The Mondragón Cooperative

Experience
 Seminar in Arrasate-Mondragón, Spain
 September 13-17, 2010


Replica of Pablo Picasso’s famous painting depicting
the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika (near
Mondragón) in 1937 by Germans allied with Franco’s
faschist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
 If you want to
democratize power,
you have to share
the knowledge.
Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta
 Mission (I)
Mondragón Co-operative Corporation (MCC) is an
entrepreneurial socioeconomic entity with deep cultural roots in
the Basque Country, created by and for the people, inspired by
the Basic Principles of our Co-operative Experience, committed
to the community, to the improvement of competitiveness and to
create wealth within
the satisfaction of customers, to
society through entrepreneurial
development and job creation, preferably
membership-jobs in co-operatives.
 Misión (II)
❑ MCC is based on a commitment to solidarity
and uses democratic methods for its
organisation and management
❑
❑ MCC encourages the participation and
integration of people in management,
profits and ownership of their companies,
to develop a joint, harmonising project
aimed at social, business and personal
development.
 COOPERATIVES WITHIN
MCC

•INDUSTRIAL 87
•CREDIT 1
•CONSUMER 1
•AGRICULTURAL 4
•EDUCATION 8
•RESEARCH 13
•SERVICES 6
•
•TOTAL 120 cooperatives
 Structure in MCC
CONGRESS
Permanent Council

GENERAL COUNCIL

INDUSTRIAL GROUP
Automotive
Components

RETAIL CHAIN
FINANCIAL
GROUP

Construction

GROUP
Industrial Equipment
Domestic Appliances
Engineering and Capital Goods
Machine-Tools

Training and Research Centres

Basic Cooperative Principles 8
 BASIC CO-OPERATIVE
PRINCIPLES
1.Open Admission.
2.Democratic Organization.
3.Sovereignty of Labor.
4.Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital.
5.Participatory Management.
6.Wage Solidarity.
7.Inter-cooperation.
8.Social Transformation.
9.Universality.
10.Education
Corporate Management Model
 CORPORATE VALUES
OF MCC
CO-OPERATION


• “Owners and protagonists”



PARTICIPATION


• “Commitment to management”
•  
• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• “Distribution of wealth based on solidarity.
 Involvement in the community”


INNOVATION


• “Constant renewal”
•
CONVENTIONAL M CC
CORPORATION
C
A O
U CO-OPS N
T (Autonomous) V
H I
O C
R T
I I
T SECTORIAL O
Y GROUPS N

MCC
 People and Capital
Conventional

Mondragón Cooperative


corporation Corporation
• Power rests with • Power rests with the
capital, and people (worker
whoever controls ownership and
the capital workplace
(shareholders) democracy)
• People (workers, • Capital is used as a
human resources) tool to serve the
are used as tools to people
serve capital
 INTERCO-
COO COO

OPERATION
P P
COO
P COOP
COOP

COOP COOP

RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT (R&D)
SOCIAL

EDUCATIONAL FINANCIAL
Mondragón Cooperative
Corporation
 Corporate Headquarters
 Spain and is rated first in customer satisfaction.
Tour to Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain by TeamWorks
 
We are a consumer co-operative in which the
workers are owners and the consumers are
members.

Our project is a guarantee of

sustainability:

•We are from here, local.

•We are not a subsidiary. The
decisions are taken here.
•We cannot be taken over.
Collective ownership: the
workers.

10
 Guggenheim Museum in
Bilbao
built by a Mondragón Construction


Cooperative
 Alecop Youth Cooperative
Work Study Program for high school and


university students
 Mondragón University
Engineering School
Business School

Education and Social Work School

 Ikerlan
Research and Development


Cooperative
 Saiolan
 New Business Incubator
We are each very proud of who we are…. Having the


right to decide is very important for workers and

motivates people to stay.


 --executive who has been with the Mondragón cooperatives for 48 years
Enjoying common spaces in Oñati,
near Mondragón
San Sebastian, near
Mondragón
Lunch with participants of the Praxis
Peace Institute’s
Mondragón Seminar 2010
 Conference of the US Federation of
Worker Cooperatives, August 6-8 , 2010
in Berkeley


Representatives from cooperatives all over the US

attended, including W.A.G.E.S and Other Avenues in the
Bay Area
 Toxic Soil Busters
Members of this youth cooperative for teenagers in


Worcester, Massachussetts visit EcoVillage Farm Learning

Center in Richmond
 October 27, 2009
Steelworkers Form Collaboration with MONDRAGON, the
World’s Largest Worker-Owned Cooperative

The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. 
today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing 
MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the 
United States and Canada. 
  
For More Information:  Rob Witherell, 412-562-4333, rwitherell@usw.org
PITTSBURGH - The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON 
Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in 
establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the 
United States and Canada.  The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish 
manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the 
MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”
“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a 
viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support 
communities in the United States and Canada,” said USW International President 
Leo W. Gerard.  “
Mikel Lezamiz, Director of Cooperative Dissemination,
MCC, talks with
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin about next steps for Richmond
It is worthwhile to live and work for
something besides earning money
and accumulating things for oneself.
Community with others, peace,
justice, understanding, sensitivity,
sisterhood and brotherhood are
things to be sought and found, and,
to attain them effectively in a world
of struggle, it is necessary to think of
another way to align the people who
work and struggle.
 --Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta
 Necessary conditions for
starting cooperatives
• Feel the need
• Trust each other (through
democratic process)
• Be realistic
• Cultivate strong relationships
and connections