Page 16 RAIN May/June 1984 "Adventures of a Socialist Entrepreneur," by Peter Barnes, The Washington Monthly, October 1983, $2 from: The Washington Monthly 2712 Ontario Road, NW Washington, DC 20009 "Seven years ago, at the age of 34,1 decided to become a socialist entrepreneur." So begins this entertaining account of the history of the Solar Center, a San Francisco company that has been owned and run by its workers since its founding in 1976 and is today a successful installer of large-scale solar heating systems with over 40 owner/workers. The author, Peter Barnes, was a writer before he helped found the Solar Center, and he is also a man of ideas. Consequently, his account of the company's history is both colorful and thought- provoking. It is full of insight into the nitty-gritty of building a successful democratic firm in the U.S. today. —Scott Androes "Lessons from the Mondragon Coops," by Bob Milbrath, Science for the People, May/June 1983, from: Science for the People 897 Main Street Cambridge, MA 02139 "Mondragon: The Remarkable Achievement," by Robert Gilman, In Context, Spring 1983, $4 from: In Context PO Box 30782 Seattle, WA 98103 Here are two fine introductory articles on Mondragon. The Milbrath article is longer and goes into more detail, but what makes both articles worthwhile is their analyses. —Scott Androes Mondragon: An Economic Analysis, by Henk Thomas and Chris Logan, 1982, 201 pp., inquire for price from: George, Allen & Unwin 9 Winchester Terrace Winchester, MA 01890 A comprehensive, scholarly study of the Mondragon cooperatives, with hardly, a single relevant fact left out. This is the most authoritative English language study of Mondragon—the next best thing fb being there. —Scott Androes Association for Workplace Democracy 1747 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20009 AWD publishes a newsletter on workplace democracy and sponsors regional councils for volunteers interested in the movement. The term workplace democracy includes quality circles and work enrichment as well as worker ownership. AWD also markets a good selection of publications.—Scott Androes "Union Experiences with Worker Ownership: Legal and Practical Issues Raised by ESOPs, TRASOPs, Stock Purchases and Cooperatives," by Deborah Groban Olson, Wisconsin Law Review, 1982, No. 3, $6 from: Dennis & Company 251 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14203 You might not know it by reading your local newspaper or watching the nightly news, but there has been a flurry of activity surrounding the establishment of worker-owned firms in this country in the last 10 years. Groban Olson’s long (nearly 100 pages), fact-filled article is a truly useful introduction to those efforts. She has collected significant details of many experiments in employee ownership of the last 15 years and wrapped them all up in an excellent discussion of what this means, legally speaking, for unions and workers as a whole. All the noteworthy cases are here—or at least most—including the Rath porkpacking plant in Iowa, the Vermont Asbestos Group, South Bend Lathe in Indiana, Hyatt-Clark Industries (a former General Motors bearing factory that was sold to its employees), and the Chrysler ESOP. (You didn't know that Chrysler workers own 15% of their company?) The emphasis throughout is on hard facts: What happened? Who paid how much for what? What laws were relevant? What was the contract wording? What is the likely future of a particular agreement structure? Because of that emphasis, this is an excellent article for serious practitioners as well as for neophytes looking for a comprehensive survey of the movement. One caveat, though: This article is primarily about Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), a particular type of employee-owned firm that receives favorable tax treatment in the federal laws but that often has been used more in the interests of management than of workers. Despite its past history, though, the ESOP model still attracts considerable attention from the co-op side of the worker-ownership movement. —Scott Androes National Center for Employee Ownership 1611 South Walter Reed Drive #109 Arlington, VA 22204 The NCEO is an information clearinghouse and an advocacy group for the employee-ownership movement. It publishes bibliographies and resource guides, sponsors case-study research of existing firms, and provides a clipping service that brings you all the employee- ownership news that's important, and even some that isn't, from the nation's newspapers and magazines. —Scott Androes Philadelphia Association for Cooperative Enterprise 1321 Arch Street, 8th floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 PACE promotes Mondragon-style cooperatives, with separation of ownership and membership rights. Its best accomplishment has been to help employees of A&P grocery stores in the Philadelphia area buy two stores that were closed by the A&P chain and reopen them as cooperatives. The Institute for Community Economics is also doing innovative work with cooperatives—mostly housing co-ops (see RAIN X:2 page 24). Its Revolving Loan Fund is placing numerous loans with land trusts, housing co-ops, worker- owned businesses, and community service groups in 11 states. For details, contact the Institute for Community Economics, 151 Montague Citv Road, Greenfield, MA 01301; 413/774-5933. —Scott Androes
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