The Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (MCC), a system of worker cooperatives located in the
Basque country of Spain, is still considered to be one of the most significant models of worker
ownership and community economic development, in the world. In the 1970’s, the pressing problems
of plant closures with the shift from an industrial based economy to the global and information based
system which now prevails led many of us to see Mondragon as a model that could truly address many
of our economic challenges. The MCC’s goals of local control and ownership of resources coupled
with a commitment to the cooperative principles resonated with the desire to create greater democracy
in the workplace and better quality jobs that would not disappear when the corporation saw cheaper
labor pools elsewhere. In the field of community economic development, where we have experienced
the effects of global capital shifts and the uncertainties of federal funding, Mondragon stands out as a
model that was developed without a reliance on subsidized funding and continues to be locally owned
and controlled. For this reason, it has had tremendous appeal as a model for building local economies.

The Mondragon Cooperative Corporation founded its first enterprise, Ulgor in 1956. The group has
grown and been economically able to adapt and respond to the development of the global marketplace.
The formal organizational structure of the inter-cooperative relationship has also grown more complex
over time. How that structure and management systems have changed is the subject of this article.

The structure of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation has evolved over time in response to the
needs of the cooperatives and in response to external factors. The basic building blocks of the system
have not changed dramatically since the inception of the first cooperatives, but the superstructure of the
group has. This article traces the cooperatives from the inception of the first cooperatives to its current
form as a Cooperative Corporation. The significance of the changes is best understood by tracing the
evolution of the federated structure of the associated cooperatives from their inception within the context
of the historical and market factors that influenced the form of association. Changes over the years are
examined in this historical overview with a focus on how the cooperators have viewed their mission, the
qualities desired in managers and workers, and the internal and external factors, which have influenced
them over time.