MAKING MONDRAGON : The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex
review by Pete Hammond
William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte
, 1991
Paperback 333 pages

Here is a highly respected and important chronicle of an employee-owned worker cooperative in the Basque country of northern Spain. 103 operations in 1986 have grown out of the first which only had 23 workers in 1956. Only three of these have shut down and 19,500 workers have been involved over the years. The founder is a Roman Catholic priest Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta. The Whytes state: “The Basque guilds were health and welfare organizations as well as units of production. They protected their workers, and helped orphans and widows. They opened hospitals and sanitariums. They formed networks of skilled workers, which bid for jobs, distributed the work among the guilds, and delivered finished products.” (Page 11) Father Don Jose Maria involved the Catholic church “in developing cooperatives, but limited itself to organizing consumers, farmers, and credit cooperatives.” (Page 19) “He stressed that work should not be seen as punishment but as a means of self realization. There should be dignity in work.” (Page 29) The Mondragon model has contributed to the rise of American employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), while interest is growing in Russia and eastern Europe. This study includes a good profile of the founder, his humility, and his journey into understanding faith and work. This is a probing and well developed study of the intricacies of faith and business.

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From The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography, used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com
Read the Introduction.