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Mondragon, founded in the Basque Country of Spain in 1956, is one of the world's largest groups of worker cooperatives: many of its workers are also its owners.

MONDRAGON Corporation / International Cooperative Alliance

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The story behind the card

It began with José María Arizmendiarrieta, a young Catholic priest who arrived in the town of Mondragón in 1941, when it was still poor after the Spanish Civil War. In 1943 he opened a technical school, and in 1956 five of its former students set up a small workshop called Ulgor, making paraffin heaters, as a cooperative. The group now works in industry, retail, finance and education, and in 2024 it had more than 70,000 workers, about 30,000 of them in the Basque Country. In its cooperatives each worker-member has one vote in the general assembly, which elects the governing council, and members share in profits and losses. Not everyone is a member, though: many staff, especially in companies abroad, are ordinary employees.

Türkçe oku
1956'da İspanya'nın Bask Bölgesi'nde kurulan Mondragon, dünyanın en büyük işçi kooperatifi gruplarından biridir; çalışanlarının birçoğu aynı zamanda şirketin ortağıdır.

Hikâye, İspanya İç Savaşı'nın yoksulluğundan henüz çıkamamış Mondragón kasabasına 1941'de gelen genç Katolik rahip José María Arizmendiarrieta ile başlar. Arizmendiarrieta 1943'te bir teknik okul açtı. 1956'da okulun eski öğrencilerinden beşi, parafin sobası üreten Ulgor adlı küçük bir atölyeyi kooperatif olarak kurdu. Grup bugün sanayi, perakende, finans ve eğitim alanlarında çalışıyor; 2024'te 70 binden fazla çalışanı vardı ve bunların yaklaşık 30 bini Bask Bölgesi'ndeydi. Kooperatiflerde her ortak çalışanın genel kurulda bir oyu vardır; yönetim kurulunu genel kurul seçer, kâr ve zarar ortaklar arasında paylaşılır. Yine de herkes ortak değildir: Özellikle yurt dışındaki şirketlerde çalışanların birçoğu sıradan ücretli personeldir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Mondragon Corporation
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