I keep seeing in the headlines that Portugal, Italy and Spain are the next austerity dominoes to tumble. I am curious how Mondragon in Spain and the Italian coop sector is faring during these tough times. Are their businesses failing at the same rates as other business sectors? How are their sales holding up compared to other enterprises? Employment data, wage rates, benefit cuts, etc. are all of interest. Thank you for your time.
So far - and despite the fact that these worker coops are embedded within an otherwise capitalist economy - they are generally experiencing less unemployment, less austerity, and so on. No mystery here either. Worker coops do not subordinate everything to the profit bottom line in the manner that capitalist enterprises normally feel constrained to do.