In #COOPTALES we present the stories of our cooperatives from the ground, where we would show you through our writing who they are and what they represent. How the cooperatives from our network answer to people's needs, contributing to the economic and social development of the community in which they operate.
Giving voice to those women and men that every day put in practice what we defend and advocate for in CECOP, #COOPTALES shows a different way of doing economy where democratic and social values are drivers of a common project.
Three cooperatives with rich histories, SACMI, Cefla and Mondragon, demonstrate how innovation, adaptability and adhering to the cooperative principles can allow enterprises to stay competitive in an ever-changing world. In 2023 alone, these three industrial enterprises generated around EUR 14 billi...
Meet the Birmingham Bike Foundry that wants to bring bike production back to Birmingham in a socially conscious way.
Meet IPT, the worker cooperative leader in the ecological packaging industry in Italy!
We had a chance to sit down with Michelle Chan, one of the founders of Pro Nobis, a cooperative providing sustainable solutions for freelancers in the art sector.
Meet the Grupo SSI, a group of cooperatives that integrate social initiative companies.
Meet ELAP, the production cooperative that develops and produces machine control systems, semi-automatic & automatic lines, and technological units.
Meet Progetto Quid, the social cooperative that gives new life to people and textiles.
Meet Spazio Aperto Servizi, the social cooperative involving its community to deliver quality care to its recipients and revolutionizing the region of Milan.
Meet Titi Services, the worker cooperative employing innovative managerial decisions while offering quality working conditions.
Meet Filippo Corridoni, a cooperative from the sea with a long-standing heritage.
We had a chance to sit down with Jan Zygmuntowski, and discuss PLZ Coop, CoopTech Hub, and the next era for cooperation in Poland.
Discover Ceramiche Noi, a worker cooperative that has combined response to community needs and international entrepreneurship like no other.
Meet Diomcoop, the cooperative that is addressing the basic needs related to the employment, training, regularisation, and rights of migrants, through a coop.
Meet Nazareth, a social coop assisting minors and families, as well as job placement for disadvantaged people.
Meet Collective Tools, a platform cooperative that runs cloud services.
Meet Soglasnik, the Slovenian language services cooperative, where “fair pay for fair work” is a way of being.
Meet Logik & Co, the Danish building worker cooperative with a strong focus on social responsibility and good craftsmanship.
Meet Digidem Lab, the Swedish worker coop in tech making digital participation inclusive for all.
Meet Fair & Bio Roasting Plant, a clear example of how one cooperative can make a whole community thrive.
Get to know the social cooperative that is re-defining home care and pension, for more dignified elder years.
The Grupo Ausolan is a story of female empowerment and entrepreneurship success.
Meet Malta Bus Coop, the coop that is bringing history back to life. A coop success story.
While the world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis, cooperatives in industry and services are reorganizing themselves, finding strength in the people and communities they serve.
The cooperative for Education, Rehabilitation, Empowerment and Inclusion, CERCINA, was created in 1981 through collaboration between parents, therapists and teachers who wanted to provide educational and occupational support to young people with disabilities in the community of Nazaré, a region in...
The Emilia-Romagna region, in Italy, is a land of history and traditions, as much as for its cuisine as for its cooperatives. A process that began in the second half of the nineteenth century and that depict today the Region as the homeland of Italian cooperation, where 28.3% of the national coopera...
In 1950, seven people, victims of the Second World War, joined together to create the worker cooperative Chernomorka with the aim to provide jobs for disable people in the town and region of Burgas, in the east of Bulgaria near the black sea. In order to start the cooperative, each member contribute...
In Finland, if you are a freelancer and you are looking for a job that is collaborative and fair, you can join the Lilith Cooperative. To become a member of Lilith means to be part of a network of more than 400 cooperators coming from all over Finland and widely specialized in different creative fie...
Founded in 1952 in Bucharest, the cooperative Muncă și Artă, literally “work and art”, is well known for its long tradition in the sector of textile manufacturing of sport items and uniforms. In the 1990s, Muncă și Artă was the only supplier of sport equipment in Romania, for both natio...
Meet the institute in Spain breaking cognitive barriers.
The cooperative SOLEA started with three employees in 2000 in the plastics and metal component manufacturing. Based in Rybnik, in the eastern part of Czech Republic, it employs today more than 130 people; most of them (over 70%) are people with disabilities. This makes SOLEA one of the most signific...
Auxilium ensures that its patients receive long-term care and healthcare services in their home. This is a valid alternative to hospitalisation and caters to the needs of patients suffering from the multiple, chronic effects of their disease.
Smart started in Belgium in 1998 as a small non-profit organization aimed at providing artists with services adapted to the labour market evolutions. Today, it serves as much as 120,000 users in 9 European countries, 85,000 of which are based in Belgium.
SUMA is the largest independent wholefood wholesaler in the UK. It is also the country's largest workers cooperative, with more than 150 members and a turnover of 56 million euros, 14 million of which is own-brand products.
Outlandish is a London based digital agency working on “technology that makes the world a fairer, better place”. CECOP visited their offices on a warm afternoon in June, and spent a couple of hours with its co-founder Harry Robins to understand the operation of this successful worker cooperative.
