Spanish workers cooperatives have grown by 7% during the first three months in 2010

The number of workers cooperatives increased by 7% last year compared to the same period in 2009, according to the Spanish worker’s cooperatives association, COCETA. At the same time, the confederation announced that it had contributed to the creation of 10,000 jobs per year since 1986, with an average of 500 new enterprises created every year.

At the same time, COCETA has equally participated in an increase of 4,5% in the quantity of jobs created within the same time period. The sector of workers cooperatives in Spain now represents around 17.000 businesses which generate a turnover of nearly 54,000€. These businesses employ around 205.7000 workers compared to 70,000 when COCETA was first created in 1986.

In addition, according to the last COCETA directory, 49% of people in workers cooperatives are women. Amongst these, 39% have directors positions, though in other enterprises which do not adopt this model, the percentage of women that work in these positions is barely 6%.

During a ceremony which took place in Valence, where the activities for the 25th anniversary of the organisation were unveiled, its president Juan Antonio Pedreño underlined the financial difficulties across the sector. “Cooperatives keep up thanks to the efforts of their members” he added and asked the public to support the cooperative model. “Our challenge for 2011 is to achieve a larger role in institutional dialogue, and in order to achieve it, we should familiarise political organs of our potential."

Pedreño underlined the role of these enterprises in the local development and declared that they represent a model for the future: “Cooperatives obtain mainly positive results whereas other models demonstrate their limits at a time when it will be difficult to increase jobs in the public sector”.

The president of COCETA underlined the role of the organisation in the creation and the continuation of jobs within its 25 years of activity. “In this time of crisis, cooperatives committed themselves to balance incomes and outgoings and to maintain jobs’’, he underlined.

Felice Scalvini, co-president of Cooperatives Europe, who assisted at the COCETA event, insisted on the fact that everywhere in Europe, cooperative enterprises are more able to resist the crisis: “Everyone says that things are not going well. However, in asking our organisations in different countries during the past three years, I have established that even if difficulties exist, the situation is not that bad. To a certain extent, history proves us right”.

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What is a cooperative

Cooperatives a sustainable employment solution!

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

Enterprises represented by CECOP are enterprises in which workers unite to satisfy their needs in terms of creation of sustainable jobs. They can be industrial enterprises or services rooted in the territories and having a long-term strategy. They are a genuine solution for sustainable jobs in Europe: they are broken down into workers’ cooperatives, social cooperatives and other types of enterprises owned by their workers.

Workers’ cooperatives: Workers’ cooperatives are enterprises subject to the same restrictions of competition, management and profitability as other companies. Their originality lies in the fact that their workers hold the majority of the shares, at least 51%. In doing so, the workers decide jointly on the major guidelines of their enterprises and appoint their leaders (managers, boards of directors, etc.). They also decide on how to share the profit with a twofold aim: to give the preference to the workers of the enterprises, in the form of refunds based on the work done and to consolidate the enterprises with a view to handing it over onto the future generations, i.e. creating reserves to reinforce the equity and ensuring thereby the sustainability of their enterprises. In all cooperatives, the internal democratic control is based on the principle of “one man, one vote” whatever the capital share held by the respective workers. Finally, the cooperative spirit promotes its employees information and training, a prerequisite to develop the autonomy, the motivation and responsibility, accountability required in an economic world which has become insecure. (Source: www.scop.coop)

Social cooperatives: Social cooperatives are specialised in the provision of social services or reintegration of disadvantaged and marginalised workers (disabled, long-term unemployed, former detainees, addicts, etc.). A large number of such cooperatives have been set up in Italy but also in other EU countries. Most of them are owned by their workers while offering the possibility or providing for the obligation (according to the national laws) to involve other types of members (users, voluntary workers, etc.).

Other types of enterprises owned by their workers: There are other types of enterprises owned by their workers such as for example the “Sociedades Laborales” in Spain which are real driving forces of economic and social activities which have contributed to lower the unemployment level and to revamp a sustained growth in Spain.