Portraits of a New World: the example of the worker cooperative Ceralep

French television channel France 5 has decided to create a series of documentaries about the major changes facing the world in the 21st century. Among the main themes, we can find the environmental issue of climate change, the problem of immigration, or even the superpower China.

Another theme that has been put forward is the Capitalism and its excesses. Several short documentaries have emerged, and among these, Raphael Trapet’s film entitled “Le patron c’est nous!" (We are the boss!).

The film talks about Ceralep, a company manufacturing electric ceramic insulators used by high-voltage networks. Located in the Rhone Valley since 1921, the company exported worldwide. In 2004, after its liquidation, fifty employees have decided to restart the business. However, they had to find € 900 000. The Regional Union of Scop has intervened and helped to find the majority of the money.

The company then re-opened with 52 employees in the form of a Scop (Société Coopérative de Production). Its originality lies in the shareholder-employee salaries that are in majority shareholders of the company and all employees are willing to become partners. The workers decide the broad guidelines of their business and appoint their leaders in a "One man, one vote" system.

Six years later, what became Ceralep? How has the cooperative process changed the lives of workers? What happened to the Trade Unionists in the origin of the recovery? Is this business model an alternative to the capitalism, or a remedy to the crisis? These are the questions that the documentary “Le patron c’est nous!" (We are the boss!) attempts to respond.

The video is viewable at: http://www.france5.fr/portraits-d-u...

Source: Website of France5

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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.