 paycheck and his savings. Thousands of workers at Mondragon felt 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.240 the same in those chaotic first months. As COVID nineteen 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.120 up ended everything around the world, Mundergone was, by comparison, 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.640 an oasis of calm for workers. The reason moundergone has 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.080 a playbook to protect jobs that it's been honing for 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.920 more than half a century. Mundragon's first cooperative was founded 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.320 in the nineteen fifties by a priest and some of 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:39.839 his acolytes. Since then, crisis after crisis, the cooperatives have 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.880 found a way to keep unemployment and inequality in check. 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:51.720 The pandemic was no exception your Bilk. When I go 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.640 to other areas, I noticed much greater social differences. Here 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.439 the manager can be my neighbor. Elsewhere, I guess they 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.880 live in gay good communities. Joblessness here is much lower 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.000 than in the rest of Spain, and the level of 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.040 income inequality is on par with countries such as Finland 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.680 and Norway. The differences that the Nordic countries have relatively 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:16.480 high taxes they redistribute wealth. In the undergone region, taxes 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.960 are lower than in the Nordics. The cooperatives create wealth 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.440 for a lot of people. One way they do that 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.040 is by digging up their annual profits among workers. Assembly 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.400 Line workers like Balta, for example, have retirement savings that 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.720 are in line with top managers. The objective of the 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.319 cooperative is not to produce rich people, is to produce 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.440 rich societies. At the end of the day, even if 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.679 you are not rich, if you belong to a rich society, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.920 you will be happy that he works at Moundergon Assembly. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.760 It makes solar panels as well as machinery to help 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.960 firms automate their production. Most of the cooperatives in the 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.000 network are industrial. One of them is even making rocket 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.960 parts for Blue Origin. That's the aerospace company owned by 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.080 Jeff Bezos. As a rule, managers across the Moundergone network 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.160 can only earn six times more than the lowest paid worker. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.920 At some places, like yours cooperative, the gap is even 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:14.040 smaller three to onegre and many of his colleagues or engineers, 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:16.319 they do similar work, he says, so they are in 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:20.480 similar pay or associeties. Here very realitarian. We don't have 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.240 a lot of rich people are not very rich. But 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.600 in the other hand, we also don't have poor people. 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.640 The CEO or the engineer or the man who makes 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.720 the photocopies. We all belong to the same social group. 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.360 But how do those egalitarian ideals hold up when times 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.959 get tough? How did the cooperatives and their worker owners 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.960 survive the worst economic crisis in a century? I speak 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:50.319 to under Chevita. He's an executive at headquarters called Moundergone Corporation. 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.319 The corporation overseas the one hundred or so cooperatives that 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.839 form part of the Moundergone network. When a crisis hits, 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.800 all the co ops rely on a safety managed by headquarters. Understays. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.120 The goal is to preserve jobs and That means the 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.960 safety net has to be flexible. For that we have 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.880 different mechanisms. If there is no work for me in 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.240 my corporative, I have the right to work in another 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.200 corporative of the corporation. If there is no work for 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.640 me in the corporation, I have the right to be 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.000 trained to be more employable. And if still there is 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.360 no work for me the corporation, I have the right 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.000 to get an unemployment benefit for maximum two years. This 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.080 is great. That does sound great, and under makes it 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.560 seem so easy, But the cooperative model doesn't always work perfectly. 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.439 About a decade ago, the co op where Balta was 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.520 working went bankrupt. It was in the aftermath of the 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.640 global recession. That was a wake up call for Balta 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.439 and many others. Failure is possible. So even when things 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.280 appear to be running smoothly at Montrigone during the pandemic, 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.800 in the backup workers minds, the threat of failure loomed. 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.560 I visit Bolts at his apartment to learn more about 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:13.320 how he survived that bankruptcy and the pandemic. He lives 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.520 just outside the town of Mondragon. The area is surrounded 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:20.239 by forested mountain tops which gave way to pastures and farmland. 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.760 Further down in the narrow mountain valleys sit box the 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.760 industrial warehouses where the cooperatives manufacture their products. I ring 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:37.160 Bolt's doorbell. All right, we sit down at his kitchen table. 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.040 He proudly points to a white washing machine from his 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.440 cooperative tucked underneath the countertop. Balta joined his first co 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.600 op in n He worked there for more than two decades. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.600 In two thousand thirteen, it went bankrupt after struggling through 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:56.720 Spain's double dip recession bolting. Around nine workers lost their jobs. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.960 It was the biggest crisis the cooperatives had ever faced. 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.920 Enjoy of course, I was scared. I had done an 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.880 interview or two at that time, But I mean I 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.800 was forty eight years old. I was already pretty old. 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.240 I thought it was going to be difficult. But Mondragon 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.040 eventually found new jobs at other cooperatives for most of 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.800 the workers, including Balta. He got a position at Fogor Industrial, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.959 where he is now. Other workers went into early retirement. Still, 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.240 the bankruptcy meant that Balta and other members lost the 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.760 money they had been stashing away for years in their 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.960 retirement savings. Accounts. That was a lesson for everyone at Mondragone. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.640 When a crisis hits, workers after react quickly to show 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.520 up the finances of their cooperatives and prevent things from 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.439 getting worse. During the pandemic, Bolton his colleagues tried to 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.360 put that lesson into practice. In the U S and 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.559 other countries. Unemployment spiked in the early days of the pandemic, 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.920 Business slowed down or came to a halt, and executives 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.600 had to cut costs, so they laid off workers. Balton 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.120 other operative members or workers and owners. So it wasn't 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.840 an option for them to fire themselves, but they still 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.200 had to find a way to cut costs, otherwise they 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:14.920 could end up saving themselves. But tanking the cooperative seen 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.200 our interest in every respect that the cooperative does well, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:23.600 our livelihood depends on so making money that has to 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.880 be the baseline, because a company can have a really 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.080 nice financial targets, but if it doesn't earn any money 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.680 in the end, it's gone. It would be destroyed. This 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:37.720 is where Mundergones Crisis playbook kicks in. The leadership team, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.080 which is made up of assembly line workers like Balta 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.280 and members who have more executive experience meant to make 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.640 a plan. First, they decided to lay off a few 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:50.640 dozen workers who aren't members of the cooperative. Only around 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:55.320 one third of workers at Undergone are also members. Some 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.040 people don't qualify. New members have to be voted in 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.520 by existing members. If someone as a reputation as being 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.120 a bit irresponsible or isn't considered a team player, they 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:07.400 might not be accepted. Others don't want to pay the 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.440 roughly sixteen thousand dollars it costs to become a member. 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.160 That's a kind of down payment to join the cooperative. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.480 It goes into a savings fund for the worker. Next. 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.640 Balta's co op trim salaries on days they didn't work, 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.440 which ended up being more than anticipated they would get 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.040 of their salaries. We missed a lot of ours. We 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.880 couldn't recover a lot of those hours. How did the 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.480 co op afford to pay Balta and his colleagues for 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.000 all those days they didn't work after all revenue had fallen. 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.520 Wondergoing Headquarters stepped in and tapped a kind of insurance program. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.400 It has co ops that were doing well, such as 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.720 those producing medical gear and bicycles, transferred funds to co 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.080 ops like Balta's, where workers had missed a lot of 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.880 days under the monder going executive we spoke too earlier 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:59.360 explains that mechanism we are bright for nine thousand workers 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.920 in the enemic year and it had a cost of 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:08.360 thirteen point to million euros. So when we are talking 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:13.320 about solidarity, it is also about money. Honors comments should 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.120 dispel any images you might have in your mind of 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.080 the cooperatives as a kind of utopian commune in the 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.640 Spanish countryside. On another's at mundergo and talk about money 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.200 and profits with the same ease as any capitalist. The 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.200 co ops are first and foremost a business. They need 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.600 to be profitable. At a publicly traded company, the goal 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.360 is to return profits to shareholders. The goal of the cooperatives, 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.240 by contrast, is to be profitable in order to create 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.760 and maintain good jobs. Another big difference is how the 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.720 cooperatives share their profits. Bolton, the other worker owners decide 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:56.480 that we gather at an annual general assembly, and that's 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.920 where a lot of the important issues are presented and 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.720 are voted on by all of the members. Ahead of 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.000 the annual meeting, the leadership team comes up with a 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:08.239 proposal to raise, lower, or maintain salaries. They also come 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.160 up with a plan for profit sharing. Then the leadership 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.399 team briefs workers, hashing out any disagreements at meetings and 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.920 around the water cooler. Finally, they all vote. Advocates of 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:24.040 worker cooperatives often emphasize the importance of one worker, one vote. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.600 That means each member's vote has the same weight. Balta 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.720 says the phrase gives people an idealized impression of what 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:36.920 actually happens at the annual meetings. It's ultimately the manager 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.800 who's in charge. I mean, it's very nice to say 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.879 from the outside that we are represented. I feel qualified 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.479 to make decisions at my own job, but not at 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.600 the company level. While Balta doesn't want to be responsible 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.760 for setting company strategy, he does value having a say 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.480 and how the company has run, and if workers aren't 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.280 happy with the leadership team, they can vote them out. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.119 I am part of that company. I make decisions. I 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.879 vote yes or I vote know. The annual meetings aren't 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.880 without conflict. Some tensions always emerge when hundreds of people 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.840 are deciding what to pay themselves. As people are on 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.520 under going like to say, this is not paradise and 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.520 we're not angels. Last year, Balta and some colleagues voted 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.760 against a proposal to increase executive pay. While salary differences 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.320 in Undergoing are minimal by global standards, Balta worries the 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:36.679 increases are a slippery slope to greater inequality. Okay, okay, 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.960 I think the differences are getting bigger, and that's what 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.399 bothers me. I understand that a qualified person has to 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.679 be paid, but maybe a different system has to be found. 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.840 In the end, the salary increase went through. Balta is 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.960 still frustrated about that. But that's democracy, he says. Your 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:10.960 candidate doesn't always win. I think for a minute about 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.280 an average US company, Then think about a majority of 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.440 employees at that company voting to cut their salaries during 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.119 a crisis. It seems like a long shot, right. Some 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.439 employees would probably say, well, I performed well where my 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.120 division is thriving, so why should I take a hit. 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.600 That's different from how workers at Undergone and other worker 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:36.159 cooperatives think about salary cuts. They're also the owners, so 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.760 a salary cut helps to ensure the survival of their company. 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:44.200 It's about shared ownership. Mike Paul Mary, the Kent State 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.119 co op expert we spoke too earlier, explains there's this 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:51.520 democratic component that makes worker cooperatives so much different than 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.040 just owning a share in a company. Every person gets 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.919 one vote regardless of how long they've been there, so 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.840 it's detached from capital and at the same level, the 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:04.280 way that the profits are distributed at the end of 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.200 the year are based on hours worked, and so it's 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.560 very equitable. It might seem a little surprising, but if 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.200 people have a steak in the business doing well, they're 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:16.240 going to care more. If you work at a company 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:18.919 where the company does great and it does absolutely nothing 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.199 for your life, who cares? Whereas where you have a 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.480 real steak where you will really benefit, people tend to 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.879 call out sick a lot less that employee on companies. 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.840 People tend to have a much different relationship with management 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.879 and employee on companies. They're more likely to say something, 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.600 and they're more likely to look at their coworker and say, hey, 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.400 you're kind of slack and you know can let's let's 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:45.400 do something here. And the co ops that are part 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.879 of the Monergo network are just a fraction of the 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.960 thousands of co ops located all across the Basque region. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.080 Explain worker co ops have flourished in this part of 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.160 the world in part because shared ownership is an important 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.200 part of the culture that's different than in the US 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:02.600 co ops since he told us they have to hold 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.240 classes on how to build a culture of solidarity. But 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.840 in the Basque region, the benefits and responsibilities of owning 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:12.760 something with a group of people are almost second nature. Too. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.440 Many people around here uphold these values even when they're 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:26.080 having fun. One evening, I joined under the co op 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.080 executive for dinner. We walked through the town of Mondragone. 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.840 It's narrow streets are lined with old stone buildings. We're 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:39.800 going to go to a club Basque traditional calinary club chocomica. 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.280 They are a place to be with your friends, colleagues, family, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.880 and today. For example, in the town of Manga One, 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.760 we are twenty two south Habitans. We have twenty two clubs. 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.639 Culinary clubs are essentially a private restaurant that's collectively owned 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.400 and run by a group of acquaintances. The club votes 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:01.920 to elect new members and everyone pays a membership fee. 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:04.800 We walk down some stairs and come into a big 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.520 room that looks like a restaurant with long wooden tables. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.520 Some of Ander's friends await us, including cape O Leton, 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.680 a journalist, and a fantastic chef. He's prepared a dish 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.560 traditional and nearby son Sebastian Hake, white asparagus, hard boiled eggs, 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.840 and clams in a white wine sauce. He also sizzles 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:30.520 up some rearby stakes and we have some red wine. 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:42.600 At culinary clubs, you can find a CEO of a 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:45.240 company and an assembly line worker at the same table. 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.439 All members pay the same fee and have equal access 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.159 to a professional kitchen and spacious dining room. That's a 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.280 major perk in this food obsessed region. Around here, people 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.760 tend to live in apartments where kitchens aren't particularly big. Also, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:01.480 there aren't a lot of restaurants in many of the 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.280 small towns. Many of the culinary club members and the 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:09.280 workers at Mondragon were born and raised nearby. This culture 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.960 have shared ownership is in their blood. That culture, though, 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:21.639 can sometimes feel exclusionary to outsiders. But what would I 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.800 like most of all, I'd like to see more people 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:29.159 who are representative of the whole society and the cooperatives. 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:33.399 That's Diego Montoya he's originally from Columbia. Diego says he 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.200 would like to see more Colombians, Ecuadorians, Senegalese and others 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.400 who weren't born in the area but who were part 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:43.800 of Basque society joined the cooperatives. About twenty years ago, 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.600 Diego left his native Columbia guerrilla groups such as the FARC. 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:51.159 We're fighting the government. When Diego and his sister arrived 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:55.160 in the Basque region, they had to sleep on the streets. Eventually, 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:58.919 Diego found work as a waiter than in construction, but 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:01.399 he wanted a job at of the cooperatives, so he 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.080 decided to get his engineering degree. After a decade in Mondragone, 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:08.119 when he was nearly forty, he finally became a member. 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:16.760 I've reached a place of fability, which gives me peace 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.960 of mind. And also I'm not worried that at my 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:23.440 age they're gonna fire me. They're not gonna fire me. 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.520 Diego wants more people like himself to be able to 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:30.600 experience the benefits of Mondragon's cooperatives. He says that one 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.560 hurdle is that some of the co ops strongly encouraged 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:37.679 members to speak the Basque language well. He appreciates that 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:40.600 the language is an important part of Basque identity. He 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.080 doesn't want it to be a barrier to entry. Diego's wife, 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:47.239 Maria Protegi, has co ops in her blood. She grew 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:49.320 up in the town of Mondragon and her father was 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:53.000 an important figure in the early cooperative movement. I'm speaking 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:54.920 to both of them at a small weekend home that 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:59.200 Maria's family owns. It's a short drive from Mondragon. We're 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:01.679 sitting outside and have a great view of the Basque 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:06.000 mountains in the distance, miles and miles of green. They 0:25:06.240 --> 0:25:08.520 would get together, all of them to help one of 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:12.800 the farms, you know. Like also, land means neighborhood work. 0:25:13.280 --> 0:25:16.520 Maria's head of customer service at Orbea, am undergone co 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:19.480