Ulma and Orona’s partners decide to leave Mondragon

Euskaraz irakurri: Ulmako eta Oronako bazkideek Mondragonetik ateratzea erabaki dute

The partners of the Ulma and Orona Group decide to leave Mondragon. 80% of the partners of Ulma and 72% of those of Orona have given their favorable vote to leave the Mondragon Corporation, in the assemblies that have been held this Friday.

The decision that has been known in the first place has been that of the Ulma Groupwhose nine cooperatives have voted to leave the Corporation, as reported by company sources. After the vote, the Ulma Group has indicated, in a statement, that the 2,789 members of its nine cooperatives, which operate in different industrial fields, have “confirmed” their “desire” to “replace their current relationship with Mondragon Corporación Cooperativa with a new model”.

The agreement approved by the assembly implies “the deregistration of the Ulma cooperatives in Mondragón”, although it also includes a mandate to the management of the Ulma Group to “try to promote future collaborations with Mondragon for the development of the cooperative movement and promote the development necessary regulatory framework so that the contributions up to now made to the funds managed by the Mondragon Foundation can continue to be allocated to the development of the cooperative movement”.

Ulma’s proposal, which Orona also sharedconsisted of establishing a new figure, that of the “agreed cooperative”, which would allow it to maintain a relationship with the Mondragon Corporation, but without belonging to it, an approach that was not endorsed by the last Mondragon congress.

The president of Grupo Ulma, Lander Díaz de Gereñu, has clarified that it is the members who “determine with their vote the path that the cooperative follows”. “Today, the bodies of the Ulma cooperatives have received a clear mandate. We are part of the model of success that the Basque cooperative model represents. And we will always defend and support its values”, stated Díaz de Gereñu.

The president added that “the best way to do it” is to turn Ulma into a “strong” cooperative industrial group. At the same time, he has expressed his “maximum willingness to work hand in hand” with the Mondragón Corporation “in all those actions that benefit the successful model that we all represent.”

Minutes later, the decision made by the partners of Orona, whose cooperative members have met at their headquarters in Hernani. A total of 1,089 Orona members have voted in favor of leaving the Corporation, while 470 have cast their vote in favor of continuing with it.

Orona, in a statement, has detailed that the assembly has participated 94% of its 1,746 cooperative members, who have approved “recovering the full sovereignty of the cooperative.” Its president, Oier Lizarazu, has highlighted that “this important agreement to guarantee the future of Orona and its contribution to the cooperative association movement has been reached after holding more than 80 information sessions”.

The Orona Governing Council leaves this meeting with the mandate to continue developing the “Orona EU 2030 Socio-business Project”, based on “sustaining and generating employment in the production plants of Hernani, Vitoria-Gasteiz and the set of its delegations, and deepen the combined investment process of all its infrastructures and international expansion, which has led Orona to be the fifth operator in its sector in Europe and to be present in 100 countries”, reported the cooperative.

With the decisions of Orona and Ulma, Mondragon loses two of the most important companies in its industrial division, which represent 13% of employment and 15% in sales. As of this Friday, the two cooperatives cease to belong to the Mondragón Corporation, with which both intend to establish a new type of relationship, to which the Corporation, in the statement it issued on Friday, has not alluded to.

The departure of these two companies entails “the cessation of obligations with respect to the Mondragon Foundation” and “the consequent deregistration from the Cohesion and Development Fund-Inter-cooperative Education and Promotion Fund”. This implies, for example, that Orona and Ulma no longer have the obligation to contribute funds to the “solidarity piggy bank”, a joint box to which the cooperatives dedicate 4% of the results and that serves to save firms in difficulties.

The cracks between the two companies in disagreement with Mondragon began to take shape after the fall of Fagor Appliances, germ and flagship of the group, which went bankrupt and squandered the efforts made by the rest of the cooperatives. The departure of Orona and Ulma is the biggest blow received since then by the Corporation.

long assemblies

The assemblies, shielded from the media, have brought together the 1,700 cooperative members of Orona, in Hernani, and the 2,800 of the group of companies that make up Ulma (with nine different businesses), in Ilunbe. At the entrance to the Ulma assembly, most of the cooperative members did not want to make statements to the media, although some have commented that they preferred “not to get wet” about the development of these assemblies. Many of them have come from Oñati and Legazpi in fifty buses.

The Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government, Arantxa Tapiahas highlighted this morning, before knowing the result of the vote of the Orona and Ulma partners, that it is an “important day” and that the decision made by the partners must be respected.