Mondragon cooperatives

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Wikipedia, "Mondragon Corporation."
The determining factor in the creation of the Mondragon system was the arrival in 1941 of a young Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000 that had not yet recovered from the Spanish Civil War: poverty, hunger, exile and tension. In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college that became a training ground for generations of managers, engineers and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives.
Before creating the first co-operative, Arizmendiarrieta spent a number of years educating young people about a form of humanism based on solidarity and participation, in harmony with Catholic Social Teaching, and the importance of acquiring the necessary technical knowledge. In 1955, he selected five of these young people to set up the first company of the co-operative and industrial beginning of the Mondragon Corporation. The people were Usatorre, Larrañaga, Gorroñogoitia, Ormaechea and Ortubay, and the company was called Talleres Ulgor, an acronym derived from their surnames, known today as Fagor Electrodomésticos.
In October 2009, the United Steelworkers announced an agreement with Mondragon to create worker cooperatives in the United States. On March 26, 2012, the USW, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) announced its detailed union co-op model.
This framework of business culture has been structured based on a common culture derived from the 10 Basic Co-operative Principles, in which Mondragon is rooted: Open Admission, Democratic Organisation, the Sovereignty of Labour, Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital, Participatory Management, Payment Solidarity, Inter-cooperation, Social Transformation, Universality and Education.
This framework of business culture has been structured based on a common culture derived from the 10 Basic Co-operative Principles, in which Mondragon is rooted: Open Admission, Democratic Organisation, the Sovereignty of Labour, Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital, Participatory Management, Payment Solidarity, Inter-cooperation, Social Transformation, Universality and Education.

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