Mondragon Corporation: A Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Mondragon Corporation – a federation of co-operatives
Founded in 1956 by Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, the Mondragon Corporation has grown into a massive federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque Country. With over 70,000 employees and billions in revenue, it operates across finance, industry, retail, and knowledge sectors. The organization balances global expansion with a unique humanist philosophy, enforcing strict wage ratios between executives and workers while navigating challenges like the Fagor bankruptcy and the recent departure of major subsidiaries.
At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1.
- kingsfoil
"Mutualism" by Sara Horowitz was an interesting book that discussed some of the history of this style of worker owned businesses. She traces some of it's history, and points out other examples of this style of worker or member governance showing up in other organizations: https://www.porchlightbooks.com/products/mutualism-sara-horo...
Great read, highly recommend.
- mtct88
Why don't cooperatives of IT professionals exist?
It's a business with low capital entry and high dividends.
Workers should prefer to own their company as risks are really low (in contrast to other industries).
- johnnyainsworth
Worth noting that is completely legal in the USA and even encouraged by the tax code. They are called ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Program). An ESOP configured as an S-Corp that is 100% employee owned pays no federal business tax. Some examples of well known ESOPs in the US are Wawa, Bob's Red Mill, and W. L. Gore & Associates (makers of Gore-Tex).
- feverzsj
They moved most production work to factories in China, which ironically aren't cooperative.
- petrocrat
Worker cooperatives are fully compatible with capitalism. Only mentioning it because sometimes this idea gets unfairly maligned due to some mistaken association with socialism or even communism. There should be more of these sorts of entities in the USA and Europe, and frankly everywhere. It's an assured route towards better conditions for the working class, by making them owners and stakeholders in a more substantial way than merely holding some stock equity (which is kind of a superficial ownership that's sometimes presented as this same type of worker cooperative ownership).