Fagor Electrodomésticos: The multinationalisation of a Basque co-operative, 1955–2010

Abstract

This article investigates the business history of a major international manufacturing corporation, Fagor, which is also a workers’ co-operative, from its origins in the most difficult years of the Franco regime to its current success as a multinational company manufacturing the ‘white goods’ of the consumer revolution. It explores the distinctive ideological roots of this highly successful business, and the problematic evolution of its management strategies and workplace relationships within the changing Basque political and cultural environment during and after Spain's transition to democracy. It focuses on the company's adaptability and capacity for adjustment to changing circumstances, and on the issues and tensions arising from its development as a multinational corporation.

Keywords:

• cooperativism
• Catholicism
• Mondragon
• Basque country
• Spain

Acknowledgement

This article stems from the Research Group IT-429-10, headed by Luis Castells (UPV/EHU).

Notes

 1. Molina, Arizmendiarrieta, 229–76.

 2. Molina and Miguez, ‘The Origins of Mondragon’, 289–91.

 3. Ibid., 294–5.

 4. AJMA (Jose María Arizmendiarrieta Archive Biblioteca), Jose María Arizmendiarrieta in Documentos de Educación Cooperativa: Homenaje a Jose Luis del Arco, no. 18-19-20, Zaragoza: Escuela de Gerentes Cooperativos, 1973.

 5. Molina, Arizmendiarrieta, 276–86.

 6. Source: www.mcc.es, ‘Introduction’.

 7. Ormaechea, Didáctica, 94–6; Uribe-Echeberria, ¿Burocracia o participación?, 72–3.

 8. Desroche, ‘Preface’, 11–13.

 9. AJMA (Library), Fernando Arregui: Desarrollo de una industria cooperativa en el País Vasco, unpublished, Amurrio, 1974, 8–9.

10. AJMA (Library), Joseba Gorroño: Gestión empresarial y cooperativas industriales: Análisis de una experiencia de grupo, Master's Thesis, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la Universidad Autónoma de Bilbao, October 1974, 45–6.

11. Ormaechea, Didáctica, 41–3; ‘Los pioneros de Ulgor celebran sus Bodas de Plata’ and ‘Al habla con los protagonistas de Ulgor’, T.U. no. 276 (1981): 21–3.

12. Aranzadi, Cooperativismo, 422; Ormaechea, Didáctica, 72–3; Molina, Arizmendiarrieta, 373–4.

13. Fagor Electrodomésticos Archive (AFE), Library, 10 años de Ulgor S.C.I., Bilbao, 1966.

14. Townson, Spain Transformed; Cazorla, Fear and Progress, 149–63; Molina, ‘The Spirituality of Economics’.

15. Riaza, Cooperativas, 8; Ormaechea, Didáctica, 112–15; AFE, Fagor: 20 años en la historia del mundo y en la de una empresa, Informative brochure, 1976.

16. Ormaechea, Orígenes, 98–100; Irizar and Kareaga, Arrasate, 11–67.

17. Aranzadi, Cooperativismo, 429, 436–7, 477–9; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 49–53.

18. Ormaechea, Didáctica, 87–107; Bradley and Gelb, Cooperation at Work, 34–5; Fischer, El complejo cooperativo, 13–19; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 49–57.

19. Molina, Arizmendiarrieta, 361–71.

20. Quotations from the SS and IR are taken from the 1959 edition and the 1964 updating.

21. Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 35–8.

22. Ibid., 42; Una experiencia cooperativa, Mondragón: Caja Laboral, 1967, 14–15 and 19–24; ‘Estatutos sociales y Reglamento de Régimen Interior’, T.U. no. 68 (1966); José María Ormaechea, ‘Claves del arraigo cooperativista’, T.U. no. 365 (1993): 6–8.

23. Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 42–5.

24. Ibid., 52–3.

25. García, Les coopératives industrielles, 96–109; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 42–4; Ormaechea, Orígenes, 91–3; Una experiencia cooperativa, 17–18.

26. García, Les coopératives industrielles, 91–3; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 38–41, 42; Ormaechea, Orígenes, 95–6.

27. Fischer, El complejo cooperativo, 28–30; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 58–62; García, Les coopératives industrielles, 82–3, 142–54.

28. Riaza, Cooperativas, 219–45, 255; AFE, Library, Mondragón: Cooperativa Ulgor, 1963, 16, 23–4; Una experiencia cooperativa, 1967, 224–6, 230–45.

29. Fischer, El complejo cooperativo, 1, 19–21, 30–3, 108.

30. Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 41.

31. AFE, Governing Council Reports, 1969 fiscal year, 21-III-1970; AJMA, Folder 59, ‘Promoción social’, 2-VI-1966; ‘De l’artisanat au complexe industriel’, Communauté 22 année, no. 3 (1967): 5; ‘Conversation avec Javier Mongelos’, L'Officiel no. 230 (1970): 4–8.

32. Kasmir, The Myth of Mondragon, 108–18: Molina and Walton, ‘An Alternative Co-operative Tradition’, 238–42.

33. Thomas and Logan, Mondragon; Bradley and Gelb, Cooperation at Work.

34. Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 113–27; Greenwood and González, Culturas de Fagor, 76; Thomas and Logan, Mondragon, 49–52.

35. Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 159–62.

36. AFE, General Assembly Reports, April 11, 1981, April 17, 1982, April 16, 1983, April 14, 1984; Jesús Larrañaga, ‘Internacionalizar la empresa equivale a internacionalizar costes’, T.U. no. 216 (1980).

37. Foot Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 131–49; Irizar, Empresarios Singulares, 78–81.

38. AFE, Staff Collection, Normativa de Ubicación de Mano de Obra Disponible Organización Exterior, July 2, 1981; Normativa de Regulación de los traslados forzosos, October 21, 1981; Jesús Larrañaga, ‘Movilidad laboral’, T.U. no. 230 (1980); ‘Amarga alternativa’, T.U. no. 232 (1980).

39. Bradley and Gelb, Cooperation at Work, 189–91; Foote Whyte and King Whyte, Making Mondragon, 225–38.

40. Greenwood and González, Culturas de Fagor, 13–17, 95–163.

41. Kasmir, The Myth of Mondragon.

42. AJMA, Reglamento Interno Cooperativo de Ulgor S.Coop., May 25, 1988; Estatutos Sociales de Ulgor S. Coop., June 2, 1986.

43. Greenwood and González, Culturas de Fagor.

44. T.U. no. 488 (2004): 4.

45. José María Ormaechea, ‘El último decenio: Informe a D. José María’, T.U. no. 297 (1986), 24; Jesús Catania, ‘Electrodomésticos: Prudente optimismo de cara al futuro’, T.U. no. 311 (1988): 20–1; ‘Electrodomésticos, un sector en pleno cambio’, T.U. no. 322 (1989): 15–16.

46. Fagor Appliances Archive, Governing Council Annual Reports 1988–1990; Jose M. Ormaechea Archive, ‘Absorción de Fabrelec S.A. por Ulgor S. Coop.’, General Report by the Mondragon Cooperative Group, April 1989.

47. Irizar, Empresarios singulares, 82–3.

48. ‘Fagor fortalece su posición ante la Europa de 1993’, T.U. no. 337 (1990): 26–8; ‘La integración Ulgor-Fabrelec, para comienzos de 1989’, Market Vision, appendix to n. 78, November 1988; ‘Fagor: indépendance, égalité, fraternité’, Confortique Magazine no. 16 (1989): 72–5.

49. Jesús Catania, ‘El proceso de creación de productos en el sector de bienes de consumo’, Dirección y Progreso, 1992.

50. Mondragon Corporation Archive (AMC), Communication Department, Press Releases and Conferences, 1989–93; Annual Reports of the Fagor Group and Grupo Cooperativo Mondragón 1989–90.

51. AFE, Governing Council Reports, 1994 Financial Year, Assembly of 10 May 1995; AMC, Communication Department, Press Conferences 1993–95; Confortique Magazine no. 67 (January 1995); Electrodomésticos y electrónica del Hogar, 7 March 1993; Estrategia Empresarial, 30 November 1995.

52. Irízar, Los directivos industriales.

53. Cinco Días, October 6, 1997; T.U. no. 422 (1998): 44–5, no. 433 (1999): 35 and 47.

54. T.U. no. 476 (2003): 23, no. 486 (2004): 5, no. 490 (2004): 21–2, no. 492 (2004): 20–1, no. 498, no. 499 (2005): 10; Empresa XXI, February 15, 2003.

55. AFE, General Assembly, February 25, 2005.

56. Anne Argouse and Hugues Peyret's documentary, Les Fagor et les Brandt, launched in2007, clearly exposes the public debate on the labour relations within the Fagor co-operative.