Many cooperatives in the group not only abroad, but also outside of the Basque Country in the rest of Spain, make use of a significant number of non-member employees (Mondragon’s rule in the Basque Country is min 85% worker-member), especially in periods of high demand or season.

Non-member employees working side by side with worker-members, and enjoying substantially fewer rights (and shouldering fewer responsibilities) is a direct contradiction of cooperative philosophy that leads to creation of a more or less permanent group of second-class workers, e.g. the ongoing process of “cooperativisation” in the retail group Eroski in the rest of Spain. The Eroski Group grew rapidly and could not keep up with the speed of expansion, and, hence, a larger and larger percentage of the Eroski work force came to consist of non-member workers in conventionally-owned subsidiaries. As a result, Eroski is currently in the process of initiating a multi-year initiative to cooperativise the majority of its operations. It will be accomplished through the creation of a series of cooperative companies financed initially by Eroski, that will all be joined together in a a large, second-degree retail cooperative.

This transformation in Eroski will lift the ratio of member to total work force up to about 70% – 75%. The transformation will also be watched very closely by Mondragon cooperatives in the Industrial Group, since, as discussed previously, one of the most urgent issues facing that Group is how to establish legal, financial and organisation mechanism that facilitate cooperative or similar kinds of worker-ownership in many different countries where Mondragon co-ops have subsidiaries. The Eroski experience could eventually serve as a model that other firms could adapt to their operations abroad.