Ulma and Orona’s partners decide to leave Mondragon

Euskaraz irakurri: Ulmako et Oronako bazkideek Mondragonetik ateratzea erabaki dute

The Ulma and Orona Group partners decide to leave Mondragon. 80% of Ulma’s partners and 72% of Orona’s partners gave their positive vote to leave the Mondragon Corporation at the meetings held this Friday.

The decision that is known in the first place is that of the Ulma Groupwhose nine cooperatives voted to leave the Corporation, as reported by company sources. Following the vote, the Ulma Group said in a statement that the 2,789 members of its nine cooperatives, active in various industrial sectors, have “confirmed” their “desire” to “replace their current relationship with Mondragon Corporación Cooperativa with a new fashion model”.

The agreement approved by the meeting implies “the de-registration of the Ulma cooperatives in Mondragón”, although it also includes a mandate to Ulma Group management to “try to promote future collaborations with Mondragon for the development of the cooperative movement and development necessary regulatory framework so that the contributions made to date to the funds managed by the Mondragon Foundation can continue to be spent on the development of the co-operative movement”.

Ulma’s proposal, which Orona also sharedconsisted of the creation of a new figure, that of the “agreed cooperative”, which would allow it to maintain a relationship with the Mondragon Corporation, but without being part of it, an approach 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 voice the path the cooperative follows”. “Today, the bodies of the Ulma cooperatives have been given a clear mandate. We are part of the success model that the Basque cooperative model represents. And we will always defend and support its values,” said Díaz de Gereñu.

The president added that “the best way to do this” is to make Ulma 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 partners’ decision fell from Orona, whose co-op members met at their headquarters in Hernani. A total of 1,089 Orona members voted to leave the Corporation, while 470 voted to continue.

With the decisions of Orona and Ulma, Mondragon loses two of the most important companies in its industrial division, representing 13% of employment and 15% of turnover. As of today, the two cooperatives no longer belong to the Mondragón Corporation, with which both want to establish a new kind of relationship.

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The meetings, 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 companies), in Ilunbe. At the entrance to the Ulma meeting, most co-op members did not want to make any statements to the media, although some have commented that they would rather “not get wet” about the development of these meetings. Many of them came from Oñati and Legazpi on fifty buses.

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