Cooperativa Américo Caorsi de Tacuarembó is a worker-owned noodle factory with around 25 members in Tacuarembó, Uruguay, about 5 hours from Montevideo. The cooperative was formed in 1964, after a fire shut down a large bakery. 100 bakery workers were unemployed for several years before 80 of them founded the cooperative.
The organizing effort helped to launch the Federación de Cooperativas de Producción del Uruguay in 1962, and is reported as the oldest empresa recuperada in Uruguay.
In the 2000s the cooperative ran into financial troubles and came close to liquidating, but they were rescued by local government, which bought their building at auction.
The cooperative has had issues getting money to modernize, and paying it back. A loan from the state-owned bank BROU required board members to give personal guarantees – trapping some workers in perpetual board seats since no one wanted to replace them with their own guarantee. At on point the cooperative negotiated to pay off some of the debt by supplying state-owned prisons with their dry pasta products.
2020s
- INACOOP – Pasado, presente y futuro – Cooperativa Américo Caorsi (2024)
- FCPU – Caorsi, cooperativa emblema de Tacurembó (2022)
- Homenaje a Cooperativas pioneras de Tacuarembó en el Día internacional del cooperativismo: Cooperativa Américo Caorsi (2022)
- El Avisador – Las cooperativas pioneras de Tacuarembó fueron homenajeadas en el Día internacional del Cooperativismo (2022)
2010s
- Presidencia Uruguay – Ministerio del Interior firmó convenios con cooperativas de Tacuarembó y Canelones (2014)
- López Mercao y Bello – Autogestión – un rumbo de todos (2014)
- Tacurembó 2030 – La Comuna Adquirirá Los Inmuebles Que Fueron De Cooperativa Caorsi (2012)
- Acción Informativa – Caorsi: se remató el predio, pero siguen trabajando (2010)
2000s