On 1st January Spain became a member of the European Economic Community, the result of negotiations started back in 1962.
The gradual operational consolidation of the Group Council had enabled basic elements like the remuneration of labour and capital to be updated, new forms of solidarity between co-operatives to be established and solutions to be found to reduce the problem of unemployment.Although the overall wage ratio was 1 to 4.5, the co-operatives’ payment scale based on the structural rate had remained for 30 years at 1 to 3. At this stage of the MONDRAGON Experience, Peter Cook set out the keys to its success in sequence: – A deep-rooted industrial tradition in the area. –A group of young idealists. – Real social concern in the Alto Deba. – Two continuous decades of a policy of economic development.– Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, as the catalyst of the process.
