WORKERS TURNED OWNERS. As more and more jobs are being lost in the United States, worker-owned cooperatives are growing, many following the model of Mondragón Internacional, a co-op founded in the Basque region 50 years ago with a small technical school, credit union and a small workshop manufacturing kerosene stoves. In rural areas of the U.S., cooperatives are becoming an alternative for some farm workers turned farmers. In more urban settings, unions such as t he United Steelworkers, are seeking to create jobs by setting up sustainable businesses, owned by workers.