In the early 1900s, John Suominen owned a successful Fitchburg printing company. But he was concerned about the economic welfare of fellow immigrants from Finland. In 1911, he met with state officials about launching a credit union for his countrymen. In 1914, he was granted a charter for Workers Credit Union, which stated that the board of directors could only recommend members who were “honest, industrious and of good habits.” Fortunately, Massachusetts is full of such fine folks. Since its founding, Workers has merged with several other credit unions and grown to 16 branches with 96,000 members and $1.6 billion in assets.