Basque Manufacturing Cooperative Faces Bankruptcy

Spain is home to a host of worker cooperatives, the largest of which is the MONDRAGON Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives, and the largest company in the Basque Country.¹ Fagor Electrodomésticos, based in the Basque Country, is the fifth largest appliance manufacturer in Europe and employer to approximately 12,000 people worldwide.² With over fifty international companies supplying Fagor with parts for its domestic appliances, the recent announcement of its looming bankruptcy has shocked the global community of cooperatives.³ The decision has incited an occupation by worker-owners in one of the now-closed manufacturing facilities for the Fagor brand Edesa, located in the town of Basauri, five miles south of Bilbao. Member-workers of other MONDRAGON cooperatives have joined the occupation in solidarity with their fellow worker-owners at the Edesa plant.

1 Lachowski, Slawomir. “Ordinary people and great business.” It’s the Journey not the Destination. Values in Life and Business . Warsaw: Drukarnia cyfrowa Totem, 2012. 123. Print.

2 “ABOUT US.” Fagor Electrodomesticos – About us. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. <http://www.fagoramerica.com/about_us/about_us>.

3 Bibby, Andrew. “Workers occupy plant as Spanish co-operative goes under.” theguardian.com. Version 2. Guardian News and Media, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. <http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/nov/15/spanish-co-op-workers-occupy-plant>.