Dear Dada:

Practically 100% of senior managers in Mondragon cooperatives are co-op members, not outside, salaried, non-member staff. A very susbstantial portion have degrees in management or engineering from Mondragon University and most of the rest from another one of the Basque universities. Almost all senior managers are developed and mentored over many years inside the cooperative group; very, very few are hired from outside at a senior level. We should also take issue with the claim that the Mondragon co-operatives are not worker-managed. Note first that governance in the cooperatives is democratic, based on the principle one member-one vote. There is a full separation of goverannce staff from management staff and the latter are fully accountable to the former. Day-to-day operational decsionmaking is different. There most certainly is a division of labor, as we think is inevitable in any viable business organization of more than a handful of people, and the level of shopfloor or officefloor autonomy and involvment certainly varies from co-op to co-op (and over time), but worker participation in decision making at various levels is widespread in Mondragon and a continuing priority, both from philosophical and business perspectives. Building and sustaining high levels of participation in complex organizations competing in intensely competitive international markets is a challenge for many reasons, and our experience is far from perfect, but it is a challenge we fully embrace.
Best regards
Mikel Lezamiz, Cooperative Dissemination, Otalora, Mondragon Cooperative Corporation