Monthly Archives: October 2009

Pittsburgh pinball

Posted on October 30, 2009 by coopgeek

Silly me. I open my big mouth about my unscheduled relaxing week in Pittsburgh, and sure enough…never a dull moment. It turns out that the housing situation for the second half of my stay in Cincinnati was only the start … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mondragon and the Steelworkers

Posted on October 28, 2009 by coopgeek

Today was my first full day in Pittsburgh. By coincidence, it was also the day that Mondragon Internacional and the United Steelworkers announced their intention to work together to build worker ownership in North America. This is extremely interesting news, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Back from the dead

Posted on October 25, 2009 by coopgeek

Remember me? The guy who set off on this amazing trip to visit the legendary co-ops of the Basque Country and then disappeared off the face of the earth? Yeah. That’s the one. I promise that I will get back … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mondragon 4: Outside the bubble

Posted on October 18, 2009 by coopgeek

In the valleys surrounding Mondragon/Arrasate, roughly 60% of jobs are in the cooperative sector. These co-ops have a rule that top management can be paid no more than six times the starting wage. There are two exceptions: the CEO of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mondragon 3: Uncle!

Posted on October 16, 2009 by coopgeek

That fabulous remote hotel wrecked my email access, so I have been behind on everything. I had hoped to provide an account of each day’s adventures in Co-op Land, but for now, it appears that I’ll just have to offer … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mondragon 2: Getting down to business

Posted on October 15, 2009 by coopgeek

On the first day of our formal education, we went right to the middle of things…in more ways than one. I’ve known that this trip is going to reveal a system that is more complex and less perfect than the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mondragon 1: Arrival in the Basque Country

Posted on October 14, 2009 by coopgeek

NOTE: This was written two days ago. I’ve had internet access issues, so it’s taken a while to post. Hopefully I’ll get some additional writing from the past two days up very soon. Please stand by… I’m already overwhelmed. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Mondragon, Cleveland, Sacramento

Posted on October 10, 2009 by coopgeek

I’m about to embark upon a month of travel in Spain and the Rust Belt. In Spain’s Basque Country, I’ll be spending ten days studying Mondragon, which is the world’s largest and most complex system of worker ownership. It has … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Txalaparta mania

Posted on October 5, 2009 by coopgeek

Over the last few weeks I’ve developed a little Basque thing. I have long been fascinated by these folks, but that has mostly been due to their creation of Mondragon, the world’s most advanced system of worker ownership (which I’ll be visiting next week. Over … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Happy Co-op Month!

Posted on October 1, 2009 by coopgeek

October is Co-op Month (insert fanfare). This blog is all co-ops, all the time, so it would be nothing special for me to promote co-ops. Instead, to commemorate this special occasion, I’m going to step aside for a moment and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment