In Mexico there are three worker cooperatives that employ more than 1,000 workers, launched during periods of economic shock in 1931, 1985, and 2005. All three converted from private ownership as the result of hard-fought labor organizing, when public support for strikes and factory occupations was strong.
Cooperativa Cruz Azul is a cement manufacturer in Hidalgo that was bought by 200 workers as a cooperative in 1931. It now has around 5,000 workers. The company started in 1881. Investors rescued it from bankruptcy in 1906 but then wanted their capital out during the Mexican revolution, and after the 1929 stock market crash the plant was only operating intermittently. In 1931 a competing company made a hostile effort to buy the company and shut it down. Workers successfully pressured the state to expropriate the company as a public utility and restructure it under workers ownership. In 1931 around 200 workers agreed to pay investors back $1.3m over 10 years. In the 1950s a new director modernized the company and grew it 600%. In the process they build a cooperative company town, investing in schools, paved streets, business corridors, and sponsoring a major soccer team. They also supported five similar cooperatives to open in nearby states. In 2019 a long term leader fled after accusations of mishandling funds.
Cooperativa Pascual is a worker cooperative headquartered in Mexico City with around 5,000 workers who took over operations in 1985. The company is a major soft drink producer, with about 15% of the Mexican market and bottling plants in several states. The peso devalued in 1982 when global interest rates rose on the debt-rich country, and demand for oil exports softened. When the government mandated wage increases in response to inflation, the owner of the company refused, igniting a three year strike by around 1,200 workers. 2 workers were killed when the owner sent armed thugs in an attempt to break the strike. In 1985 the courts ruled in favor of the workers, and an arrangement avoided bankruptcy by allowing the workers to take over the facilities and brand as a cooperative. Since then the company has grown significantly, and is one of the few 100% Mexican owned soft drink manufacturers.
Cooperativa Trabajadores Democráticos de Occidente (TRADOC) is a tire manufacturing cooperative outside of Guadalajara. The cooperative launched in 2005 the company now has more than 1,000 workers, and around 600 members. When the factory was built in 1970 it was the most advanced in Latin America. During the 2001 global economic slowdown, the German multinational owner demanded concessions in pay and working conditions, and when the unionized workers refused the owners retaliated by shutting down. Striking workers occupied the factory, led caravan marches, made legal appeals, and pressured international shareholders. In 2005 federal courts found in favor of the workers and ordered the owners to pay $40m in back wages. Instead of paying, the owners gave up the factory, but in an unusual way. A cooperative of workers received 50% and would oversee operations, while a distributor was sold the other 50% and would guarantee access to the international market. By 2008 a new distributor had made investments and taken a majority share of the company. Workers have 3 of 7 seats on the board. In 2018 a long-term director was expelled in a corruption scandal.