Work Together
The global information magazine on cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises in industry, services and crafts
May 2011 - Issue N°4
JWCU, the Japanese organisation for worker‟s
cooperatives is reporting an extremely hard situa-
tion within their members with the aftershocks that
are still hitting the country. A relief fund has been
set up to help the cooperatives. Report on page 24.
IN THIS ISSUE
INTERVIEW WITH ISABELLE DURANT
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT (page 14)
SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT:
A KEY FOR THE FUTURE OF
EUROPE (page 7)
SIGNS OF HOPE FOR
COOPERATIVES
IN EGYPT (page 23)
Japan‟s recovery JWCU set up a relief fund
COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISES
BUILD A BETTER WORLD (page 3) EDITORIAL 2
INTERCONTINENTAL 3
EUROPE 7
INTERVIEW 14
SOUTH AMERICA 16
NORTH AMERICA 19
AFRICA 22
ASIA 24
SPECIAL EDITION ON
SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT
When CECOP requested that I
write the magazine‟s editorial that
you have in your hands, I had two
thoughts: on the one hand the re-
sponsibility of writing words that
include all those cooperative feel-
ings and thoughts and, on the other
hand, I felt the satisfaction of being
able to talk about a topic which I
defend at every possible opportu-
nity.
Sustainable employment is a funda-
mental pillar on which our business
model is built, and it is linked to
the International Co-
operative Alliance
(ICA)‟s cooperative
principles : the sev-
enth principle is
about the community
interest. Coopera-
tives work to achieve
their communities‟
sustainable develop-
ment through poli-
cies approved by their members.
Everyone knows that cooperatives
are the companies that make the
most effort to maintain long-lasting
employment embedded in the terri-
tory.
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, and
within it, Chapter II of the Charter
of Fundamental Rights, sets out
various points about the freedom to
choose an occupation, the right to
engage in work and the freedom to
conduct a business. Also, the Chap-
ter III of the Charter analyzes
equality between men and women;
based on the ICA goals, we note
that it appears to promote and
strengthen self-governing coopera-
tives throughout the world and pro-
mote sustainable human develop-
ment and human, economic and
social progress.
From COCETA, we are actively
working for the inclusion of social
clauses in the contractual docu-
ments for public tenders, based pri-
marily on employment sustainabil-
ity and its characteristics. We can-
not forget that cooperatives are an
ideal company model to work with
public administration; while tradi-
tional enterprises give contracts
according to the length of time of a
specific service, cooperatives try to
keep people employed for longer
and they do not only maintain jobs,
but this has an impact
on local areas, with
all the benefits that
this entails.
Another important
concept in this field
is Corporate Social
R e s p o n s i b i l i t y
(CSR). According to
the Word Business
Council for Sustain-
able Development, CSR is : "the
commitment that takes a company
to contribute to sustainable eco-
nomic development through col-
laboration with employees, their
families, local community and soci-
ety in order to improve quality of
life”. This idea is dynamic and is
constantly evolving and changing,
but it is vital and it is in harmony
with sustainable employment.
I hope you find this Work Together
issue interesting and that it makes
us think and further develop these
topics. Happy reading!
Work Together Issue Nº 4 - May 2011
Work Together is the magazine of
the world (CICOPA) and European
(CECOP) Confederation of coopera-
tives and worker-owned enterprises
active in industry and services
CICOPA is a sectoral organisation of
the International Cooperative
Alliance (ICA).
Avenue Milcamps 105 - BE-1030
Brussels, Belgium
Contact: [email protected]
www.cicopa.coop
www.cecop.coop
SECRETARY GENERAL
Bruno Roelants
COORDINATION AND EDITION
Olivier Biron and Leire Luengo
COLLABORATORS
Virginia Pérez and Natalia Acerenza
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Jorge Cabrera for jcse
TRANSLATIONS AND PROOFREAD-
ING OF THE THREE LINGUISTIC
VERSIONS
Guy Boucquiaux, Francine Feret,
Arantza Garrido Altuna, Helen Rob-
inson and Celia Martín del Pozo
PICTURES
Self-production and copyright-free
photographs from flickr.com
The editorial staff would like to thank
all the members of CICOPA and CE-
COP CICOPA Europe for their con-
tribution.
Edited in English, French and Spanish
Manuel Mariscal Sigüenza is vice-
president of CECOP, vice-president of
COCETA (The Spanish Confederation
of workers' cooperatives) and president
of FAECTA (Federation of coopera-
tives enterprises of Andalusia).
“Sustainable
employment is
a fundamental
pillar on which
our business
model is built...”
2 |
„Cooperative Enterprises build a
better world‟ will be the slogan of
the 2012 United Nations Interna-
tional Year of Cooperatives. It
highlights the contribution of coop-
eratives to socio-economic develop-
ment, in particular recognizing
their impact on poverty reduction,
employment generation and social
integration: "Cooperatives are a
reminder to the international com-
munity that it is possible to pursue
both economic viability and social
responsibility", declared the
United Nations Secretary-General,
Ban Ki-moon.
The UN resolution which proclaimed
this international year invites all
member states to consider taking ac-
tion towards establishing national
mechanisms, such as national com-
mittees, to prepare for, observe and
follow up on the International Year of
Cooperatives.
The mains objectives are to increase
public awareness about cooperatives
and their contributions to socio-
economic development and promote
the formation and growth of coopera-
tives. The International Year of Coop-
eratives encourages governments to
establish policies, laws and regula-
tions conducive to the formation,
growth and stability of cooperatives.
The United Nations have also re-
cently revealed the logo of the Inter-
national Year which features seven
persons working together to lift and
support a cube. It evokes the defini-
tion of a cooperative enterprise as
“an autonomous associations of per-
sons united voluntarily to meet their
common economic, social, cultural
needs and aspirations, through a
jointly owned and democratically
controlled enterprise” 1. ■
| 3
'Co-operative Press' has recently
launched 'Dash.coop', a website that
displays news and blog feeds from
cooperatives across the world. It also
provides an interactive dashboard for
cooperators and anyone interested in
the sector to view feeds by subject or
through custom searches.
'Dash.coop' has the particularity that
users have control over the site. Any-
one can join up and add feeds to con-
tribute to a source of information
about cooperatives. Any article can
be shared through Twitter, Facebook,
MySpace, Delicious or email. A more
in-depth analysis allows feeds to be
viewed by country, as well as the
most popular subjects, such as con-
ferences and special events.
'Dash.coop' editor Anthony Murray
emphasizes the wealth of co-
operative news: “Dash.coop is here to
share this information and coopera-
tives together”. Moreover, he insists
that cooperatives need to be in con-
stant communication and see what
others are doing, especially during
the global recession and in the up-
coming International Year of Coop-
eratives in 2012. ■
For more information, please check:
http://social.un.org/coopsyear
Website: http://www.dash.coop
1 ILO Recommendation 193/2002 on the
promotion of cooperatives
n 8th March 2011 it was the
centenary of International
Women's Day. To mark this occa-
sion, Work Together is coming
back to the crucial role of women
in worker cooperatives.
Despite signs of progress in gender
equality over the past 15 years, there
is still a significant gap between
women and men in terms of job op-
portunities and quality of employ-
ment, according to the International
Labour Office (ILO). In turn, women
have always had a strong presence in
worker cooperatives given that this
business model combines economic
viability and social responsibility.
The agro-tourism women‟s coopera-
tive TO Kastri, is an example. Since
2000, Anna Darzenta and 27 active
housewives came together to begin
working outside the home and
opened their own catering company
in the Greek island of Syros where
there is high unemployment. The
EQUAL program for female entre-
preneurs, funded through the Euro-
pean Social Fund, has helped them.
"With an egalitarian ethos, participa-
tory decision-making, common own-
ership and commitment to goals be-
yond the motive of profit, coopera-
tives are expanding opportunities for
women in local economies and socie-
ties throughout the world", declared
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
at the occasion of last year‟s Interna-
tional Day of Cooperatives, for which
the motto was 'Cooperative enter-
prises empower women'. About gen-
der equality, he also underlines that
the cooperative approach is not only
an economically sustainable model,
but also an enterprise system in
which there are equality indicators
between men and women above the
rest of the business formulas. Ac-
cording to the Spanish Confederation
of Worker Cooperatives (COCETA),
49% of people in worker coopera-
tives are women. Amongst them,
39% have directors‟ positions, though
in other enterprises which do not
adopt this model, the percentage of
women that work in these positions is
barely 6%.
In Italy, according to ANCPL-
Legacoop, the presence of women in
worker cooperatives in the fashion
industry is 95%, a significant exam-
ple is the cooperative Stienta CAPA
(Rovigo), consisting of around 100
workers who are nearly all members,
in a leading producer of the Dolce &
Gabbana range which conducts an
annual turnover of more than three
million euros. In others sectors where
there are fewer women, such as the
metalworks, chemical and paper pro-
duction sector had a 20% of female
presence in directors‟ positions. In
addition, during the last six years the
female presence in the manufacturing
sector has increased significantly
from both the qualitative and quanti-
tative point of view.
The New Zealand China Friendship
Society (NZCFS), and the Interna-
tional Committee for the Promotion
of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives
(ICCIC), have begun a project with
Shaanxi Province Women's Federa-
tion, focused on encouraging Chinese
women in cooperatives. The first
phase of training has finished,
and vice chair of ICCIC, Dave Brom-
wich, believes that “cooperatives give
women an opportunity to lead, and
help them to develop confidence in
themselves”.
While the world economy is facing
difficult challenges, cooperatives
provide a valuable service to many
women, especially those in vulner-
able communities. The cooperative
business model is more resilient in a
crisis situation compared to capitalis-
tic companies because of the very
fact that those workers are the owners
of the company and therefore, it is a
model which prevails over individual
capital and in which profits are
shared with a collective approach. ■
O
Two workers from the Spanish cooperative Sherlimp
4 |
ossano Rimelli was elected
as president of CECOP-
CICOPA Europe at its extraordi-
nary general assembly which was
held on 4th November in Brus-
sels. With this election, he also
becomes vice-president of CI-
COPA for Europe. Industrial ex-
pert, graduated in economy and
business, Rossano Rimelli has
been active in the cooperative
movement in Italy for more than
25 years.
Since 2007, he has been General Di-
rector of ANCPL, the sectoral or-
ganisation of Legacoop for industrial
cooperatives. He succeeds to Felice
Scalvini who has recently been
elected co-president of Cooperatives
Europe. Felice Scalvini had been
president of CECOP for the last 14
years, a period that saw historical
changes in Europe, and that was
marked by a profound transformation
of the institutional architecture of the
international cooperative movement,
to which he himself contributed.
At his election, Rossano Rimelli de-
clared: "Being president of CECOP
means having the important duty to
represent the whole organisation. But
the activity of the organisation itself
requires the involvement of most
members. I am also convinced of the
fact that, beyond the cooperative sec-
tor in which one evolves, what we do
must be seen as an entrepreneurial
activity. In Italy, Spain, France and
many other countries in Europe, co-
operatives have a great competitive
capacity, at both national and inter-
national levels, and facts show that
cooperation can be done in many
different ways. In this time of crisis,
cooperatives can make a difference
in front of other more lucrative forms
of enterprises”. ■
R
Rossano Rimelli
| 5
ed del Sur (Southern Net-
work) has launched in 2010
an EU co-financed project,
where processes focused in cross-
border cooperation are rein-
forced. Organizations from Bra-
zil and Uruguay, respectively
UNISOL and FCPU, are already
taking important steps in this
regard (read more about Red del
Sur on page 16).
Last February, a Brazilian delega-
tion, formed by cooperatives and
government officials of Brazil‟s Río
Grande do Sul state, visited Uru-
guayan companies and established
several agreements with government
representatives from Uruguay.
Hence the collaboration that would
involve various links of the textile
chain based on recycled polymers.
Classifiers cooperatives (recyclers),
firstly from Brazil, would do the
primary job of collecting plastic con-
tainers to transform them in clean
sheet of polyethylene terephthalate
(PET)-kind of clear plastic. This
would be the raw material needed by
Coopima, an Uruguayan cooperative
that would be in charge of producing
the polyester fiber which would re-
turn to Brazil to be processed by
Coopertextil, a self-managed textile
spinning mill.
This regional network would join
and complement Justa Trama, a
chain of fair trade fabric production
and garment based in Brazil and in-
volving about six companies. There-
fore, this provides a great opportu-
nity, from a regional strategy, to pro-
vide jobs to several sectors of the
Social Economy of both countries. ■
R
Brazilian cooperatives delegation
and officials visit Coopima, Uruguay
he Spanish audiovisual pro-
duction cooperative m30m
made a documentary about coop-
eratives around the world and
are currently in the editing proc-
ess of the first episode recorded in
Chile. They are also working on
the development of the second
episode that will be filmed in Co-
lombia; they have conducted an
initial investigation into the sector
during the month of November.
The balance of this first approach has
been "very positive", as pointed out
by the spokesperson, Ana Sánchez:
“Firstly, because we have known the
cooperative movement first hand and
at the same time, we could share and
exchange experiences. We believe
that the cooperative movement needs
to be more interconnected.”
The series will be initially available
on the Internet, though m30m hope to
find another way of broadcasting in
the future, such as on public televi-
sion. The production company has
expressed their desire to find other
European audiovisual companies, who
are also cooperatives, and with whom
they can approach the project in col-
laboration.
For the time being, the series has no
institutional financial support. M30m
is looking for potential project pro-
moters in the countries where they are
broadcasting and also on an interna-
tional level. In fact, the episodes
filmed in Chile are being financed
with cooperative resources and with
the help of the International Centre for
Social and Cooperative Economy
(CIESCOOP) at the University of
Santiago in Chile and the Andalusia
Foundation School of Social Econ-
omy.
Increasing visibility
The objectives of this documentary
are, on the one hand the visibility of
the cooperative movement in the
world; to get to know the countries
and regions worldwide through the
companies and cooperative organisa-
tions, and display the values and the
cooperative principles in practice. At
the same time, the cooperative sector
wants to start a world meeting forum
and promotion of the cooperative
identity.
“Many members of cooperatives are
aware that there is a challenge in ex-
plaining what we do, in order to show
what we are and how we do it. Per-
haps we engage ourselves more in
action than words, but we must learn
to speak out for the world to know us
and recognise us”, says Ana Sanchez.
The cooperative idea is a phenomenon
present in most countries, and it has
survived and has grown, even though
their conditions have not always been
favorable. “We believe that sharing
experiences in each country will allow
us to strengthen the cooperative
movement”, Ana Sanchez says. “It is
an inclusive and supportive way of
doing business, which responds to
peoples‟ needs. Although the coopera-
tive also has something unique in each
region and that is where we are con-
vinced that sharing the experiences of
individual countries will allow us to
strengthen the cooperative move-
ment”.
Cooperative spreading
The m30m cooperative, which has
been based in Andalusia for nine
years, has an aim to make coopera-
tives and social economy more popu-
lar. It is not the first time m30m have
done this type of audiovisual work; in
2003 it began making nine documen-
tary episodes called The Andalusian
Social Economy promoted by CEPES
Andalucía. In 2009 they began the
production of another series for the
same entity called Undertaking from
the Social Economy.
“In 2008 we started to consider the
importance of going beyond the
sphere of our region and we began
designing a self-produced series that
allows us to broadcast and learn about
the cooperative movement throughout
the world. We wanted to experience
new things and to report them”, says
Ana Sanchez. ■
T
The Mundart artisans‟ cooperative in Santiago de Chile
6 |
For more information, please check:
http://www.m30m.com/
ECOP - CICOPA Europe
launched a campaign on
sustainable employment high-
lighting the fact that worker co-
operatives, social cooperatives
and other types of enterprises
owned by their workers allow a
more sustainable type of employ-
ment. Why? In fact, those enter-
prises are controlled by owners-
stakeholders who are actively
present on the territory, and are
aimed to satisfy their common
economic, social, cultural and/or
environmental needs and aspira-
tions.
“I really believe that people become
empowered by doing things them-
selves, not by having handouts” ex-
plains Becky Johnson from Who
made your pants?, a worker coopera-
tive formed to empower marginalised
women by providing flexible em-
ployment, education and a social and
community space. For this campaign,
CECOP has been collecting stories of
cooperative members from all over
Europe. All those testimonies are
presented on the campaign website
(www.sustainableemployment.eu).
The website includes also news and
videos.
In recent years, there has been a
growing interest for the worker coop-
eratives model. A largely unsustain-
able financial-economic system at a
global level paved the way towards
the global crisis which has left entire
EU member states in a very critical
situation. Since then, cooperatives
have appeared as generally more re-
silient to the crisis than the average of
enterprises, also in terms of jobs, and
as a realistic option to save enter-
prises and jobs through the restructur-
ing of enterprises in crisis or without
heirs. Nevertheless, cooperatives in
general and worker cooperatives in
particular suffer from a lack of recog-
nition in European employment poli-
cies. “An emblematic example of that
lack of recognition can be found in
the EU 2020 strategy”, underlines
CECOP secretary general, Bruno
Roelants. However, the recently pub-
lished European Commission Com-
munication on the Single Market Act
does recognize that the cooperative
sector is more vibrant than ever 1.
Despite the enthusiasm cooperatives
have enjoyed in the past few years,
the CECOP campaign does not pic-
ture them as the medicine that would
cure all the diseases. As any other
type of company, cooperatives have
many problems but, most of the time,
these are solved jointly by their mem-
bers. “It is not easy to operate as a
cooperative. The initial enthusiasm
soon gives way to individualism and
demands that can easily endanger the
integrity of the company. It is there-
fore absolutely necessary to share the
issues and problems faced by all
members of the workforce with the
fierce conviction that all actions are
taken in the common interest” ex-
plains Elena Purinan from the Aus-
sametal cooperative in the North of
Italy.
All members have their word to say
and are directly interested in the suc-
cess of the business thanks to the re-
distribution of surplus: “If more busi-
nesses were run this way, with highly
motivated worker owners, then eve-
ryone would be better off”, says Scott
Muir, a worker from Infinity Food in
the UK.
Recently, CECOP wrote a letter to
several high-level EU decision mak-
ers to raise their awareness on the
worker cooperative business model.
The letter was sent to EU Commis-
sioners László Andor (Employment),
Antonio Tajani (Enterprise) and Mi-
chel Barnier (Internal Market), sev-
eral MEPs, Commission civil ser-
vants, etc. As stated in the letter, “by
providing sustainable employment in
economically sustainable enterprises
geared towards the long term, we
consider ourselves to be part of a
wider socio-economic trend, which is
trying to generate and distribute long-
term wealth in the territories, going in
the opposite direction of the tenden-
cies which caused the crisis”. ■
C
1 European Commission Communication
COM(2011) 206/4: “Single Market Act :
Twelve levers to boost growth and strengthen
confidence” - http://s.coop/15v6.
| 7
The letter is available on the
campaign website at
http://www.sustainableemployment.eu
he transformation of companies
into cooperatives is an option
which is not always taken into ac-
count as part of corporate restructur-
ing due to a crisis or in businesses
without heirs. The global economic
crisis has demonstrated the success of
this entrepreneurial leap towards a
more democratic and more sustain-
able employments. Examples of suc-
cessful buyouts of enterprises in cri-
sis by their workers are numerous.
Several guidelines have been recently
published for all those interested in
joining the cooperative movement,
especially in the UK, Spain and
France. The Spanish Confederation
of Worker Cooperatives (COCETA)
and, in France, the General Confed-
eration of worker cooperatives (CG
Scop) have published very practical
guides, which describe the most im-
portant steps to take and which are
aimed at future developers. Each con-
federation has given its national
touch (legislation, financing, business
environment, etc.), but both pursue
the same objective: to publicize and
promote the cooperative option.
The guide published by COCETA
offers very practical information,
including several tables that allow
new cooperatives to establish a diag-
nosis in relation to the starting point
found where the new entity should
work more cooperatively and thor-
oughly to ensure its success. Both,
CG SCOP as COCETA include a list
of tools on which these companies
can find support, such as entities or
public and private institutions, which
specialize in providing assistance in
such situations. COCETA‟s guide
also includes a list of public grants
and technical assistance from which
entrepreneurs can benefit.
For its part, Co-operatives UK has
recently launched a guide to promote
the cooperative movement in the
creative industries, namely to ensure
that these professionals (who are of-
ten self-employed) work together.
The document gives the necessary
keys and indicates the way for the
creation of a cooperative. Co-
operatives UK also released in 2008 a
generic guide for establishing coop-
eratives. ■
Single market act: “the cooperative sector more vibrant than ever”
The European Commissioner for Inter-
nal Market and Services, Michel
Barnier, has presented on 13th of April
the „Single Market Act‟, a text re-
grouping twelve priorities designed to
boost growth and reinforce citizens'
confidence. Key actions for each lever
should be adopted by the end of 2012.
The text specifies that the cooperative
sectors is “more vibrant than ever” and
highlights its important contribution in
terms of employment in the European
Union.
CECOP‟s position on the Single Mar-
ket Act can be found on its website:
http://s.coop/15vq. ■
Entrepreneurial restructuring and anticipation of change
In 2010, CECOP-CICOPA Europe led
an EU-financed project on restructur-
ing called 'Anticipate'. This project
focused on entrepreneurial restructur-
ing and anticipation in worker and so-
cial cooperatives and other employee-
owned enterprises in Italy, Spain and
France. In these three countries, the
phenomenon of workers owning their
enterprise is important from both a
qualitative and quantitative point of
view. Following the project, a book
called 'Beyond the Crisis: Coopera-
tives, Work, Finance - Generating
Wealth for the Long Term' is about to
be published in English, French, Ital-
ian, and Spanish. The study has set out
to identify the dynamics of the coop-
eratives involved and their ability to
adjust to change and to anticipate it.
This might be particularly interesting
in the context of the crisis which flared
up the world economy.
The book can be purchased on the CE-
COP website at www.cecop.coop.
“Beyond the Crisis: Cooperatives, Work, Finance - Generating Wealth for the Long Term” (CECOP Publications) by Alberto Zevi, Antonio Zanotti, François Soulage
and Adrian Zelaia. ■
Practical guides to promote the creation of cooperatives
8 |
T
To access these guides refer to :
SPAIN
De empresa en crisis a empresa co-
operativa: Guía para la transforma-
ción de empresas mercantiles en co-
operativas de trabajo. COCETA
(Download)
FRANCE
Guide “Transmission d‟entreprise en
Scop”. CG Scop. (Download)
UNITED KINGDOM
Creative cooperatives. A guide to
starting a cooperative in the creative
industries. Co-operatives UK.
(Download)
Guide “Starting a Co-operative”. Co-
operatives UK. (Download)
he jobs consolidation in the
Sociedades Laborales (SAL)
in Spain has been made reality
thanks to the fact it is a worker-
owned enterprise. “If four people
join together to create a company
and own it, then they will do their
very best to survive in any eco-
nomic environment”, said Jose
Luis Núñez, spokesperson for the
Confederation of Employers and
Industrial Societies Spain
(Confesal). In addition, the Span-
ish SAL law restricts the hiring of
temporary employees. So to stay
as SAL they must meet a mini-
mum number of permanently
contracted working partners.
“This ensures that industrial so-
cieties are creating stable employ-
ment”, said Núñez.
The SAL governance model scheme
is similar to a traditional company
with the difference that the majority
of the Board of Directors is com-
posed of working members (at least
two-thirds). The SAL sector is inte-
grated in Spain for about 17,000
companies and 100,000 workers, ac-
cording to data available from 2010.
In addition, these companies recorded
a turnover of 16,000 million Euros in
the last fiscal year.
The Galician SAL Nor Rubber en-
gaged in the manufacture of rubber
products is a clear example. In 2001,
following the collapse of GESRUB-
BER, Inc. the new company was cre-
ated, “with a small portfolio of cli-
ents, with little funding but with a
good product and a huge desire to
move forward with this project from
133 workers who were looking to
secure their jobs”, says the company
Board of Directors president, José
Manuel Quintana.
After ten years of existence, they are
clear about it, if they had not been a
SAL, the adverse circumstances
would have been solved in another
way: “We should have gone to exter-
nal financing, which could have led
to a more complex situation. Surely
we would have suffered more and the
workforce would not be so involved
in the management and progress of
the company”.
Zuray Andrea Melgarejo, a professor
at the National University of Colom-
bia and a PhD in Business Admini-
stration from the University of
Navarra, performed the first com-
parative study between the SAL and
the traditional companies in Navarra
region (North of Spain). The study
concluded that SAL are in a favoura-
bly competitive position compared to
other commercial companies: “This
business formula creates a job differ-
ent from other small and medium
enterprises characterized, among
other factors, by a balance between
sustainability, solidarity and adapta-
bility to new markets, more likely to
generate permanent employment and
legal flexibility as well as flexibility
for salaries”, the study written by
Professor Melgarejo concludes. ■
T
Workers from Nor Rubber
“This business
formula creates a job
characterized by a
balance between
sustainability,
solidarity and
adaptability to new
markets...”
| 9
he number of workers coop-
eratives increased by 7% last
year compared to the same period
in 2009, according to the Spanish
worker‟s cooperatives association,
COCETA. At the same time, the
confederation announced that it
had contributed to the creation of
10,000 jobs per year since 1986,
with an average of 500 new enter-
prises created every year.
COCETA has equally participated in
an increase of 4.5% in the quantity of
jobs created within the same time
period. The sector of workers coop-
eratives in Spain now represents
around 17,000 businesses which gen-
erate a turnover of nearly 54,000 .
These businesses employ around
205,7000 workers compared to
70,000 when COCETA was first cre-
ated in 1986.
In addition, according to the last CO-
CETA directory, 49% of people in
workers cooperatives are women.
Amongst these, 39% have directors
positions, though in other enterprises
which do not adopt this model, the
percentage of women that work in
these positions is barely 6%.
During a ceremony which took place
in Valence, where the activities for
the 25th anniversary of the organisa-
tion were unveiled, its president Juan
Antonio Pedreño underlined the fi-
nancial difficulties across the sector.
“Cooperatives keep up thanks to the
efforts of their members” he added
and asked the public to support the
cooperative model. Our challenge for
2011 is to achieve a larger role in
institutional dialogue, and in order to
achieve it, we should familiarise po-
litical organs of our potential.”
Pedreño underlined the role of these
enterprises in the local development
and declared that they represent a
model for the future: “Cooperatives
obtain mainly positive results
whereas other models demonstrate
their limits at a time when it will be
difficult to increase jobs in the public
sector”.
The president of COCETA under-
lined the role of the organisation in
the creation and the continuation of
jobs within its 25 years of activity.
“In this time of crisis, cooperatives
committed themselves to balance
incomes and outgoings and to main-
tain jobs”, he underlined.
Felice Scalvini, co-president of Co-
operatives Europe, who assisted at
the COCETA event, insisted on the
fact that everywhere in Europe, co-
operative enterprises are more able to
resist the crisis: “Everyone says that
things are not going well. However,
in asking our organisations in differ-
ent countries during the past three
years, I have established that even if
difficulties exist, the situation is not
that bad. To a certain extent, history
proves us right”. ■
Co-operatives UK to launch petition calling for action to narrow the gap between rich and poor
In 2010, the whole cooperative move-
ment mobilised at the occasion of the
first 'Co-operatives Fortnight'. The
campaign got 2.3 million people in-
volved, around 70,000 were active
online and the media coverage reached
over 43 million people.
Inequality is at its highest since records
began: 50% of the United Kingdom
(UK) population owns just 1% of the
wealth. The richest 10% of the UK has
100 times the wealth of the bottom
10%. Last year, together, the coopera-
tive sector in the UK The 'Co-
operatives Fortnight' looks for raise
awareness of how cooperatives offer a
way of doing business in which every-
day employees, customers and resi-
dents have an equal say in decisions
and share the profits.
The 2011 Fortnight will take place
from 25 June to 9 July with the theme
„Yours to share‟ which represents the
shared ownership and the share in prof-
its that makes cooperatives different. In
order to show how cooperatives share,
Co-operatives UK aims to get 100,000
signatures for a petition calling for co-
operative action to narrow the gap be-
tween rich and poor.
Co-operatives UK is calling on the
British Government to support action
to share ownership and wealth in a
cooperative way encouraging business
to share profits with workers for exam-
ple, as it is the case for worker coop-
eratives or cutting red tape so that it is
as easy to start a cooperative as any
other form of business. ■
10 |
COCETA 25th anniversary opening ceremony
T
Sign the petition and share it at
http://www.uk.coop/yourstoshare
Facebook: www.facebook.com/coops14
Twitter: www.twitter.com/
CoopsFortnight
or the first time in its history,
the General Confederation of
worker cooperatives (CG Scop)
has launched a big campaign
across the whole country. Its goal:
to educate the working world that
„scops‟ (worker cooperatives) are
businesses tailored to work in this
century and that they represent a
model that deserves to be taken
into consideration.
CG SCOP‟s campaign has been an-
nounced by the written press, radio
and internet. It re-explains the typical
cooperative principles represented by
CICOPA on a worldwide scale: sus-
tainability and local roots, wealth
sharing, leaders elected by worker
members, the principle of one person/
one vote on major decisions, etc.
It comes right one year after the
launch of the new 'Les Scop' (the
worker cooperatives) brand and the
„Democracy suits us‟ slogan.
An original approach
For the purpose of the campaign, it
was the worker cooperatives employ-
ees‟ themselves who took a stand in
their work environment. They are the
emblem of this campaign since who
could be better to express the human
and collective dimension of their busi-
ness model? The photos from the
campaign appeared in newspapers and
are accompanied by various messages
such as 'We will not delocalise our
business. We are the Board' or other-
wise 'Sharing decisions, risks, pleas-
ures, profits, is normal for us'.
“At the time it was logical and appro-
priate to involve cooperatives, whose
members have expressed themselves
in the campaign, just as they would do
naturally, in real life. The way in
which many cooperatives in very dif-
ferent sectors of activity have been
directed allowed us to equally illus-
trate the diversity and wealth of the
cooperative movement” confides Syl-
vain Cathébras, from the Alma coop-
erative which has participated in the
campaign.
The movement of worker coopera-
tives in France - now named coopera-
tives and participatory societies - to-
day represents more than 2,000 com-
panies and more than 40,000 workers.
Opening up to the general public
As President of the General Confed-
eration of worker cooperatives since
2006, Patrick Lenancker takes stock
of this new campaign in France.
QUESTION: What is your first im-
pression of this campaign?
ANSWER: The feedback we have on
this campaign is very positive. Our
external contacts are finding that the
campaign is a success and the new
brand very appealing. Internally, our
cooperatives show appreciation and
pride of belonging to our Movement.
Quantitatively, our website has seen
its traffic grow by nearly 40%.
Strongly focused on reputation and
image, the campaign has also enabled
to create contacts on cooperative pro-
jects that may start this year.
Q: Concerning the campaign that CE-
COP - CICOPA Europe launched at
E u r o p e a n l e v e l ( c f .
www.sustainableemployment.eu),
which role do you think that coopera-
tives could play in terms of employ-
ment?
A: It is obvious. By nature, coopera-
tives are intended to help their mem-
bers and not to yield shareholders‟
profit. In worker cooperatives, which
include cooperative and participatory
societies, the members are the em-
ployees themselves with the primary
aim of sustaining their means of
working in order to maintain and de-
velop jobs, both in quantity and qual-
ity. Fortunately, many conventional
enterprises are intent to keep their
business and jobs. However, there is
always a risk that the company aims
and legacy could end up being taken
away, as we witness every day, read-
ing about restructuring and discordant
relocations in the economic press. In
worker cooperatives, employment is
the very aim. ■
F
| 11
Workers of the Acome cooperative group
Website: http://www.les-scop.coop .
To read the complete interview of
Patrick Lenancker, you can go on
http://s.coop/15ws
aced with the crisis which
affects the world economy,
social cohesion could be one of
the solutions: the institutions,
conventional enterprises and co-
operatives or other companies
controlled by their workers rep-
resent a possible foundation to
stimulate the resumption of the
labour market.
The social cohesion network is made
possible thanks to the common val-
ues and complementary factors be-
tween diverse characteristics: con-
ventional companies, through a bet-
ter internal organisation and a focus
on investment in order to reinforce
their presence on the market; the
institutions, which are a driving
force of territorial agreements with
the present enterprises by favoring
investments; cooperatives and other
enterprises owned by workers and
particularly social cooperatives.
Thanks to their presence on the terri-
tory, social cooperatives encourage
the connections with different stake-
holders and the integration of com-
munities through the current social,
economic and cultural situations and
which can be defined as 'generators
of solidarity' including the workers,
who participate in the efforts to
overcome the crisis and who sacri-
fice a part of their wage in the accep-
tance of a contract of solidarity.
In short, everyone becomes an active
link of the social cohesion chain.
One of the important steps in this
process is the stability of the links of
cohesion: the networks to which the
key players belong will have to
change by adapting themselves from
time to time to the requests from the
territories: one should start talking
about 'flexible subsidiarity'.
This process, of which human beings
are at the centre, (workers, entrepre-
neurs, politicians, etc.), experiences
greater success when all stake-
holders are informed and involved:
one cannot talk about social cohe-
sion without mentioning a 'shared
sustainability' either for the choices
or the proposed solutions.
Thus, social cohesion should go
through thus the knowledge of dif-
ferent action modalities in order to
find shared solutions more easily. ■
he Italian Italtac company is
a cooperative recently cre-
ated and specialized in the pro-
duction of self-adhesive material.
It has a high level of technical
expertise thanks to its highly
qualified workforce.
The cooperative headquartered in
Soliera in the Modena province was
created thanks to the involvement of
the former workers of Diaures, a
company which went into crisis fol-
lowing financial problems and which
had to file for bankruptcy. The 24
workers – after being forced to stop
work for one year - decided to save
their jobs and created the coopera-
tive. They had to invest their own
money in buying machinery and hir-
ing the work place. Such an opera-
tion was made possible thanks to the
support of various financial institu-
tions linked to the Italian coopera-
tive organisation Legacoop such as
CFI, Coopfond and Sofinco. The
'Italtac-Self-Adhesive materials &
coatings' cooperative was born on 17
March 2011.
Italtac manufactures a large variety
of standard and customized products
in order to respond to the increasing
requirements of the labelling market.
The company wants to reinforce its
presence on the international market
as a reliable provider and a long
term partner and to develop strong
commercial alliances with clients
and other providers.
The 24 workers of the Italtac coop-
erative are deeply involved in the
production process which allows
them to guarantee an efficient, opti-
mal and quality service to its cli-
ents.■
T
12 |
F
“Social cohesion should
go through the
knowledge of different
action modalities in
order to find shared
solutions more easily”
he Czech Minister of La-
bour and Social Affairs,
Jaromír Drábek, raised the pro-
file of the CECOP-CICOPA
Europe Board meeting in Prague
by attending the opening of the
event, which took place on 29th
March in the offices of SČMVD,
the Czech union of worker coop-
eratives.
The Minister, Jaromír Drábek, re-
minded those present of the impor-
tance of cooperatives during his ad-
dress: “The platform of cooperatives
is nothing new for me. The coopera-
tive movement has a long history in
the Czech Republic and it is an inevi-
table part of the Czech economy and
of the Czech society. The Union of
Czech Production Cooperatives
(SČMVD) is one of the basic partners
for negotiations between the govern-
ment bodies and the cooperative sec-
tor. The cooperative movement has
considerable advantages: the stake-
holders are also the co-owners of
those enterprises therefore they have
much wider possibilities to decide
about their own activities. I believe
that the discussion that is taking place
at the European level to strengthen
the role of the cooperative movement
is a good way to stimulate people to
take responsibility for themselves in
their own lives”.
The Minister also underlined that he
visited two worker cooperatives this
month in his effort to constantly im-
prove the support of cooperatives by
the government in the country.
Indeed, the cooperative movement is
deep-rooted within the Czech society,
reaching as far back as the 19th cen-
tury. SČMVD affiliates 252 coopera-
tives with 18,000 workers active in
several economic sectors such as art
handicraft, household equipment,
building industry, electric equipment,
wood, machines tools, textiles, cloth-
ing and chemicals. Their aggregate
turnover is around 730 million. The
organisation was originally created in
1953 in order to promote and defend
the interests of production coopera-
tives in the Czech region of the ex-
Czechoslovakia. ■
T
n an interview with the
newspaper „Viata C‟ pub-
lished by UCECOM, the organi-
sation Romanian worker coop-
eratives, Irina Cajal Marin, the
deputy Secretary of the State
along with the Romanian Minis-
ter of Culture and National Heri-
tage, re-affirms her support for
production of handcrafted prod-
ucts. She declared that she is
“convinced that the invaluable
artistic heritage of the Romanian
people should be enriched and
protected in the name of those
who love it”.
Irina Cajal Marin participated in a
conference on the theme of „The tra-
ditional craftsman - the challenges of
the modern world‟, during the na-
tional fair of popular art and crafts of
Romanian worker cooperatives. She
was questioned by the exhibitors, who
expressed concerns about the conse-
quences of the counterfeiting of their
products. The deputy Secretary had
suggested that the cooperatives make
"concrete propositions to stop coun-
terfeiting which generates unaccept-
able profits and damages the value of
national heritage". She suggested tak-
ing descriptive measures to better
supervise handicrafts production and
notably to “determine criteria in order
to identify the issued products of
popular art and handicrafts which can
be bought by the public or cultural
institutions, or linked to education
about the country.
In 2009, counterfeiting in Romania
represented approximately 26% of the
total production in the market1. In this
situation handicraft cooperatives are
part of the rare businesses which ap-
pear to maintain crafts production that
respond to the demands of tradition
and authenticity. ■
Jaromír Drábek (right) with CECOP president
Rossano Rimelli at the CECOP Board meeting
| 13
I
1 Source: REACT - The European Anti-
Counterfeiting Network (www.react.org).
14 |
Question: The concept of sustain-
able employment is totally absent in
European policies. This concept is
the main mission of cooperatives
and companies run by their workers
and represented by CECOP. How-
ever, according to you, how can sus-
tainable employment be defined?
Answer: Employment sustainability
is not only a contractual issue for
workers who practice it (ideally with
an open-ended contract) but also a
question of purpose and influence of
the activity to which it contributes in
its territorial, economic, physical,
and human environment. Sustain-
ability is also reflected in the man-
agement of a company that produces
it: a prudent management, who an-
ticipates and controls its expansion
Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP (EFA / The Greens), has agreed to
answer the questions of "Work Together" on the occasion of this special issue on sustainable employment.
Isabelle Durant aspires to a more social Europe. On her website, she explains how she contributed to reach
an agreement with the European Parliament and the Commission in 2001 about the working hours of lorry
drivers: “Social aspects are always put off. First we liberalize and deregulate” she said “and at the very
best, afterwards we realize which the consequences are for workers, their health, and our security. That's
also the Social Europe” Let‟s see what Isabelle Durant thinks about Europe, where companies would care
more about their workers...
“It is regrettable
that the 2020
strategy, without
exclude it formally,
considers this method
of recovery by the
workers just as a
stopgap…”
and who invests in human capital of
training for all its workers.
Q.: Have you ever been aware of co-
operatives as a citizen or as an MEP
and in which way?
A.: Absolutely. Here at the European
Parliament, several cooperatives, es-
pecially those focused on agriculture
and food production fields, contact us
regarding some aspects of the forth-
coming reform of the Common Agri-
cultural Policy (CAP). In a trade
where individual producers‟ income is
isolated and placed in jeopardy struc-
turally, the organisation into workers‟
cooperatives, where workers run their
own companies, turns out to be par-
ticularly appropriate and adequate. In
this troubled sector, adequacy, should
lead us to analyse the usage and pro-
motion of a model like this one not
only in sectors undergoing restructur-
ing or due to company closure, but
also in areas of small innovative
firms, allowing the creation of new
jobs.
Q.: The takeover of companies in cri-
sis or without heirs by their workers
has already saved many jobs in
Europe. Don‟t you find that this
method should be taken more into
account in European policies?
A.: It is regrettable that the 2020 strat-
egy, without exclude it formally, con-
siders this method of recovery by the
workers just as a stopgap...
Q.: The vast majority of cooperatives
have so far shown a better resistance
to the crisis compared with average
companies from the same sectors and
the same countries. Do you believe
that their governance and manage-
ment system has something to do with
this?
A.: It's obvious that companies from
sectors more touched by competition
and that, because of this reason, have
developed short-term strategies for
surviving to a wild dumping are those
that are more threatened.
Q.: Finally, if you wished to create a
cooperative, which would be its main
activity?
A.: I have already participated and I
am member of a housing cooperative
for social purposes, offering a dozen
of associations working in the social
fields of premise shared services, a
common work ethic, a knowledge
platform and services. If I had to cre-
ate another, it would be based on the
field of art production (cinema, thea-
tre, image, new technologies): I am
convinced that in this matter which
cannot be conceived without a real
human commitment, without a guide-
line that makes sense; there is a huge
need for sharing strategies and re-
sources. ■
| 15
“In a trade where
individual producers’
income is isolated and
placed in jeopardy
structurally, the
organisation into
workers’ cooperatives,
running their own
company, turns out
to be particularly
appropriate and
adequate”
→ 1994-1999: Co-president of the Ecolo party in Belgium
→ 1999-2003: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Transport
in the Belgian government of Guy Verhofstadt
→ 2004-2009: re-elected as Co-president of the Ecolo party
→ 2009: elected MEP (EFA / The Greens) and Vice-President of the
European Parliament
BIO
GR
AP
HY
Interview conducted by Olivier Biron, CECOP
http://s.coop/1e4z
http://twitter.com/cicopa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SustainableEmpl
FOLLOW US
16 |
he new political and socio-
economic context of MER-
COSUR highlights the role of the
Social and Solidarity Economy as
an alternative to boost job oppor-
tunities and employment inclu-
sion of extensive social sectors in
the region. The worker coopera-
tives block not only have influ-
enced the construction of this new
reality in every Mercosur coun-
try, but also they have taken a
major leap to be a forum for po-
litical, social, economic and cul-
tural heritage expression, called
Red del Sur (Southern Network).
This network, established in 2007 by
several organisations representing
worker cooperatives of the region, is
formed by the Producers‟ Coopera-
tives Federation of Uruguay (FCPU),
the Regional Union of Cooperatives
and Solidarity Enterprises of Brazil
(UNISOL), the National Confedera-
tion of Worker Cooperatives
(CNCT) from Argentina (in which
we should emphasize the role of FE-
COOTRA, FACTA and Metalworker
Cooperatives Network), and the
Paraguayan Cooperatives Confedera-
tion (CONPACOOP).
Political representation of worker
cooperatives before national and lo-
cal government agencies and MER-
COSUR agencies, as well as devel-
opment of a common regional iden-
tity by integrating knowledge, val-
ues, and professional trajectories are
the main objectives of this network.
Moreover, Red del Sur also aims to
gain a bigger position for the social
economy in regional economy, espe-
cially for worker cooperatives
through the development of eco-
nomic networks between coopera-
tives, strengthening workers‟ coop-
eratives in strategic areas.
International cooperation towards
South
Red del Sur has been able to realize
its potential thanks to the support of
several development organizations
that have been strategic to strengthen
the sector, including most notably
Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei
Paesi Emergenti (COSPE, Italy), the
Cooperation and Research Founda-
tion CIDEAL (CIDEAL, Spain), Isti-
tuto Sindacale per la Cooperazione e
lo Sviluppo (ISCOS Nazionale and
ISCOS ER, Italy) and Nexus (Italy).
The network‟s role at MERCOSUR
level was essential in the adoption by
the European Union of a support pro-
ject to this regional cooperative proc-
ess called Promoting worker coop-
eratives and strengthening networks
of Mercosur Social Economy Enter-
prises as a strategy for fighting pov-
erty and building a more democratic
and sustainable society.
The project, launched in April 2010
(see article page 5), allows for the
implementation of strategies aimed
to the strengthen the participation of
regional companies in the market; to
develop initiatives between coopera-
tives creating production chains; and
to combine tools to promote public
policies and social development pro-
grams. All these lines are crucial to
promote social and solidary enter-
prises as a strategy to encourage a
more human and sustainable devel-
opment model. ■
T
Cooperativa de Trabajadores Navales, member of the Federation of
Worker Cooperatives of Uruguay (FCPU) - Photo: Manlio Masucci (ISCOS)
| 17
here plants are closed
down, worker cooperatives
reopen them. Out of 16,000 co-
operatives in Argentina, half of
them are worker cooperatives.
They created 300,000 jobs and
account for 10% of the gross do-
mestic product (GDP). Out of
some 40 million inhabitants in
this South-American country, 10
million are linked directly or in-
directly to cooperatives and mu-
tual societies.
These data unveil that the challenge
for worker cooperative is to enhance
their visibility as a sector. Many
citizens consume products and/or
services of cooperatives without
being aware. With this in mind, the
vice president of the Federation of
W o r k e r C o o p e r a t i v e s
(FECOOTRA), Fabián Silveira,
made clear: “a new map of the so-
cial economy is taking shape.
Worker cooperatives emerge as a
new political, economic and social
reality. They are mak-
ing their own voice
heard, the workers‟
voice in the constella-
tion of the social
economy”.
Some of the achieve-
ments are the follow-
ing: to revamp CI-
COPA-Americas, to
create a National Confederation of
Worker Cooperatives (CNCT), to
weave networks of joint manage-
ment, to reopen plants, to set up
worker cooperatives of young pro-
fessionals in the various sectors
(communication, free software,
graphic design, financial, account-
ing and legal services). Managing
social inclusion programs at State
level has also been possible. One
example is the program „Argentina
Trabaja‟ („Argentina works‟) which
in its first phase has succeeded in
rescuing the jobs of 1,984 unem-
p loyed wor ker s
through the creation
of worker coopera-
tives.
Worker cooperatives
mean to recover jobs
with dignity, i.e.
meeting the economic
needs and enhance
the persons who be-
come genuinely ac-
tors, giving greater importance to
the member worker members than
to capital. The challenge is to ensure
that this means be sustainable and
worker cooperatives in Argentina
are heading toward this objective. ■
CICOPA keeps expanding in the American continent
As for November 2010, CICOPA
counts seven members in Latin Amer-
ica. The last two which joined CI-
COPA are the „Confederación Nacional
de Cooperativas de Actividades Diver-
s a s d e l a Re p ú b l i c a M e x i -
cana‟ (Mexico) and the „Confederación
Paraguaya de Cooperativas, CON-
PACOOP‟ (Paraguay).
The Mexican organisation has 247 af-
filiated cooperatives in various sectors
such as mining, building, broadcasting
and ports services. It is the only Mexi-
can organisation affiliating worker co-
operatives. CONPACOOP is an inter-
sectoral confederation grouping mainly
farmers‟ and credit cooperatives. One
of the main goals of this affiliation is to
develop worker cooperatives in Para-
guay. ■
Argentina works, teaches and learns
The program „Argen t ina Tra-
baja‟ (‟Argentina works‟) is aimed at
rescuing more than 150,000 workers‟
jobs through the involvement of the
concerned employees in worker coop-
eratives. It is managed jointly by the
national government, worker coopera-
tives, the Federation of Worker Coop-
eratives, FECOOTRA, and the National
Confederation of Worker Cooperatives
of Argentina (CNCT). In its first phase,
the constitution of cooperatives enabled
the federation to safeguard 2,000 jobs.
The work, more precisely repairs of
municipal buildings and rehabilitation
of public areas, is carried out in social
clubs, community integration centres,
mobile services, etc. The workers can
decide what in their community they
will transform. With a model of integral
development in mind, the Labour Min-
istry, the Social Development Ministry
and FECOOTRA have proposed a con-
sistent capacity-building program of
school literacy training, secondary
schools, capacity-building in coopera-
tives and vocational training. ■
Participants to the
'Argentina Trabaja' programme
W
“Worker
cooperatives
emerge as a new
political,
economic and
social reality”
18 |
espite a consolidated Labour
Law since 1st May 1943 in
Brazil, there is some adversity in
the legal and socio-economic fields.
However, worker cooperatives
have played an important role in
the sustainability of jobs: retaining
the workforce, promoting competi-
tive conditions for cooperatives and
dignity for their members.
Cooperatives have been established as
a third way. It is less costly because a
cooperative member is the master of
his or her own business and supplier
of workforce; and more plausible be-
cause the cooperative member is able
to negotiate and establish better work-
ing conditions.
Worker cooperatives have made a
huge effort to strengthen their organi-
sations and principles. Under the OCB
leadership there is a process of adding
cooperative organisations to the docu-
ment entitled „Criteria for identifica-
tion of worker cooperatives‟ which
gives guidelines for two very impor-
tant initiatives in the sector. On the
one hand by the elaboration of a spe-
cific draft legislation aimed to regu-
late worker cooperatives and on the
other hand by the National Compli-
ance Program for Worker Coopera-
tives (PNC-Labour).
The new legislation reaffirms the
worker cooperative and is independ-
ent from traditional Brazilian labour
laws. This legal project is still pending
in National Congress but it is ready to
be approved by parliament in 2011
and signed by the President. After
that, all cooperatives will have to
comply with the requirements of the
new law in order to be recognized and
this will create clear standards to iden-
tify legitimate worker cooperatives.
The PNC provides worker coopera-
tives with the opportunity to officially
differentiate themselves on the mar-
ket. Companies hiring worker coop-
eratives which are participants in the
PNC are assured a good standard of
business. The company has the assur-
ance that the cooperatives will follow
the law and comply with the demands
of the new draft legislation mentioned
above. The cooperatives that have
been awarded the title have an in-
creasing number of customers and
increasing revenue. They have in-
creased the number of employees,
increased membership and have credi-
bility on the market. ■
ince the emergence of the first
cooperatives in Paraguay, 80
years ago, the cooperative sector
has continued growing and unifying
itself. The Paraguayan Cooperative
Confederation (CONPACOOP)
comprises a total of almost 700 co-
operatives, especially those from the
savings, credit and farmer sectors,
and to a lesser extent, worker coop-
eratives.
Worker cooperatives are living an
incipient growth in Paraguay. CON-
PACOOP has set as one of its objec-
tives, in the framework of its now
strategic plan to develop and
strengthen the worker cooperative
sector. This objective has been largely
driven by the cooperative movement
of MERCOSUR, which has encour-
aged CONPACOOP to continue along
this road.
CONPACOOP's commitment to boost
the creation and sustainability of this
sector has led this organization to link
with Red del Sur (Southern Network)
as a regional place of expression for
such cooperatives in the MERCOSUR
region, receiving the support of the
federations of workers‟ cooperatives
of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
Among the difficulties that the move-
ment faces to achieve this goal, we
can find the unfavorable regulatory
framework. "Here the law only pro-
vides with normal facilities to other
kinds of cooperatives, but workers
cooperatives need more than tax ex-
emptions to be created”, pointed out
Antonio Ortiz Guanes, President of
the National Institute of Cooperatives
(INCOOP). Just to give you an illus-
trative comparison, in Brazil, for ex-
ample, fewer people are needed to
create a worker cooperative; they are
granted allocations, lower interest
rates and free expert technical assis-
tance from the State. ■
S
D
Logo of the „PNC- Trabalho‟ standard
To know more about this program visit
http://s.coop/1641
rom October 11th to 15th
2011 tow key conferences
will be held in Quebec. The first
conference titled „Business Suc-
cession and Employee Ownership
Conference‟ will take place from
the 11th to 13th of October. The
second one named „CICOPA
North America Conference: Co-
operation without Borders‟ will
be from the 13th to 15th of Octo-
ber.
The objective of the first conference
is to raise awareness of worker coop-
eratives as an alternative for busi-
nesses without successors and to de-
velop the expertise of stakeholders
through the exchange and analysis of
their experience. In the coming years
the world is facing a very significant
phenomenon, and one with major
socio-economic consequences: the
mass exodus to retirement by busi-
ness owners from the so-called "baby
boomer" generation. It is estimated
that about 200,000 Canadian busi-
nesses will change hands in the next
fifteen years. The phenomenon will
be proportionately comparable in the
U.S., Europe and elsewhere.
The exceptional scale of this transi-
tion may cause the loss of many en-
terprises for lack of buyers, or for
being sold to competitors. A recent
study by the Quebec Department of
Economic Development, Innovation
and Exports (MDEIE) has shown that
although the phenomenon is already
under way, we are currently witness-
ing only its very earliest beginnings
and that departures should reach their
peak between 2017 and 2020 and
that, when we are approaching this
peak in 4 to 5 years‟ time, there will
no longer be sufficient individuals
willing to purchase these companies.
This phenomenon of a missing next
generation of individual entrepre-
neurs should also manifest itself
much earlier in rural areas. The social
and economic risk is substantial and
many companies risk closure; as a
result tens of thousands of jobs could
disappear, whole villages and com-
munities could go into decline.
Faced with this threat of business
disintegration and accompanying
massive job losses, the alternative to
transfer these companies to their em-
ployees through the worker coopera-
tive model appears increasingly to be
the ideal solution and a tremendous
opportunity for the worker coopera-
tive movement to grow. The worker
cooperative model (along with re-
lated models like multi-stakeholder
cooperatives) helps to maintain and
develop these enterprises, and helps
workers maintain local control over
their future.
The second conference, “Co-
operation without Borders", has the
objectives to provide a venue for the
worker cooperative movements in
Quebec, the rest of Canada and the
United States to come together and
share experiences. The organization
of this Conference is a historic event.
For the first time, hundreds of mem-
bers of worker cooperatives from
across North America will meet and
share their experiences together to
improve their governance practices
and democratic management of their
businesses, and to demonstrate to-
gether their solidarity and common
will to build a caring economy based
on ownership and control of enter-
prises by workers. The Conference is
being organized by CWCF with sup-
port from 'le Réseau de la coopéra-
tion du travail du Québec', the US
Federation of Worker Cooperatives
and other partners. ■
F
Member of the Canadian delivery business Shift Delivery Co-op
| 19
For more information :
http://www.cooperation2011.coop
ork Together‟ interviewed
Melissa Hoover to know the
United States‟ cooperative sec-
tor‟s situation in depth and its
vision as an engine for worldwide
sustainable jobs.
Melissa Hoover is the executive di-
rector of the US Federation of
Worker Cooperatives (USFWC)
since its beginning in 2004. The fed-
eration now has 75 members and
represents about 1.400 people. Hoo-
ver says that their membership in-
cludes about a third of the worker
cooperatives in the United States. On
the topic of the cooperative contribu-
tion to sustainable employment,
Melissa Hoover says: “I believe co-
operatives and worker cooperatives
in particular are crucial to creating
sustainable employment, sustainable
for the humans employed, and for the
earth we depend on”.
For Melissa Hoover, much of the
cooperative contribution to sustain-
able work is given by the fact that
cooperatives “are a powerful combi-
nation of abstract and practical”, she
says, “valuing autonomy, democracy
and education and basically valuing
people. It is a powerful statement to
make and one that directly counters
the profit motive and individualism
that are embedded into our public
dialogue, at least here in the United
States”.
She explains that on a practical level
“to conduct business according to
these values and to do it well and
successfully is inspiring to so many
people who see the problems of an
unfair economy and do not want to
just protest but to build an actual so-
lution”.
Melissa Hoover believes that the
principles of cooperation between
cooperatives and concern for the
community are the cornerstones to
sustainability. “Cooperating with
other cooperatives keeps us in mind
of the myriad of interests we are al-
ways balancing, and contradicts the
dominant message that competition is
the only way to succeed”. She added
that a worker cooperative is generally
environmentally sustainable “because
worker-owners tend to live in the
community in which they work and
make workplace decisions, they are
less likely to make decisions to dam-
age that environment”.
On the other hand, she indicated that
cooperatives, rather than laying off
workers, may decide to re-train and
relocate them. “They can share the
burden of an economic downturn
rather than displace it onto the most
vulnerable. Self-management brings
dignity to work, and it offers opportu-
nities for significant growth as work-
ers engage not just in their daily tasks
but in the larger operations and coop-
erative decisions”.
“It is this human-centred job security,
and personal growth through the ex-
ercise of democratic rights, that I find
inspiring and potentially transforma-
tive for society. I believe worker co-
operatives and the capacity they build
for democratic participation make us
better citizens, better family mem-
bers, better neighbours and better
advocates of sustainable values”, she
stressed. ■
The Arizmendi Bakery worker cooperative group has 5 bakeries in the US
Photo: Myleen Hollero
20 |
“Worker cooperatives
are crucial to
creating sustainable
employment,
sustainable for the
humans employed,
and for the earth
we depend on”
To access to the full interview of
Melissa Hoover, click here
„W
lthough this model is far
from being a marginal econ-
omy, there are no precise figures
for the number and influence of
cooperatives in Mexico. There is
a lack of recognition and promo-
tion required for this sector‟s de-
velopment. A new Cooperative
Societies Act aims to find solu-
tions to the obstacles this move-
ment is facing.
In the production cooperatives sector
in Mexico we find a number of illus-
trative and very strong companies
such as Pascual, Cruz Azul, El
Grullo (Jalisco) and Trado. They
show that it is possible to reach high
levels of economic success. How-
ever, there are still a large number of
small cooperatives not organized or
not affiliated to any second level or-
ganizations that could represent
them.
“One of the objectives of our confed-
eration is to achieve the integration
of this large number of production
cooperatives - present throughout the
country- into a broader representative
framework”, pointed out the director
of the Mexican cooperative confed-
eration for all the sectors (CMC),
Dov Orian.
The current law governing coopera-
tives dates from 1994 and presents
some gaps that have created barriers
in its implementation. Moreover, this
law is more oriented to the control
and management of cooperatives
than to their development and pro-
motion. “Regarding production coop-
eratives, they often find difficulties
in size and access to credits; there-
fore it is hard for them to live up to
today's modern technological devel-
opment”, states Orian. These are
some of the aspects that the proposed
new Cooperative Societies Act seeks
to correct in Mexico, and that were
launched last week at the Chamber of
Deputies by the Senior Council of
Cooperatives (COSUCOOP).
One of the points which the new Co-
operative Societies Act desires to
highlight is the fact that the govern-
ment should be involved in support-
ing, encouraging and promoting the
cooperative concept within the
movement as well as outside.
Another challenge this sector is fac-
ing constitutes the sector‟s fragmen-
tation and the lack of statistical infor-
mation reporting on its real size.
“Since Mexico is a large country,
with significant geographic dis-
tances, we often do not even know of
the existence of some cooperatives”,
stated the Headquarters Chair of the
Mexican Confederation. The new
law envisages that Mexico´s National
Institute of Geography and Statistics
incorporates the cooperative title in
the resident registration in order to
overcome this problem. ■
| 21
A
Dov Orian, director of the Mexican
cooperative confederation
for all the sectors (CMC)
A cooperative of journalists works with the New York Times
Launched in late October 2009, the
'Chicago News Cooperative' produces
public-interest journalism, focused
especially on the reality of Chicago
(United States). The cooperative is
composed of the former Chicago Trib-
une managing editor, James O‟Shea,
and other recognized professionals.
Their contents are published in the
'New York Times' twice a week, being
the first outside news organization to
produce entire pages to this prominent
American newspaper. In 2011, Chi-
cago News Cooperative expects to
launch a website that will be the centre
of its operations and introduce new
ways of communication for the com-
munity. ■
Colors Restaurant: cooperative in the heart of New York
Worker cooperatives in the United
States cover all sectors of activity and
catering is no exception. The restaurant
cooperative Colors, located in the city
of New York, has shown how the crisis
can be an opportunity.
The worker cooperative Colors Restau-
rant was founded in 2006 by surviving
workers from the World Trade Center
tragedy that occurred on 11th Septem-
ber 2001.
The restaurant offers international cui-
sine based on locally produced ingredi-
ents. Being organized in the form of a
cooperative means to the staff-owners
that they have access to better working
conditions, better salary and racial
equality, together with an economically
viable activity. Worker members come
from more than a dozen countries.
The group is part of the Restaurant
Opportunities Center (ROC), an or-
ganization that fights for fair working
conditions for workers in the foodser-
vice industry, and also launched cam-
paigns to fight against exploitation of
restaurant workers. ■
010 was a good year for co-
operatives in Uganda. A
number of milestones were
reached, showing that in recent
times, it had made good progress
towards the building of a new
cooperative movement. In 2009
and 2010 a number of new coop-
eratives were created in several
economic sectors, including
worker cooperatives. Some of the
cooperatives created outside the
agricultural sector come from the
energy sector and there are also
new handicrafts and furniture
cooperatives, as well as irrigation
cooperatives.
This means that more and more peo-
ple from different fields continue to
recognise the role of the cooperative
model in improving their standard of
living. At a governmental level, the
cooperative movement has also re-
ceived more support with a new coop-
erative policy which was launched
during the year. It recognizes coopera-
tives as part of the private sector and
therefore lays a good foundation for a
modern cooperative law.
During 2010, the Uganda Cooperative
Alliance (UCA) turned its attention to
the concept of horizontal integration
and its benefits could quickly be seen
in the conduct of cooperative busi-
ness. “This is now contributing to the
good reputation and reliability of our
cooperatives in the eyes of big buyers.
Horizontal and vertical integration
will strengthen the whole cooperative
system by making it more effective
and efficient, and increasing its power
both in the market and society as a
whole”, says Leonard Msemakweli,
UCA‟s Secretary General. ■
Worker take-overs have become a
phenomenon which saves many enter-
prises around the world. There are
many examples in Europe or South
America of workers deciding to not let
their enterprise disappear and to be-
come owners of the enterprise. This is
not where it ends! South Africa has
also opened the path to worker buy-
outs. In October 2010, the workers of
the Mine Line/TAP Engineering fac-
tory in Krugersdorp, just outside
Soweto, started an occupation of their
workplace to stop the former owner
from stripping the factory of machin-
ery and other assets and to fight to
save their jobs.
They occupied the plant and began a
campaign of solidarity, demanding
that the state takes over of the factory.
Now the factory has re-opened and is a
democratically run worker coopera-
tive. However, in order to succeed in
this activity, they need the support of
the Industrial Development Coopera-
tion, a state-owned national develop-
ment institution that provides financ-
ing to entrepreneurs and businesses
engaged in competitive industries. “If
they do assist this cooperative, it
would open up a door from the gov-
ernment to many other worker coop-
eratives” says Athish Kirun from CO-
PAC, an independent agency active in
the development of worker coopera-
tives in South Africa. “If they don‟t
help the cooperative, we will then go
back to demonstrate in the streets”. ■
22 |
2
Uganda Co-operative Alliance's members
gypt has experienced an un-
precedented revolution
which led to the fall of President
Hosni Moubarack. Essam
Charaf, the new Prime Minister,
has been nominated by Egypt‟s
Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces. In the meantime, it has
been announced that presidential
elections will be held by the end
of the year. So far, the first step
towards democracy has been
reached with the referendum on
constitutional amendments ap-
proved by 77.2% of Egyptians.
The Egyptian revolution has com-
pletely modified the destiny of the
country which till recently was in the
regime‟s hands, leaving little space
for the freedom of thought or to do
business. For 30 years, the fallen
president relied on police control and
a political party which answered to
him, in a country where more than
40% of the population lives on only 2
dollars per day. “Egypt has woken up
to a new political consciousness; and
will not be fooled by anyone!” de-
clared the Egyptian writer Alaa el-
Aswany to the French newspaper
'Libération'.
The chaotic situation in Egypt has had
important consequences for the econ-
omy of the country. A drop of 25% is
foreseen in the income generated by
tourism. In this respect, cooperatives
represented by the Production Co-
operatives Union (PCU) have also felt
the pinch. “The Egyptian economy is
experiencing a slow-down, everything
has stopped. The unrest in the streets
doesn‟t help. All this has affected the
activity of the cooperatives, although
what has happened to the country is
something positive” says Mounir
Shaarawy, the PCU Secretary Gen-
eral. “We are very proud of our noble
revolution and are optimistic that re-
forms are coming, especially for as-
pects of cooperative work. Hope is
now floating as the control of some
big businesses over the Egyptian ad-
ministration has disintegrated. Former
business magnates controlled laws
and the decisions of the ministries
undermined the efforts of coopera-
tives as they threatened corrupt activi-
ties”.
Until now, cooperatives were con-
trolled by the ruling power. Needless
to say, worker cooperatives which are
based on democratic values and prin-
ciples did not have any advantages
granted. Today, it seems that things
are better for cooperatives. “The re-
gime had no trust in cooperatives
since they were always working
against decisions made about the wel-
fare of workers and small businesses.
They aimed at making cooperatives
suffer by cancelling many of their
legal privileges, such as tax exemp-
tions, in order to increase their operat-
ing costs and making their work more
difficult” says Shaarawy.
Mounir Shaarawy is confident about
the future. “We are on the right track”
he says. “We have seen positive signs.
With reforms and a new administra-
tion that arose from the Egyptian peo-
ple, we believe that the new laws to be
enforced will be to the benefit of the
cooperatives, workers, and trade un-
ions to create a call for social justice.”
Today, Egypt is slowly waking up to
this revolution and there is quite a
long way to go. Things will gradually
turn back to normal for the Egyptian
people. At least they can be assured
that they will re-emerge much
stronger from this Nile revolution. ■
E
Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
| 23
24 |
Six weeks after the earthquake
and tsunami which hit Japan on
11th March, the country is ex-
periencing a number of after-
shocks and the situation of the
power plants in Fukushima Pre-
fecture is very unstable. The au-
thorities have raised the nuclear
threat to seven, its highest level.
Despite the hardship, JWCU, the
Japanese organisation for worker‟s
cooperatives is still working ex-
tremely hard: “We are moving for-
ward, and our global members are
helping us” said a spokesperson of the
organisation. In order to help the
worker cooperative movement in the
affected areas, JWCU set up a relief
fund that will help the organisation to
provide its members with essential
supplies and financial support (see
frame).
There is a myriad of examples of soli-
darity which show how cooperatives
are trying to recover from the disaster.
In Senai, the biggest city of the To-
hoku region, two children‟s centres
managed by a worker cooperative
opened in April. Children, particularly
those who had to evacuate, are having
an extremely tough time, as their
usual daily routines have been se-
verely disrupted. They now have to
come to terms with the instability of
the situation and a completely new
environment. “Our members are de-
Japan‟s recovery
JWCU, the Japanese organisation for worker‟s
cooperatives is reporting an extremely hard
situation within their members with the after-
shocks that are still hitting the country. A relief
fund has been set up to help the cooperatives.
Yoshiko Yamada, JWCU
JWCU set up a relief fund
“The need for supplies
and co-ordination is
expected to continue
for a long time”
| 25
termined to provide a safe and en-
joyable environment for these chil-
dren”, declared JWCU. Over
200,000 yens (around 1,700 Euros)
were dutifully raised in a charity
concert on 27th March in Tokyo to
support the region of Tohoku. The
Worker Coop Art Project (WAP)
composed of JWCU members and
friends talented in music and art
have organised this concert.
Severe damages amongst
cooperatives
JWCU are regularly reporting severe
damages among its members. The
chaotic situation has made the rescue
work even more difficult. Despite
the challenges, the aid has been or-
ganised and people are working to-
gether and demonstrating solidarity.
The JWCU head office and regional
offices were receiving goods and
supplies from members throughout
the country. In a message to the co-
operative movement, JWCU de-
clared last month that “since there is
an urgent need for food, we are fo-
cusing on delivering suitable food
which is practical and quick to pre-
pare, as well as vegetables. The need
for supplies and co-ordination is ex-
pected to continue for a long time”.
The first delivery trucks arrived
from Tokyo in the Tohoku regions,
(the cities of Noda, Ohsaki, Ishi-
nomaki, and Onagawa). The resi-
dents from the affected areas needed
practical help with removing debris
and cleaning the damaged houses.
Several cooperatives offered the use
of trucks and to send more people to
help, which was necessary to clear
up the devastated zones. ■
For more information:
http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/
index.html
The Noda village has been completely devastated
“There is a myriad
of examples of
solidarity which
show how
cooperatives are
trying to recover
from the disaster”
26 |
Relief fund for worker cooperatives in Japan:
As a job-creating organisation, JWCU is determined to support its members in securing jobs and in-
come to reconstruct peoples‟ lives. In a statement, the organisation declared: “While there is still a
need for food and supplies in order to survive each day, we will continue to respond to those material
needs. Some of our members (and numerous other people) have lost their jobs, homes and belongings.
Others have been evacuated to different cities and do not know when they will be able to return to their
homes or if they can be moved into temporary housing. Under these extremely difficult circumstances,
however, the local people still need to make a living. The needs exist in many regions, including Tokyo
and its surrounding areas, where evacuees are staying”.
If you want to know more about the relief fund or if you wish to make a donation, you can visit the
JWCU website on: http://english.roukyou.gr.jp/JWCU2011Earthquake_Relief_Fund.pdf
Boxes of foods are loaded on a truck, heading to Tohoku
Charity concert on 27th March in Tokyo Children' hall in Sendai
Solidarity
among JWCU
members
outh Korea has a specific
cooperative legislation sys-
tem in which each cooperative
sector is regulated by its own leg-
islation which depends on differ-
ent ministries. As a direct conse-
quence, although there are strong
cooperative sectors such as agri-
culture, the interests of the coop-
erative movement as a whole can-
not be protected by legislation,
but only by its sectoral interests.
This is the case for consumer co-
operatives in particular, for
which it is always very difficult to
get a legal status as a cooperative.
To solve this problem, several or-
ganisations in the newly emerging
cooperative movement, including
KASEE, the Korean CICOPA mem-
ber, launched a project for enacting a
legislation which could cover various
types of cooperatives, which were
lacking a proper legal status. The
main target of this legislation is
worker cooperatives, which KASEE
represents. However, there are also
differing needs. For instance, medical
users‟ cooperatives, are actually con-
sidered as partly consumer coopera-
tives, and would need to acquire a
new legal status enabling them to
open more to non-members by en-
forcing non-surplus distribution con-
straints.
There are also several care workers‟
associations, which call for legal rec-
ognition to give their workers a
status, which is neither 'employed'
nor unemployed. To cover those dif-
ferent needs, these organisations
reached an agreement on a draft leg-
islation to cover various types of co-
operatives which are not covered by
the existing sectoral cooperative leg-
islation.
This new legislation would have a
similar form to general laws on coop-
eratives but it would also mention
specific types of cooperatives.
KASEE, Solidarity of Medical Con-
sumer Cooperatives, the Korean As-
sociation of Local Centres for the
inclusion through the Economic Ac-
tivity, the Institute for Cooperative
Research, the Social Investment
Foundation and several care workers‟
associations are taking part in this
project. They expect to design a new
legislation within the next year. ■
A KASEE member enterprise in the construction sector
S
| 27
CECOP-CICOPA Europe has launched its campaign
on sustainable employment because Europe
urgently needs quality jobs to ensure a better
future for all workers and all enterprises.
28 |