In 2012 the United Steelworkers (USW) started pilot cooperative organizing efforts in Pennsylvania and Ohio after union leadership visited Mondragon, the world’s largest conglomerate of worker cooperatives situated in the Basque region of Spain. Mondragón consists of 96 separate, self-governing cooperatives (including banks, a university and co-op incubators) with more than 81,000 people employed.

Union co-ops differ from other worker-owned co-ops in that they allow worker-owners to appoint a management team and then bargain collectively with management.

United Steelworkers Website