Update on USW/Mondragon Partnership for USFWC Members 

Hello, USFWC members -

Several of you have asked for more information on the recent USW/Mondragon announcement that the steelworkers have partnered with Mondragon to develop manufacturing cooperatives. Here's an update based on my conversations with those involved. There are also several interviews and other updates around and you should check those out . In this one I will try to focus on the connections to and implications for the worker cooperative movement.

After attending the initial press conference, which was also attended by several worker cooperativists who introduced themselves and the worker cooperative movement to USW president Leo Gerard, Hazel Corcoran of the Canadian Worker Cooperative Federation and I arranged to meet with Rob Witherell of the Steelworkers. Thank you to Hazel for setting up this meeting! (USW is a North American union covering Canada and the US.) Rob is their main organizer on the project. The aim of this meeting was to establish contact, build a working relationship, offer our concrete support for their efforts, and let USW know that there is a robust and growing North American worker cooperative movement that is ready and able to help the USW/MCC project. We also wanted to hear in greater detail what the plans for the project are. We talked with Rob for over an hour, and got a better sense of what they have planned.

AT THE BEGINNING: GATHERING IDEAS
Basically, the USW and Mondragon are at the very beginning of their process, and there are very few concrete plans right now. What they have is an agreement, a commitment to work together, and an enthusiasm for the worker cooperative model. According to Rob, they chose to hold a press conference and announce the partnership at the very beginning of their work together in order to solicit input and bring people into the planning process from the very beginning, "to get as many ideas as possible."

The size and scope of the project has not yet been determined. They have only just begun to talk about funding sources, and it's likely that the development will use some combination of worker contribution, bank financing and possibly MCC financing. To some extent, USW is waiting to hear from Mondragon about the level of involvement it wants to have, both financially and with technical assistance, before it can proceed with any kind of planning process.

SOME POSSIBILITIES
What they do know is that they want to start with something they both understand, and that means developing worker-owned manufacturing cooperatives. It is likely that the cooperatives developed will follow the Mondragon model quite closely. As currently envisioned, the union will play the role of Social Council of the cooperative. "The Social Council serves to facilitate communication between management and the frontline and to represent frontline workers’ perspective in discussions with senior management. It will take up any matter of importance to the work force, but usually focuses its communications with management and its constituents on concerns related to the working conditions, health and safety, work calendar and staffing and work relations." http://www.ownershipassociates.com/mcc-intro.shtm

According to the USW, they will likely start with smaller enterprises rather than tackling a huge development at the beginning. They've looked a little at conversions of existing businesses as a possibility, since that could be less capital-intensive than doing startups. And it's likely that the first cooperative will be in the US, though if possibilities present themselves in Canada, that's not off the table. Nothing has been decided yet.

NEXT STEPS TOGETHER
Hazel and I really wanted Rob and the Steelworkers to know that there is a wealth of experience out there and, as important, a whole worker cooperative movement that we think the USW/MCC initiative should be part of from the beginning. Rob agreed with this in principle. Along these lines, one of our questions was how we can get involved - we suggested possibly joining a steering committee, or occasionally participating in steering committee meetings. They do not yet have a steering committee or working group, but he noted our request, and suggested a couple other ways to communicate in the interim.

Moving forward, we have agreed to keep in regular contact, and to solicit input and feedback from one another. Ideally we would love to set up a vision/planning/research group with both USW and worker coop movement members, and there may be a little money to do this. In the meantime, I sent Rob a long list of resources and contacts, and some background information on worker cooperatives. We may set up an online collaboration site where documents can be shared and discussed, though this will likely have very limited access. Rob will also attend the meetings of the USFWC's union-coops committee, via conference call.

As you can imagine, USW has been swamped with responses to their announcement, and the volume can be a little overwhelming. For the moment, they have asked to establish lines of communication with designated representatives from allied organizations, and for those representatives to pass along news as well as solicit input when the time comes. To this end, I will report to the membership on any substantive contact I have with the USW/MCC project, and will let you know their needs and requests as they arise.

HOW CAN USW SUPPORT THE WORKER COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT?
Another important point that emerged from the meeting: USW is keenly interested in doing education about and advocacy for worker cooperatives within the union movement. They are also interested in contributing to the discussion about unionized worker cooperatives, brainstorming models in which the union plays a more active role, with its structure adapted to the cooperative workplace. Some examples may be: the union-as-social-council model, establishing a one-page living contract where the company recognizes the union and you bargain over agreed-upon items, creating a good hybrid between the traditional collective bargaining elements and the more collaborative elements and using partnership committees that are empowered to change the contract on their own according to the issues of the day, "almost like continuous bargaining." Talking with Rob, it struck me how different it is to hear people with a union background talk about the possibilities for union coops than to hear only coop people talk about union coops. I think the USW voice in this discussion will really bring some fresh ideas and interesting perspective to our ongoing discussion about alliances with labor.

Witherell also said he understands that there is great potential for cooperatives partnering with the union to be able to access union health and welfare funds and pension funds. He is open to discussing ways we might make those union resources available to worker cooperatives, or use the pooled resources to benefit worker cooperatives as well as union members. This was all in the abstract, but was important to put out there.

One thing USW asked me, and which I said I'd pass along, is for ideas about how the union can promote worker cooperatives within the labor movement, as well as what the union can offer to the worker cooperative movement - some examples might be models for coop union shops, sample contracts and collective bargaining agreements, exploration of sharing union benefits with cooperative workers, etc. What is our wish list? And what would we like to work on together? Please send me your ideas and I'll bring them to USW.

In sum, the conversation was open and fruitful, and I believe all three of us came away with a great sense of possibility. I think it's important to keep in mind that USW and Mondragon are at the very beginning of the process - there is no blueprint or even a framework in place yet. There is simply an agreement, and a shared understanding of the role of the union as a real advocate for making workers' lives better, however that looks in 2009 and beyond. I told Rob that sounded almost old-fashioned, a union that sees its role that way. We laughed, but this is serious business. When the USW says that they're "willing to go outside of our skin and try something a little different," it looks to me like they really mean it. So stay tuned. It's pretty exciting!

- Melissa