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monday 13 january 2025
Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. 
"Companies have proven that it can be done in Basque"
- Ainhoa Elices (Donostia, 1972) is responsible for marketing the cooperative Emun. The company dedicated to the Euskaldunisation of the world of work has an increasingly wide range of services. It wants to respond to the new needs of society.
"Uste dugu badagoela beharra aztertzeko zein motatako kultura
jasotzen duten herritarrek"Dani Blanco
You have added a new name to the Euskaldunization cooperative of the working world: Euskera and social innovation. Why this change?
Since the creation of Emun, our mission has been to euskaldunify the world of work, and from there we also work in the Euskaldunization of different areas of society. We've always worked on jobs that are oriented towards society. We work with companies, municipalities, parliamentarians, the Basque Government and other administrations. In general, we worked with the workers and the citizens and realized that the normalization work of the Basque Country covered many issues. For example, when we were with a city hall, we had to think about how to attract Euskera to people from different backgrounds, what the cultural offer of that town was like ...
New responses to new needs.
We have detected the requirements to be met. Today, Emun is not only an organization for the normalization of the Basque Country, but also offers other services to achieve a better society. The txapela of all of them is social innovation, which includes culture, diversity and participation. The Basque Country and the Basque culture are the axis of all life and we understand them as cohesive elements for coexistence.
What does it mean when it says they offer cultural services?
Culture is an important element of personal and social identity. What culture you breathe your personality is going to be different. For example, what cultural programmers choose (films, music...) is more likely to have one culture or another. Cultural programmes are, after all, a reflection of the cultures in general and we believe that attention should be paid to this. We believe that there is a need to analyze what kind of culture citizenship receives. We have to reflect in order to have our culture strong.
Are excessively reflexive and unstudied programmations performed?
It is often played by inertia, without reflection. I am not referring to the reflection to be carried out by the town hall’s culture technician, but to that which the administrative representatives, the cultural agents, the programmers and the citizens of the municipality have to do.
Diversity is another of your lines of service.
We cannot think that in society we only have the Basque, the Spanish and the French. We are people from very different cultures and backgrounds. We should build bridges between cultures, but we should build our own model of coexistence in which the Basque Country and the Basque culture are the main axis. The administration should manage diversity consciously, and not in parallel tracks, from this door and from the other those of indigenous origin.
The other head you've hidden under the txapela is participation.
Participation is integrated into our working methodology. With the workers of the companies, with the citizens, we work like this. We have met needs of all kinds, such as managing conflicts between local young people and neighbors, carrying out a cultural project, preparing budgets of the municipality, taking steps to revitalize the Basque Country...
Are customers different now?
Rather than changing clients, we are responding to the new needs of the same client. For example, in the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, in addition to the Basque Service, we are now working in the field of diversity and culture. We now offer cultural, diversity and participation services to municipalities in addition to language services. We do not offer these services in isolation. We identify the general needs and deal with them transversally between departments.
Can we say that the new services in Emun have overcome the mission of Euskaldunizar the world of work?
No. The weight of the world of work will take years to be taken up by others. The fact that the Basque country has its place in the world of work and in society is our engine, our heart.
Customers Fagor and Irizar were invited to introduce the new brand.
With Fagor we have been working since the creation of Emun, a member of our governing board. We have a lot of projects with Fagor. On the other hand, much of our management and philosophy model comes from Fagor and from the cooperative world. We also wanted to imagine a trajectory of many years, it's a benchmark company. With Irizar, on the other hand, we started working a few years ago, but the relationship with Irizar is very close and very fruitful.
We wanted to show that the road isn't just Emun, the center is what customers do. These companies have a lot to say in society, they have prestige in Basque society. We wanted to hear from his mouth the benefits of the Basque standardization plans, why they have done so for so many years and why they are going to follow it.
In 1997 you started to Euskaldunize the world of work. What is the current situation?
It cannot be said that we are starting from scratch and that we are now at 70%. There are types of companies, also types of workers, companies with different locations. We have clients in Vitoria-Gasteiz, but also in Lea-Artibai. The socio-linguistic difference between the two regions is remarkable and, for Emun, of course, also the way to influence these companies.
In case of making a global assessment, I would say that when the Euskera plans were put in place the Euskaldunization of the world of work was in the last wagon, or still to climb the wagon. Today, it's not in the last car. We see the full bottle at least halfway. To put it simply, he has had a journey: what was said at the beginning was “it would be good if there was something in Basque”, then gradually we have also managed to be in Basque, and now we say “if at least in Basque he is”.
Have companies achieved prestige and centrality?
Things are being done, but we have to socialise much more, we have to sensitize society more. Companies have shown that it can be done in Basque. There are examples and you have to use them.
What would you make of these years?
Four axes are considered: motivation, knowledge, use and institutionalization. In terms of motivation, at the beginning, loose actions were taken and nowadays it is understood as a process. If we refer to knowledge, linguistic profiles have been established in many companies for each job for internal recruitment or promotion, and depending on the level to be achieved, Basque classes and other resources have been put in place. A few years ago it was unthinkable. Euskera is also used in oral language, written, on the websites, in management level meetings. Today we find it normal, but in many places we still speak Spanish. On the other hand, several companies and institutions have begun to demand the service in Basque to their suppliers. Suppliers must adapt. If you do not demand it more than I do, you may not have strength, but that and that, when you ask for the service in Euskera, you still have to start thinking about something. As for institutionalization, the Basque Country has been integrated into the company's usual dynamics, working as a strategic element.
Basque plans are made on a voluntary basis.
There is no law governing the use of Euskera in companies. There have been some movements, but that is not regulated and that needs to be done. Steps are taken with things that are voluntary, they are done by consensus, but if forced, things would get faster. It must be acknowledged, however, that the will of many companies and workers has no limits.
Has the will been heated?
Since the beginning of the crisis, despite being bad, many companies have maintained their Euskera plan. The cuts and adjustments that have been made have been due to the economic situation and not to the decision not to apply the linguistic criteria from now on. Behind the plans for Euskera there are also subsidies. Cuts have the opposite effect: if the company is in a precarious economic situation and also has no help... The Administration must be careful and bear in mind that the world of work is also strategic.
Anyway, at one time, when the Basque plans were created, there were people who were very motivated, very motivated. Now there are also those who were at the beginning, but they must be strengthened. On the other hand, those who come from the school and the university know Euskera, and on the contrary, they do not have an equivalent use. Action must also be taken on them. Companies also have to teach them that they have to work in Basque and that they can do so. We therefore also need to strengthen companies to ask them to do so.
Has awareness decreased in the new generations?
People come with a low level of awareness, there is only one look at society. The working world is not a cage. At first another situation arose, they were very motivated. Today, despite being Basque, they are not so motivated.
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