Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. If you are given a chance to join a cooperative, what type of cooperative would you
like to join? What are your considerations in choosing the type of cooperative?
Through a workers’ cooperative, the members are enabled to render work or labor
as the product, service or business thereof, and in return, not only do these
individual members earn from their own labor, but also benefit from the labor or work
of the other members. This form of business is clearly in keeping with the essence of
a cooperative, which is an organization voluntarily formed by individuals for their
mutual benefit and support, who equitably share in the capital, participate in the
services and become entitled to a fair share of the benefits, as well as in the other
consequences of the undertaking. Workers’ cooperatives have been in existence
since the 1930s, initially formed by hat makers, bakers and garments workers.
b. Improper use of credits by the borrowers who, instead of using money borrowed for
production, spent it for fiestas or luxuries.
- The interference of politicians in any business has a great impact on its success
and failure. One major cause of this has been government interference and
control. A feeble equity base of virtually all cooperatives is one fundamental
problem that has jeopardized their viability and development potential. The
dependence on commission from the government, rather than a market based
trading margin, on its main activity of maize marketing, has been a major
contributing factor. This dependency and weak economic base has contributed
to the low level of motivation for cooperative membership and participation
among small scale farmers, and a low quality process for electing cooperative
leaders.