Fabian Pamphlet 47: Employee ownership: Mondragon’s lessons for Australia

The necessity for building employee ownership in Australia arises squarely from our chronic inability to maintain acceptable levels of economic performance. In addition, we are missing out on the higher standards of social and industrial harmony and personal well-being which more employee ownership would bring within our reach. Most of the causes of our current predicament have been addressed and overcome by employee ownership systems such as Spain’s Mondragon group of worker co-operatives. The Mondragon experience proves conclusively that there is room between the public and private sectors of the economy for a completely new employee ownership sector, with advantages over both. The Accord and the current thinking of the Hawke Government, the A.C.T.U. and the Australian Manufacturing Council all indicate that the time is ripe for this great step forward to be taken. Australia should now take to heart the lessons which are waiting to be learned from Mondragon, in order to gain a more efficient and productive economy, a fairer society and a better way of life.