Exploring Worker Co-ops from the Masters at Mondragon

Mondragon is one of the world’s best-known worker-owned co-ops. Started by five engineers committed to empowering their workers, the Mondragon experiment now boasts 80,000 workers across 240 businesses and 110 cooperatives working in a profitable and democratic environment created by and for the workers in a collective enterprise. 

Recently President & CEO David Villarino and a key group of FIELD staffers traveled to Mondragon Spain for a fact-finding mission to explore the success of the worker co-ops in the Basque region. Cesar Chavez had long been inspired by these worker co-ops and had been invited as a guest to visit Mondragon on one of his trips to Spain. 

The FIELD leadership immersed themselves in the culinary and agricultural business sectors at Mondragon, visiting a professional kitchen, and speaking to leaders about methodologies and industries that would translate to FIELD’s own operations.