| Hi there. I'm Jeannette Neumann, the reporter of this week's Pay Check podcast — our season finale! For this episode, I went to the 22,000-person town of Mondragon in Spain's northern Basque region. The town is home to the world's largest worker cooperative network, called Mondragon Corporation, and I wanted to see how the co-ops have been able to keep unemployment as well as wealth and income inequality in check, crisis after crisis. I learned the pandemic was no exception. Most of the workers at the co-ops are also owners and they have spent decades honing a playbook to keep their companies financially sound during times of crisis. They cut their own salaries to slash costs, vote collectively on how to divvy up annual profits and can move from one co-op in the network to another if work really slows down. The Mondragon model is attracting a growing number of workers and business leaders in the US. They are looking at worker-owned cooperatives as a way to address some of the inequalities that have worsened during the pandemic. Worker-owned co-ops attack "economic inequality at its root," Mike Palmieri, a Kent State University associate researcher, told us. To hear more, check out the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is our last episode this season and the end of our special edition newsletter. If you haven't listened to the whole series, take the long holiday weekend to catch up! –Jeannette Neumann | 
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