Grassroots Unionism Under Attack in Argentina: Killing of Activist Sparks Protests

Toward Freedom
Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Wherever union representation is democratic, combative or revolutionary, we must defend it. Wherever rank and file are attacked by the union bureaucracy we must defend them. Union bureaucracy is the use of union posts with the objective of curtailing unionist activity. Union bureaucracy seeks to squash any insubordination, even the most just of strikes.

– Augustin Tosco, general secretary of Luz y Fuerza, combative labor organizer who fought for democratic union practices. He died in hiding, for fear he would be killed, after the Luz y Fuerza labor union was abolished in 1974.

The killing of a 23-year old labor activist has sparked massive protests in Argentina. Argentina’s rich labor history has been plagued with violent episodes: massacres against striking workers at the turn of the 20th century, the systematic disappearance of 30,000 activists under the dictatorship, the 38 deaths during Argentina’s 2001 popular rebellion, the 2002 police shooting of two unemployed activists Maximiliano Kosteki and Dario Santillan, and the death caused by a tear gas canister to the head of public school teacher Carlos Fuentealba in 2004. Mariano Ferreyra, an activist and student who was recently killed, sends an ominous reminder of the legacy of union bureaucracy and violence against workers.

Mariano Ferreyra was shot dead on October 20 in Argentina in a union dispute along Buenos Aires train lines. He was marching in solidarity with subcontracted train workers fired as part of cutbacks. Unionists from the main railway workers union broke up the protest against low wages and firings of subcontracted employees. As the protestors were ending the action, a group of unionists and other men began throwing rocks and running after the protestors. Television cameras showed a group of 40 men chasing after the protestors.

“The thugs from the green slate, guarded by the provincial police, were waiting for us along the train lines since early in the morning,” says Ariel Pintos, a subcontracted train employee shot in the leg at the protest. He told Pagina/12, “They chased us, yelling you’re going to pay for this, we’re going to kill you.”

Then, according to witnesses, as police stood by at least one man opened fired. Marcelo Adrian, a friend of the victim, says the corrupt union structure favors business interests. “The state is responsible, the bureaucratic unions… And the police that acted as accomplices. A group of 40 thugs from the Train Transport Union, Green list attacked us. It was a planned attack and there have been incidents of attacks against the subcontracted employees.” Three men have been arrested in connection to the shooting.

Mariano Ferreyra

The death of Mariano Ferreyra has opened wounds of the pain and preventable death which was the result of corrupt union practices. Ferreyra’s commitment as an activist was celebrated at the massive march to repudiate his death. More than 25,000 protestors came out to repudiate the death of Ferreyra, demand an end to undemocratic union practices and demand justice for the death of the activist.

The victim was a member of Argentina’s Workers Party. He began his activist activity at the age of 14 in a neighborhood branch of the Trotskyist organization shortly after the popular rebellion of 2001. The young Ferreyra participated in the 2002 road blockade in the suburb of Avellaneda where two activists lost their lives. Police shot members of the movement of unemployed workers Maximiliano Kosteki and Dario Santillan inside the Avellenada train station. This event would mark the life of Ferreyra in his commitment to activism and later tie him to the fate of the two victims. Eight years later, Ferryra was killed only a few blocks away from where Kosteki and Santillan died.

A cameraman present at the events said that after Mariano was shot he heard a person cheer: “one less lefty.” No one has been arrested in connection with the killing.

Labor practices

The workers protesting along the train lines wanted to draw attention to a common labor practice called outsourcing. The firing of 140 workers sparked the protest on October 20. The temporary workers demanding that laid-off workers get permanent employment with the Roca Railroad.

Subcontracting, synonymous with neoliberal capitalism, has become a common practice in public as well as private companies in Argentina. Workers, are hired temporarily by outsource companies that provide service along the train lines. “Subcontracted workers are paid half as much as formal workers. They do not have the right to unionize or to make demands,” says Ruben Sobrero, president of the body of delegates from the Sarmiento train line.

Argentina’s train system was dismantled during the mass privatization of public services in the 1990’s. “Menem with the participation of the current union leadership privatized the train system and more than 90,000 workers were laid off,” explains Sobrero. Today concessionaries subsidized by the state run the train system which provides services for millions of passengers who ride from the surrounding suburbs to the nation’s capital. Dozens of fatal accidents occur each year as a result of passengers falling off of overcrowded trains.

“They make us to three times the amount of work as formal employees. Many young workers have permanently injured their lower backs and when they come back from medical leave they are fired. They don’t provide us with work boots or protective uniforms. They don’t even provide us with water when we are working along the train tracks,” said Ariel Pintos.

The Train Workers Union benefits from this system because they get a percentage of ticket sales and gain from supporting business interests. At least 600 workers have been fired by the private company that is government subsidized to run the train lines that lead from the capital to the suburbs. The “violet list,” as the opposition group in the Train Workers Union is called, have organized a campaign for the formal contracting of workers and an end to subcontracting along the train lines. “The leadership of the UF doesn’t want workers to block the railways because they’ll lose part of ticket sales. They also don’t want to see salary increases for workers because that would cut into the union funds from union dues,” says Alfredo Esteban de Lucas who is a metallurgical worker that constructs trains.

Union bureaucracy

“This incident marks a rise in union violence on part of what is called union bureaucracy, which use these tactics to stop workers from organizing independently,” says Sobrero as an elected representative of an opposition slate has been the target of union violence. These incidents of violence form part of the long tradition of the union structure in Argentina, where trade unionists use tactics to pressure workers not to vote for opposition slates.

In the past year alone, representatives from the growing movement of grassroots labor organizing have been victim to threats and physical attacks. Subway workers have organized an independent union since 2006. They have held a number of protests to demand that the Labor Ministry grant legal recognition of a democratically voted independent union, breaking from the UTA transport union. The ex-wife and children of Nestor Segovia, an elected subway union representative, were attacked by police and affiliates of the UTA transport union in their home during an alleged eviction notice in November, 2009. “Union bureaucracy is strong right now because the nation’s main union CGT and the government support the apparatus. When there’s a growing movement of workers that the apparatus can’t control, the bureaucracy reacts,” said Segovia, at the national day of protest.

The International Labor Rights Forum listed the Kraft Corporation in Argentina as one of the worst companies for the right to association. The Food and Beverage Union did not support the Kraft workers’ demands or intervene when 140 workers were fired from the plant, many of whom were elected representatives from an opposition slate. Last year casino workers have also had to fight violent attacks from the formal unions in their union organizing efforts to create an independent union organization.

The nation’s main train union (UF) had threatened to stop workers from protesting on October 20. Pablo Diaz, a representative from the UF who is now under arrest for the killing of Ferreyra, publicly stated on the day of the protest “We are not going to allow the train lines to be blockaded.” In September, the subcontracted train workers organized a press conference in the Constitution train station to report the firing of 140 workers. A group from the UF’s Green slate from interrupted the press conference, shouting and pushing subcontracted workers while the police watched.

Human rights groups, journalists and academics have called for reflections and reforms in union representation. “The events demand a reflection about the significance of the struggle to democratize union representation, which forms part of a transition from the model of neoliberal deregulation of worker protection toward protection for workers,” said the Center for Social and Legal studies in a public statement about the killing of Ferreyra.

Grassroots labor organizing

At the march the day after Ferreyra’s death, dozens of groups from opposition slates marched in their work uniforms. “Most of us here are from opposition slates, we are a large movement that is proposing a new way of organizing workers, where workers have participation in assemblies,” says Segovia. This movement, called grassroots unionism, has challenged the verticality and corruption of the formal structures which groups say tries to curtail workers’ protests. Segovia adds that the government and industrial leaders worry that workers may demand better salaries and working conditions as the Argentine economy has boomed since 2003. “Union democracy implies that rank and file workers have a voice to debate. A union delegate should represent the workers, as a union delegate I was voted to reflect what rank and file workers propose.”

The death of Mariano Ferreyra reflects Peronisms’s (of the ex-president Juan Peron) tradition of union bureaucracy and attacks against workers which has reared its ugly head, despite a government that has made progressive measures. However, the diversity of opposition slates and delegates assembly fighting for democratic union representation reflects a growing grassroots labor movement, which continues to grow despite corrupt and violence practices on the part of official union leadership.

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and translator based in Argentina. She can be reached through her blog, www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

National day of protest for Mariano Ferreyra, victim of corrupt union organizing

Photos and text by Marie Trigona

A labor activist was shot dead on October 20 in Argentina in a union dispute along Buenos Aires train lines. Outraged residents protested the violence with marches throughout the nation.

The victim was Mariano Ferreyra, a 23-year old activist from Argentina’s Workers Party. He was marching in solidarity with subcontracted employees fired for attempting to blockade the train line.

A witness said that after Mariano was shot he heard a person cheer: “one less lefty.” No one has been arrested in connection with the killing. Mariano Ferreyra began his activist activity at the age of 14 in a neighborhood branch of the Trotskyist organization. The corrupt union involved in the death of Mariano is aligned with the current Peronist government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

“Burocracia sindical” is a common expression used to describe Argentina’s formal union structure. Corrupt union leaders have used violence to pressure workers not to vote for opposition slates.
International Labor Rights Forum listed the Kraft Corporation in Argentina as one of the worst companies for the right to association. The food workers union did not support the Kraft workers’ demands. Last year Kraft Subway workers and casino workers have also had to fight violent attacks from the formal unions in their union organizing efforts to form an independent union organization.
Subcontracting, synonymous with neoliberal capitalism, has become a common practice in public as well as private companies. Workers, are hired temporarily by outsource companies that provide service along the train lines. The company can decide to let the employees go without repercussions, pay them less and have a high turnover in personnel. The Train Workers Union benefits from this system because they get a percentage of ticket sales and have interests in supporting business interests.
Marcelo Adrian, a friend of the victim, says the corrupt union structure favors business interests. “The state is responsible, the bureaucratic unions… And the police that acted as accomplices. A group of 40 thugs from the Train Transport Union, Green list attacked us. It was a planned attack and there have been incidents of attacks against the subcontracted employees.”
The workers party newspaper reads: A crime against the working class.

Another activist, 61-year-old Elsa Rodríguez, is in critical condition after being shot in the head. Rodríguez has participated in the Worker’s Party for more than 7 years. Her daughters shed tears at the march demanding justice for those responsible for the shooting.

Another victim, Nelson Aguirre who was shot in the gluteus and leg, holds a sign that reads justice, punishment and jail for the assassins of Mariano Ferreyra.

At least 600 workers have been fired by the private company that is government subsidized to run the train lines that lead from the capital to the suburbs. The firing of 40 workers sparked the protest on October 20. The “violet list,” as the opposition group in the Train Workers Union is called have organized a campaign for the formal contracting of workers and an end to subcontracting along the train lines.
More than 25,000 protestors came out to repudiate the death of Ferreyra, demand an end to undemocratic union practices and demand justice for the death of the activist. Students wear signs that say: I am Mariano.
Mariano Ferreyra’s history and fate are tied to the fate of two activists Maximiliano Kosteki and Dario Santillan shot in a train station during a road blockade in the suburb of Avelleneda. The adolescent Ferreyra participated in the 2002 blockade, and 8 years later was shot dead along the train tracks leading to Avelleneda just a few blocks away.

The diversity of opposition slates and delegates assembly fighting for democratic union representation reflects the growing grass roots labor movement. This grass roots movement continues to grow despite corrupt and violence practices on the part of official union leadership.

“This custom of killing workers is going to end! Mariano Ferreyra presente!”

Kraft Firings Feed Protests

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

Mass firings at Kraft Foods' plant in Argentina sparked protests throughout the nation, and ignited a new wave of worker organizing. In August, Kraft fired 160 workers after they went on strike to demand proper health measures at the company's factory in suburban Buenos Aires during the swine flu epidemic in Argentina. Most of the fired workers were active union members; almost all of the factory's union delegates were fired.

Kraft workers carry out a series of road blockades and a total work stoppage for more than 40 days. Photo: Marie Trigona.

Kraft workers responded by taking over the plant. They staged a 40-day work stoppage, with the majority of the 3,000 workers participating in the strike. The U.S.-based company has accused protesting workers of prohibiting personnel from leaving the plant, but the union says that they were camping inside the plant peacefully to demand their jobs. On Sep. 25, police attacked the workers and removed them by force so Kraft could resume plant operations.

The factory looks more like a prison than a factory. Barbed wire borders the gates, guards walk the perimeter with attack dogs, and police patrol on horseback. Union members are barred from entering.

"There are police inside the plant. The inspectors are going to the lines and forcing people to work. Outside the plant, there are police surrounding the factory," says Carlos Mores, a union delegate fired from Kraft.

Kraft: King of Consolidation

Kraft's history is laden with acquisitions, buyouts, consolidations, and the raw concentration of market power. The company dates back to 1903 when James L. Kraft opened a cheese distributor in Chicago, Illinois. In 1913, Kraft opened its first plant to manufacture cheese. Kraft's claim to fame came through consolidation and following Andrew Carnegie's motto: "Put all your eggs into one basket and then watch that basket, do not scatter your shot. The great successes of life are made by concentration."

By World War II the cheese giant was sending 4 million pounds of its patented pasteurized processed cheese to Britain weekly. Founding itself on the coattails of the military-industrial complex, its next frontier was the American housewife's modern kitchen, encouraged to cook easier, tastier, faster foods with a much lower nutritional value.

Kraft grew to become one of the largest food companies in the world after acquiring Nabisco Brands in 2000. Soon after, the Marlboro Man purchased Kraft in 1992. Altria (the new name for tobacco and food giant Phillip Morris) by 2000 planned to spin off control of Kraft Foods, which now is the second largest food company in the world, after Nestle.

The company produces in more than 70 countries, and distributes in more than 150 countries. In many countries, like Argentina, the food processing leader quietly buys out local brands and markets the brand under the same name. Consolidation of market power throughout the food industry has been a creeping trend, and Argentina's food market is no exception. Kraft's largest gem in Argentina is the Terrabusi cookie brand.

In 1994 Nabisco foods purchased Terrabusi, the nation's largest cookie/cracker manufacturer. At the time, the factory employed 8,000. By 2009, that number shrunk by half to only 4,000 workers. The company cornered nearly 50% of the nation's cookie market, making Kraft's plant in the working class suburb of Pacheco one of the most important outside the United States.

The U.S. multinational reaped record profits in 2008, taking in $42 billion dollars in revenue. "Kraft is one company that has managed to do well in spite of the economic downturn, because hey, people have to eat," boasts a Kraft online video. With skyrocketing food prices, many consumers turned to more economical, processed food, helping Kraft's stocks peak at an all-time high on Sep. 18, 2008 at $34 a share.

Anti-Union Practices

Around the country people organized actions in solidarity with the workers of ex-Terrabusi, today Kraft Foods, Inc. Photo: Marie Trigona.

During the swine flu outbreak in Argentina in July, the health ministry issued guidelines for workplaces. These included providing anti-bacterial soap, alcohol gel, and paper towels for increased hygiene and granting leave to pregnant women working in enclosed spaces, who are known to be at greater risk from the virus.

"The conflict started during the H1N1 epidemic," says Fernando, a worker fired from Kraft. "We were demanding improvements like paper towels, toilet paper, alcohol gel, and other health measures. Because we made our demands, they fired 160 workers."

In addition, the company refused to give pregnant women and women with children maternity leave. The Labor Ministry requested that Kraft Foods take health precautions, as schools, public spaces, and workplaces were shut down throughout the country to prevent the H1N1 virus from spreading, but the corporation refused. In addition, the company shut down the company daycare center offering women 200 pesos (70 dollars) to find their own private child care. The Labor Ministry or Food and Beverage Union did not intervene, but the ministry described Kraft as a "hard company" in respect to the labor conflict.

During this time, the company brought in police to guard the factory. According to union representatives, the company went so far as to bring in managers to interrogate workers with the police present, but without the workers' labor lawyers. The workers decided to hold a work-stoppage, showing up for their shifts and then camping inside the factory.

The U.S. company accused protesting workers of prohibiting personnel from entering the plant and threatening managers, but the union says that they were peacefully protesting to assert their demands. After striking workers went to the factory administrative offices, Kraft decided to fire 160 of the workers inside the plant.

A month-long campaign followed, to demand that the workers be rehired and persecution of union activists be halted. Workers carried out a series of road blockades and a total work stoppage for more than 40 days. Around the country, students, union activists, unemployed workers, and human rights groups organized actions in solidarity with the workers of ex-Terrabusi, today Kraft Foods, Inc.

For Kraft Foods, unionists and strikes blemish the company's public image. According to Sara Jones from the Say No to Kraft campaign in the United States, Kraft's headquarters have been following developments in Argentina closely. "One of the main reasons we're creating a solidarity campaign from here in Chicago is because the headquarters is located in Illinois and we are well aware that they are managing this 'operation.' On websites dedicated to news about the struggle we have seen the IP addresses of 17 computers that are connected from EDS/Kraft Glenview, IL."

Activists in Kraft's home state Illinois began the campaign in solidarity with the Argentine workers following the firings and have led a boycott campaign against the food leader, with products in 98% of American homes.

In the midst of a global economic crisis, job losses can literally destroy a family. At a time when Kraft has reported record profits, it decides to fire workers. Kraft has admitted that it fired the workers for participating in protests against the company. However, many of the delegates say that in addition to purging union activists from the company, Kraft planned to restructure shifts by cutting an entire shift and imposing extended hours on the others.

"The company wants to implement 12-hour shifts, but they need to cut personnel. First they had to remove all of the labor organization inside the plant—our elected union delegates and internal commission at the factory," says Fernando.

Signs point to a premeditated decision to fire the workers, with Kraft using the protests as an excuse to lay-off 160 workers en masse and rid themselves of union activism. In an interview published in Pagina/12 Labor Minister Carlos Tomada said that the conflict at the Kraft factory was "a conflict where the company made a decision to get revenge on its workers."

Kraft's Hopes for a Banana Republic

Following failed negotiations between the Labor Ministry, Kraft, and union delegates late on Sep. 25, police surrounded the plant and attacked protestors. They arrested 60 people and injured 12, police shot tear gas and rubber bullets, beating others and attacking protestors while on horseback. "Kraft is a North American multinational that has the money to finance repression and pay fines to the Labor Ministry when they violate Argentina's labor laws," says Fernando. The corporation has violated the Obligatory Conciliation period ordered by the Labor Ministry which would enforce the temporary rehiring of all fired workers until both sides of the conflict reached an agreement. Kraft even called for the U.S. embassy to take its side in the increasingly costly labor conflict.

Since the strike, the company has only reinitiated normal production on five of its 36 product lines. During the 40-day work stoppage, the production lines were paralyzed, including the Oreo line, clogging pipes with the white cream used in the cookies. The factory's silos have accumulated bugs contaminating flour supplies. Kraft's Director of Corporate Affairs Pedro Lopez Matheu said that the company has seen "significant losses," compared to 2008 sales in Argentina topping 370 million dollars.

During the eviction, police detained protesters inside the factory in a scene reminiscent of when unions were persecuted, detained, and disappeared inside the Ford factory during the nation's 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Human rights lawyer Maria del Carmen Verdu says Kraft is in violation of Argentina's criminal code because it used the plant as a detention center. "Instead of being taken to the police stations, prisoners were detained inside the factory, in an unprecedented circumstance where lawyers couldn't even enter the place where the prisoners were being detained."

Business leaders of the Industrial Union of Argentina (IUA) are pushing the government to get tough on rising protests. They fear the protests could interfere with their plans for massive layoffs using the economic crisis as an excuse. The UIA reports that since 2008 there have been more than 220,000 layoffs in Argentina.

"Here in Argentina the economic crisis is getting worse. Many companies need to 'restructure' and cut labor costs to maintain profits," says Carlos Mores, another union delegate fired from Kraft who witnessed the police attacks on Sep. 25. "Kraft Foods, and other multinationals that have the UIA's support, are seeking to restructure personnel. This is why the government allows violent repression against workers, in scenes we haven't seen since the military dictatorship. Because they want the workers to carry the burden of the economic crisis."

Violating its promise to stop the firings, on Sep. 26 Kraft suspended 100 more workers who they suspected of participating in protests. On Sep. 28, thousands of workers and supporters marched in Buenos Aires to demand that the workers be rehired. The Kraft case quickly became emblematic of a larger battle over who would pay for the economic crisis—workers or the companies who skimmed off record profits before the fall.

"When the conflict started over health measures for the swine flu, Kraft already had a plan to fire the union delegates in order to make cut backs, adding to poverty and unemployment throughout the region," said Nora Cortinas, from the human rights organization Mothers of Plaza de Mayo at the massive march in support of the Kraft workers.

In the end, Kraft agreed to review the dismissals "on a case-by-case basis." The only offer the company has made was to 50 of the workers, saying that the fired workers are dangerous to the company, according to Kraft's Lopez Matheu. The union delegates have refused this offer at the latest round of talks at the Labor Ministry.

The U.S. Embassy has not intervened directly. However, it issued a statement that contained the veiled threat of reduced foreign investment flows. "The embassy has been following the conflict based on our interest in promoting U.S. investments in Argentina, which have helped generate jobs for over 150,000 Argentine workers."

"Inside and outside, the plant has been militarized," says Mores. The company's most direct violation of Argentina's labor code has been to prohibit union delegates from entering the plant. According to the law, companies must allow even suspended delegates to fulfill their roles inside the plant. The Labor Ministry has reiterated the delegates' right to fulfill their duties, but provincial police and barbed wire protecting the factory has made this an impossible feat.

Kraft's Anti-Union Practices Across the Globe

"Kraft has a history of getting rid of the organized workers and union organizers that are not under their control," says Jones, from the campaign to boycott Kraft in the United States. Colombia's Food Union, Sinaltrainal, has reported persecution of union members at Kraft factories in that country.

Kraft closed five factories in South America after the acquisition of Nabisco brands. Since 2003, the company has fired hundreds of workers, cutting personnel by 37%. When firings weren't enough to stave off union activity, the company has resorted to direct threats, as in the case of a group of 30 workers who were locked inside a lunch room and told to sign letters of recognition. After workers realized that they were locked inside, they refused to sign and held a protest in front of the Colombian factory. Similar to the Argentine case, in Colombia Kraft has also used the police to forcefully remove protesting workers from factories.

"The plant managers that have passed through this company over the last six years have had rising careers, climbing through various posts and seeking promotion by strictly applying the company's anti-union policies and using coercive measures against the workers," states the Sinaltrainal union in Colombia.

The U.S. boycott campaign states that Kraft has also played a role in the recent Honduran coup. "Kraft Foods has ties with the coup in Honduras," says Jones. "The Kraft Foods Company is a member of the Honduran American Chamber of Commerce—AMCHAM Honduras, which strongly supports the coup in Honduras and has stated its support for Micheletti." Kraft joined CitiBank and Wal-Mart, also members of AMCHAM, in a public statement of support for the "new president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti."

The Honduran National Business Council, of which AMCHAM is a member, issued a press release on the day the Honduran Armed Forces kidnapped the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, and forced him onto a flight bound for Costa Rica. "President Zelaya's departure comes as a result of a systematic violation, by the government he headed, of the constitution and Honduran laws … What occurred today was the not changing of one president for another; today, framed in national unity, respect for the constitution, national laws, and institutionalism was achieved," states the press release.

The Kraft conflict in Argentina may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It has already sparked massive protests as an outcry against further firings throughout the country. Many have said that if Kraft gets away with firings, it's a green light for companies in Argentina to follow suit. Other groups including the FUBA university student association, human rights group Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora, Subway Workers, hospital employees throughout the nation, neighborhood assemblies, and unions are fighting for representation in their locales throughout the country to demand an end to repression of union activity and firings. The broad-based citizen response shows the resentment that has built up against transnational corporations that violate national sovereignty by breaking labor norms and laws, and unresponsive unions and governments unwilling to defend workers.

Kraft may have met its match in Argentina. The country has a long tradition of labor organizing and strong and active social movements. The current crisis has heightened demands for a new economic model less dependent on foreign investors and companies that use mobility as a way to control workers in developing countries.

Marie Trigona is a journalist based in Argentina and writes regularly for the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org). She can be reached at mtrigona(a)msn.com.

To reprint this article, please contact americas@ciponline.org. The opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of the CIP Americas Program or the Center for International Policy.

Sources

Honduran Chamber of Commerce Press Release:
http://www.cohep.com/pdf/Press%20Release%20June%20the%2029th%202009.pdf

Say NO to Kraft Campaign Facebook Campaign
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124299898146

Sinaltrainal "Kraft Foods genera desempleo, hambre y miseria en Colombia"
http://www.sinaltrainal.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=620&Itemid=93

Kraft firings sparks protests

FSRN Radio Report
click to listen

A Kraft Foods factory has reopened in Argentina after workers shut it down for more than a month to protest massive layoffs and anti-union measures. The Illinois-based corporation denies it was trying to break up unions and last week it obtained a court order to dislodge more than 60 workers who were blocking operations at the factory. The incident sparked street demonstrations yesterday and a response from the US embassy. FSRN´s Marie Trigona has more from Buenos Aires.

FASINPAT: A Factory that Belongs to the People

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

The workers at Argentina's largest worker-controlled factory are celebrating a definitive legal solution to a nine-year struggle for the right to work and workers' self-determination. The provincial legislature of Neuquén voted in favor of expropriating the Zanon ceramics factory giving the workers' cooperative FASINPAT the right to manage the plant definitively. Since the workers occupied Zanon in 2001, they have successfully set up a system of workers' management, created jobs, duplicated production of ceramics, supported community projects, and spearheaded a network of over 200 recuperated enterprises. Zanon, renamed FASINPAT or Factory Without a Boss, can now continue production without threat of eviction from their factory.

Zanon Belongs to the People, Support the Workers. Photo: radiouniversidad.wordpress.com.

Zanon, still Latin America's largest ceramics manufacturer, is located in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, a region with rich working class traditions, history, and mystique surrounding the red desert, rich forests, and crystalline lakes. The workers officially declared the factory under worker control in October 2001 following a lockout of the factory bosses.

In Argentina, more than 13,000 people work in occupied factories and businesses, otherwise known as recuperated enterprises. The sites, which number more than 200, range from hotels, to ceramics factories, to balloon manufacturers, to suit factories, to printing shops, and transport companies, as well as many other trades. Most of the occupations occurred following the nation's 2001 economic crisis when unemployment rates soared above 25% and poverty levels hovered over 50%. Zanon, as one of the largest and foremost factory occupations, became a symbol for millions of workers who lost their jobs during the worst economic crisis in Argentina's history, in which thousands of factories shut down. The cooperative has proved that factories can produce without a boss.

Legal Victory

At a little past midnight on August 13, the legislature, controlled by the right-wing party the Popular Movement of Neuquén (MPN), voted for the law to expropriate the Zanon ceramics factory. The expropriation law passed 26 votes in favor and nine votes against the bill. Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups, and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers as they waited outside the provincial legislature in the capital city of Neuquén. Many activists from Buenos Aires travelled 619 miles to Neuquén to support FASINPAT's fight for the expropriation law, including workers from the worker-run Brukman suit factory, occupied Hotel BAUEN, rank-and-file union representatives from the subway system, and public hospital employees.

"When we found out that they were going to vote, we called our supporters. About 3,500 people participated in the protest including social movements, human rights organizations, teachers, unionists," said Jorge Bermuda, a veteran worker at the factory in an interview with the CIP Americas Program in Buenos Aires. Despite strong Patagonian desert winds, hundreds waited for the final legislative decision, huddled around bonfires. As the legislation voted, supporters watched from a screen transmitting outside the government building. Onlookers gathered in awe and immediately joined in to celebrate with the workers without bosses. Burly ceramists in their beige work clothes and blue jackets with the embroidered FASINPAT logo embraced each other in tears and joy, releasing the grief and happiness of the long struggle for control of the factory.

"This is incredible, we are so happy. The expropriation is an act of justice," said Alejandro Lopez the general secretary of the Ceramists Union, overwhelmed by the emotion of the victory. "We don't forget the people who supported us in our hardest moments, or the 100,000 people who signed the petition supporting our bill."

The workers credited the community's support for making the objective of expropriation become a reality. "The vote wasn't only the victory of the 470 workers at Zanon, or the original 150 who took over the plant, but the victory of an entire community that gave their support," said Bermuda. During the debate on the bill, deputy representatives took note of the fact that over half the population supports the factory expropriation in hands of the workers.

Aside from a political victory, the expropriation of the Zanon plant sets a legal precedent for terms of legislation in favor of other workers' cooperatives that have taken control of businesses closed down by their owners. The bill voted in Neuquén is the first expropriation without reimbursement by workers; the state will pay privileged creditors Luis Zanon's debt of 22 million pesos (around $7 million). The main creditors include the World Bank, which gave a loan of $20 million to Luis Zanon for the construction of the plant, and Italian company SACMY, which produces state-of-the-art ceramics manufacturing machinery and is owed $5 million. These interests were pressuring Argentina's judicial system to auction off the plant to pay off the debts.

Although previous expropriation bills have passed locally, no expropriation law has made it to vote on the national level, meaning workers' cooperatives must assume the debt left by the previous business firm. In return for this agreement, FASINPAT agreed to sell materials to the province at cost.

The Zanon workers argued that the government should not pay Luis Zanon's debts, saying that courts have proven that the creditors participated in the fraudulent bankruptcy of the plant in 2001 because the credits went directly to the owner Luis Zanon and not to investments into the factory.

"If someone should pay, Luis Zanon should pay, who is being charged with tax evasion," said Omar Villablanca from FASINPAT. The FASINPAT collective presented a previous expropriation bill, from which the current law passed was adopted, that would have cancelled the debt to creditors. More than 100,000 people signed the petition to get this bill passed.

Roots of Zanon

Union of ceramic workers and employees of Neuquén. Photo: Obreros de Zanon.

The massive factory, spanning several city blocks, was built in an isolated industrial park along Route 7, a highway leading into the capital city of Neuquén. The Zanon ceramics plant was inaugurated in 1980, three years before the nation came out of the nightmare of the dictatorship that ruled the nation with terror from 1976-1983. Officers from the military dictatorship and Italian diplomats presided over the ceremony, which included blessings from a Monsignor of the Catholic Church. Luis Zanon, or Luigi, thanked the military government "for the atmosphere of security and tranquility that the Armed Forces have provided since they took charge on March 24, 1976." That fateful date in 1976 marked the beginning of one of the bloodiest eras for Argentina, in which the military terrorized the nation and forcefully disappeared 30,000 workers, activists, and students.

Conditions inside Zanon previous to the workers' occupation led to an average of 25-30 accidents per month and one fatality per year. In the years of Zanon's production, 14 workers died inside the factory. Former management enforced rules to divide workers and prevent communication among ceramists as a way of controlling union organizing independent from company interests. Many workers recount how they had to organize clandestinely to win control of the union.

Carlos Villamonte participated in the efforts to win rank-and-file union seats, organizing secretly in the late 90s. "It was very difficult to win back the internal union at the factory because we had to do it clandestinely. The company had a very repressive system. They didn't let you in another sector, talk with fellow workers, or even use the bathroom freely. Many times we had to communicate by passing notes under the tables in the cafeteria or walking through each sector making secret times and places to meet. We found ways to evade the bosses' and bureaucratic union's control." One such way was forming a ceramists' soccer team. Between practices, games, and tournaments, workers were able to strategize how to win shop-floor union representation.

After the rank-and-file workers' union movement at the factory won control of the ceramists union in 1998, the struggle culminated with a bosses' lockout in 2001. The workers were fired and the factory closed down—still owed severance pay and millions in unpaid salaries. This led to a workers' protest camp outside the plant. While the workers were camping outside the factory, a court ruled that the employees could sell off remaining stock. After the stock ran out, on March 2, 2002, the workers' assembly voted to start up production without a boss. Many at the plant believe that the rank-and-file workers' movement gaining control of the union catapulted the fired workers into occupying the factory and starting up production after the company closed the doors.

Future of Autogestión

Autogestión obrera—workers' self-management—implies that a community or group makes its own decisions, especially those decisions that fit into the process of production and planning. One of the major feats of Zanon was putting into production a massive beast of a factory with an organization based on equality and democracy without trained professional managers, punitive systems, or hierarchical organization.

FASINPAT wokers celebrate the passing of the law to expropriate the Zanon ceramics factory. Photo: Obreros de Zanon.

The FASINPAT collective grew from 250 workers to 470. They began by producing 5,000 sq. meters of ceramics a month when they first occupied the plant in 2001. They soon managed to increase their production to 14,000 sq. meters a month. By 2008, FASINPAT produced 400,000 sq. meters a month, a record for worker control at the factory.

Although they continue to have the capacity to produce at those levels, demand has dropped lately, leading to the decision to adjust production levels. "In 2009, because of the crisis, we've dropped production to 250,000 sq. meters a month," explains Bermuda, who participates in technical planning at the plant.

Due to the crisis and slumping construction industry in the region, sales of ceramics have dropped by 40%. Unlike, their capitalist counterparts, the FASINPAT worker enterprise has taken on the task of cutting costs, not personnel. "We now have the legal aspect resolved, now we have to resolve production and fight for energy subsidies," said Omar Villablanca, a young worker at Zanon who was recently voted general secretary of the provincial-wide ceramists union. He visited Buenos Aires shortly after the victory to provide support for workers on strike at the Terrabusi cookie corporation who are fighting against lay-offs and voluntary pay cuts. "Factories that shut down are generally the result of a management that doesn't want to invest a peso of profits toward saving jobs."

A major challenge now to worker-run factories will be to devise production plans to respond to uncertain markets. Zanon's legalized status will allow the workers to focus on production and implementing technology. But they don't plan to eliminate their worker training programs. The factory assembly, which is the decision-making body at the plant, has voted to start up a primary school and high school for workers who weren't able to finish schooling. More than half of the workers at Zanon do not have their high school degrees. "We are working to train our workers. Primary and secondary school are one aspect. The next step would be to prepare a few compañeros to go to university for engineering, or whatever they would like to study."

In a 2004 article on Zanon, researcher on Latin American social movements Raúl Zibechi wrote, "The ex-Zanon workers hope that the Argentine government will decide to recognize their status and let them continue to operate under their own control." Many experts researching the role of the government and its persistent refusal to recognize that Argentina's 200 recuperated enterprises had created over 10,000 jobs, predicted that a definitive legal solution would take years, and it did. As a writer who has followed the development of workers' self-management at Zanon, I also shared the disbelief, joy, and emotion at the good news.

In over nine years of legal battles and uncertainty, the workers running Zanon were able to create more than 200 jobs; build health clinics and homes for families in need; donate ceramics to hundreds of cultural centers, libraries, and community projects; support strike funds for workers fighting for better working conditions; build a network of social movements; devise a democratic assembly and coordinating system within the factory that replaced hierarchy; not to mention successfully run a factory that the previous owner wanted to close for good, imagine what they can do now.

At Zanon, workers constantly use the slogan: "Zanon es del pueblo" or Zanon belongs to the people. The workers have gone to great efforts to ensure that the community benefits from worker control at the factory.

"I feel as if the law is our contribution to the working class, it's our grain of sand for workers to recuperate hopes that they can change things," said Raul Godoy, a worker and steadfast activist from the factory. While other recuperated enterprises are fighting eviction threats and other legal challenges, they can now look to the FASINPAT collective as a beacon of success. And other workers who are facing firings will be more inspired to follow the example of the Zanon workers of running their own factories and putting them at the service of the people.

Workplace resistance and self-management: Strategic Lessons from Latin America

[Contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications]

Capitalism has taken a turn for the worse, spinning itself out of control into a ruinous downward spiral which many are characterizing as the first depression of this century. Under capitalism there are always winners and losers, even without a recession. Who are the winners? Corporations and banks showered with public bailout packages, seeking to further consolidate their power and capital. Who are the losers? The millions of workers faced with unemployment, dropping wages and inflation.

As unemployment figures creep up to 10 percent in the United States and Europe, workers are scrambling to find solutions to joblessness. Around the world, the phenomenon of worker occupations and boss-napping has spread as desperate workers resort to direct action at the workplace to prevent companies from firing workers and liquidating assets. Workers have taken more radical measures in the fight against injustices brought on by bosses unleashing attacks against employees through voluntary pay reductions, downsizing and firings. In the past two years Serbia, Turkey, France, Spain, South Africa, England and Canada have seen worker occupations. The most well known case in the US has been the sit-down-strike at the Chicago Windows and Doors plant where workers occupied their factory to demand severance pay and benefits after being abruptly fired.

Factory occupations have been used since the onset of the industrial revolution as a strategy for workers to defend themselves against deplorable work conditions, unsafe workplaces and retaliation. Recently in Latin America, workers have used factory occupations not only to make demands heard, but to put worker self-management into practice. In Argentina, and other places in Latin America, workers rediscovered the factory occupation almost a decade ago in 2000 and occupations spread as the nation faced a financial crisis in 2001. Like today, growing unemployment, capital flight and de-industrialization served as the backdrop for the factory takeovers in 2001.

The phenomenon of worker occupations continues to grow as the world falls deeper into the current recession. Nearly 20 new factories in Argentina were occupied since 2008. This may be a sign that workers are confronting the current global financial crisis with lessons and tools from previous worker occupied factories post-2001 economic collapse and popular rebellion. Today, some 250 worker occupied enterprises are up and running, employing more than 13,000. Many of these sites have been producing under worker self-management since 2002, providing nearly a decade of lessons, experiments, strategies and mistakes to learn from.

Arrufat, a chocolate factory in Buenos Aires is one such example of new occupations. On January 5, 2009, the workers got the news that they were fired. Diana Arrufat, owner and heiress to the factory, left a poster on the gate of the factory to inform the workers they no longer had jobs. The 50 workers still employed hadn't been paid their salaries for much of 2008. "They fired us without having to look at our faces. They abandoned us," says Alberto Cavrico a worker who has worked at the plant for more than 20 years. That same day they opened the factory gate and remained inside the factory. And now the workers are producing deliciously sweet delicacies without the supervision and exploitative practices of a boss. The owners of Indugraf printing press shut down operations in a similar manner to Arrufat in November 2008. The printing house workers in Buenos Aires occupied their plant on December 5, the same week that workers in Chicago decided to occupy the Republic and Windows Doors Plant - to demand severance pay and benefits after being abruptly fired. Currently, they are fighting to form a cooperative and start up production without a boss. Other occupations include Disco de Oro, a plant producing the pastry dough to make empanadas, a meat filled pastry common in Argentina. Febatex, a textile plant producing thread and Lidercar, a meat packing plant are two more examples of recent worker occupations. These workers have had to collectively fight violent eviction threats and are still struggling to start up production as worker cooperatives.

One part of a full societal vision is workers control, which means that production is collectively and democratically managed by workers. As historians and writers have long noted, the aspiration for direct worker management of production has culminated in many worker takeovers through the greater part of the 20th century -Russia (1917), Italy (1920), Spain (1936), Chile (1972) and Argentina (2001). Argentina offers one of the longest lived experiences of direct worker management of this century. As such, the experiences of self-management in Latin America provide an example of new working class subjectivities, self-determination and working culture while they fight against dominant institutions, including the state and capitalist bosses. Their struggle provide an libratory vision by sowing the seeds for a new society today by reversing the logic of capitalism, challenging market systems of domination and questioning the legitimacy of private property.

What follows are elements of self-management and analysis exploring what contemporary society can learn from nearly a decade of Latin America's experimentation with worker control and self-management. I would like to critically analyze the experiences of worker self-management to conceive how workers can overcome internal, state and market challenges and further promote democratic workplaces.

Self-management and new social relations

"The most important factor, and most subversive, is that the recuperated enterprises confirm that businesses don't need bosses to produce," says Fabio Resino from the BAUEN Hotel. The 19-story, 180 room hotel has been operational since workers took it over in 2003. It operates despite a court ordered eviction notice and void of legal recognition. The hotel has been a launch pad for the new occupied factories; many of the workers from the new take-overs have come to the BAUEN Hotel seeking advice and support. The BAUEN collective forms part of a network of enterprises that are building democratic workplaces, community projects and solidarity networks.

Most of the worker takeovers was an action to guarantee that the owners wouldn't be able to liquidate assets before filing bankruptcy to avoid paying workers indemnities and back salaries. Workers' demands steadily grew from a measure to safe guard their jobs to the idea implementing a system of self-management. With little hope that bosses would ever return to pay workers what they owed, workers devised plans to start up production with no boss or owner what so ever.

In many of the worker occupied factories, as soon as the workers began producing without a boss or owner, relationships at the workplace were re-invented. The workers broke with the capitalist model of hierarchical organization, alienation and exploitation. For some, this transition occurred smoothly and for others the change was a difficult challenge. The questions of what do we do next and how do we do it led to workers organizing themselves in various versions of alternatives to the capitalist business structure.

Decision-making

Within self-management the very nature of work and decision-making should be transformed into a participatory, democratic and empowering process void of exploits, inequality and authority. The recuperated enterprises have managed to devise systems to democratize decision-making in a participatory manner, while at the same time competing in the market. For example, at the Zanon ceramics factory, the largest recuperated enterprise with more than 470 workers, the factory has been transformed into a workplace model based on values like equity, liberation, mutual cooperation, participatory managing and direct democracy. Workers at Zanon have developed a coordinator system to organize production and basic functioning. Each production line forms a commission. Each commission votes on a coordinator that rotates regularly. The coordinator of the sector informs on issues, news, and conflicts within his or her sector to an assembly of coordinators. The coordinator then reports back to his or her commission news from other sectors. The workers hold weekly assemblies per shift. The factory also holds a general assembly, during which production is halted, each month, where the collective resolves actions and decisions.

Self-management implies that a community, workplace or group makes its own decisions, worker self-management is specific in the process of planning and management of production. As many of the worker recuperated enterprises move toward self-management, they develop organization that resists hierarchies and delegation of decision-making power. Centralization is a challenge for workplaces in which the assembly doesn't meet regularly or developed as an efficient decision-making/deliberator tool. When delegates or representatives make decisions for a worker controlled enterprise, that aren't explicitly delegated by the collective, there is more chance for corruption and decision-making based on personal interests rather than collective interests.

Again, Resino from the BAUEN Hotel: "Because there is no capital stock or boss, new relations are created in which the workers discuss and decide in a more or less democratic way the fate of the enterprise: how to distribute profits equitably, where to invest, how the enterprise is organized and administered." In almost all of the occupied sites, workers are paid equal salaries no matter what position or type of work they complete.

Where a capitalist business has a vertical pyramid structure, many of the recuperated enterprise structures resemble a circle structure with working teams communicating with each other in networks rather than a top-down system where capitalists and coordinator class give instructions while workers passively take orders. The cooperative model results in a more dynamic and horizontal organizational model, while being socially viable rather than exploitive.

In many of these cooperatives, the worker assembly is the only "authority" in the workplace. But not all decisions can or should be made within an assembly, or with consensus. Although, all decision-making mechanisms should be participatory and representative of the worker collective as a whole. The coordinator class or "administrative representatives" at most of the take-overs did not occupy as operators or non-managerial workers did. This meant that the workers had to learn administration and marketing, leading to challenges and mistakes but ultimately a greater opportunity for participatory planning within the workplace.

If we take for example problem solving, the self-managed enterprises need to take a different approach to classic management styles implemented by businesses where decisions are made in an authoritarian manner. The assembly should make decision, but deliberation as a collective on problem solving within an assembly can be messy, time-consuming and conflictive. Working groups with workers from the different areas of the business can meet to trouble-shoot and devise different possible solutions for a problem within the enterprise whether it be economic or administrative. They can take the report to the assembly which can then make an informed decision on which solution is best for the worker collective.

The assembly can backfire. A factor in how well workers are able to adopt new social relations at the workplace depends highly on the level of organization, class consciousness and commitment to cooperation. If there is a charismatic personality that monopolizes the assembly, while the rest of participants passively participate, the assembly can be manipulated, even if a decision is taken "collectively." If that decision is manipulated, it can't really be considered a democratic decision.

Social property

Conceptually, in a recuperated enterprise there is no capitalist, boss or owner, the enterprise is collectively owned. For some workers, the enterprise doesn't belong to the worker collective, but to society. Sometimes, when workers have the notion that the cooperative belongs to them and only that group, personal interests develop, diminishing the libratory spirit of working without a boss. This can lead to isolation and lack of long-term investing, as well as preventing community groups or allies from lending advice.

At Zanon, workers constantly use the slogan: "Zanon es del pueblo" or Zanon belongs to the people. The workers have adopted the objective of producing not only to provide jobs and salaries for more than 470 people, but also to create new jobs, make donations in the community and to support other social movements. Work is seen as a social asset, not as an imposition.

Hiring

Thousands of jobs have been created by the occupied factories. Nearly 30 workers occupied the BAUEN, when it was first taken over in 2003. Today, the cooperative employs more than 150. There are many other examples where the group of workers producing under self-management grew: Maderera Cordoba wood shop went from 8 workers to 22; Zanon from 250 to 470; Rabbione transport cooperative from 9 to 40.

How people are hired within an occupied factory varies. The workers at Zanon have had the most political approach to hiring workers. When Zanon began to produce under worker control they hired former Zanon workers who had been fired. Later they began to divide the job openings for grass roots activists working with the unemployed (piquetero) worker organizations. Some other takeovers have decided that family members of "original workers" should be hired. This has set up a system where the families of the original workers occupying their workplace were rewarded while constituents and supporters can be seen as "outsiders" that you call when you need them, but keep at a distance when it comes to internal affairs at the cooperative. Hiring workers on this basis promotes favoritism, favoring personal interests of a particular group of people, or family, rather than the community, whether that would be a geographical community or community of people fighting for social justice.

Social Economy

Many of the 200 worker occupied businesses and factories in Argentina are being affected by the crisis. But unlike their capitalist counterparts, the worker cooperatives are taking any measure possible to avoid laying off workers, something which they are opposed to doing. "We aren't like the capitalists. You can't throw workers out like they are lice," said Candido Gonzalez, a veteran worker from Chilavert worker occupied print factory in Buenos Aires, one of the first occupied plants after the 2001 crisis.

As Argentina's economy slows down, the recuperated enterprises now have to devise how to compete in a shrinking market. The social economy may be one solution to the deepening crisis. Within a social economy, cooperatives can function with greater autonomy than they can while competing in the purely capitalist market. For example, with tourism slowing down BAUEN Hotel has reached an agreement with FEDETUR, a tourist federation grouping more than 1.5 million associates from cooperatives and mutuals in the region. Associates from other cooperative can enjoy the services of the hotel at a fair price, while BAUEN can rely on a group of non-capitalist clientele that understands the complexity and importance of working in a cooperative. BAUEN can create income and solidarity network outside of the purely capitalist international tourism market. Catering to a working class clientele, also helps the collective not to forget their roots as workers who lost their jobs and led a direct

A social economy not only provides an alternative solution during an economic crisis, but also augments worker self-managed workplaces' autonomy and possibility to mutually cooperate with other non-capitalist projects. Social economy as defined here is not to be confused with micro-credit lending and social programs supported by groups like the World Bank and Inter-Development Bank to suppress the poor. Here, social economy is defined as an approach to production and product exchange outside of the capitalist market for the liberation of oppressed communities from exploitation both as workers and as consumers.

With a social economy, production chains can be complemented or even completed without having to rely on capitalists transact in the market. For example, cotton growers from Campesino Movement of Formosa (MOCAFOR), a grassroots movement made up of traditional farmers and indigenous groups can sell their product to the newly occupied FEBATEX that produces cotton thread. FEBATEX can then sell their thread to the Brukman suit factory. The process could be very extensive given the diversity and number of cooperatives/mutual associations/occupied factories and social movements producing goods. Another example could be that Zanello, a massive tractor manufacturer occupied by workers and partially self-managed by workers could reach an agreement with MOCAFOR, while another worker owned cooperative Icecoop developing green farming technology could also provide services to MOCAFOR.

Many transactions could even be in the form of swaps, a bakery cooperative could trade bread for shoes from another cooperative that manufactures shoes, like Pupure cooperative that specializes in work shoes. Cooperatives could set up a system to trade their final product for other products from other cooperatives to cover basic needs, this system could be called "auto-consumo" or producing for personal consumption. Rather than producing for a market, cooperatives could produce for the consumer and directly for their communities.

Another aspect of the social economy is selling products in alternative networks or autonomous spaces rather than a traditional market, where the buyer with more bargaining power over the seller wins. For example, ARRUFAT chocolate cooperative could set up a stand at a weekly street fair organized by a neighborhood assembly association. This could be a viable alternative to putting their product on corporate super-market shelves, something which may not be accessible given the volume and narrow profit margin needed to market products at a chain-store.

FACTA or the Federation of Worker Self-managed Cooperatives has played an important role in supporting the cooperatives. FACTA, founded in 2006, is made up of more than 70 worker self-managed coops, many worker occupied others worker owned inspired by the recuperated enterprise phenomenon. FACTA's objective is to group cooperatives together so they can collectively negotiate institutional, political, legal and market challenges together; the idea being that 70 cooperative united can better negotiate with state representatives, institutional offices and other businesses. FACTA also brings working class identity, by bringing workers together to deliberate autonomous solutions and confront state and business interests.

Gender, liberation and self-management

Many of the women working at the self-managed workplaces have triple roles as working women, mothers, and activists, with particular challenges women must face. These problems require different solutions at the workplace and a social network outside of the workplace. Infrastructural support such as childcare should be provided. Childcare is an important issue for both men and women. Day-care centers could also be part of a self-managed project, with child care professionals working in a self-managed workplace. Health care and psychological support is also an important service that self-managed workplaces should secure for the collective. As activists, women and men face many pressures, ranging from threats of state-violence and fighting for legality for their cooperative on which their jobs depend. At Zanon, psychologists and social workers have provided services for workers and their families dealing with a range of issues that comes with defending your job until the last consequence.

In most cases, women in the recuperated enterprises are outnumbered by male co-workers. Some enterprises have hired women for "non-traditional" positions in the workplace, but in my observation women fulfill mostly "traditional" roles at some of the cooperatives. There needs to be discussion and action to diversify the workplace and for women to be placed in "non-traditional" job posts. At the assembly, equal opportunity should be an agenda item for the collective to evaluate whether women have equal access to training, education and participation.

At some sites, women have formed commissions or meeting spaces to discuss the challenges women face in their workplaces, even when there isn't a boss. Within these spaces, they also plan political actions with women from other organizations and social movements against gender oppression. Self-management implies that equality and liberation should be met on all fronts, for all collective members to attain non-hierarchical, egalitarian and classless workplaces where members can freely participate in decision-making. This means adopting an anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic agenda to promote diversity and equality.

Occupy, Resist, Produce - Tools for working class resistance

Workers from the recuperated enterprises are building new tools for action after nearly 20 years of privatization, deregulation and labor flexibility, fed up with unresponsive unions compliant with business interest. Argentine workers occupied and started up production out of necessity. In many ways, the sites in Argentina set the stage for workers around the world to follow their example, by proving that workers can produce without a boss. Argentina's recuperated emprises have renewed interest in building democratic workplaces around the globe, from Spain to South Africa to England. Sure enough, 10 years later, workers are now beginning to occupy, boss-nap and even threaten to sabotage means of production to save their jobs and dignity.

By no means is this essay meant to represent a full-analysis of self-management in Latin America's occupied enterprises, it is a glimpse into the complexities of self-management and potential that these sites have for transforming society's vision of production and work. Argentina's worker occupied factories have successfully put into a practice ideas that directly challenge the logic of capitalism: Occupy, Resist, Produce.

Charlie abandoned his chocolate factory: Arrufat Chocolate without a boss

Znet
We all know the childhood tale of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory best emulated in the psychedelic inspired 1971 film. Charlie a poor, well intentioned boy wins the Willy Wonka chocolate factory in a stroke of good fortune - every child's fantasy and utopia. But would what happen if Charlie grew older and greedy against the advice of Willy Wonka? If he ran the chocolate factory into ruins, throwing out the workers and closing up shop? And what if the oompa loompas would take over the plant to demand their unpaid salaries and severance pay? What if they would decide to start up production without Charlie, collectively running the plant and relating to other worker occupied factories? Well, this alternate version of the childhood story is becoming a reality for workers in Argentina.

In Argentina, Charlie did abandon his factory. But in this case, Charlie is Diana Arrufat, heiress to the Arrufat chocolate factory in Buenos Aires. She closed the factory's doors on January 5, 2009. The workers, who are not the imagined oompa loompa refugees in the film, but real workers decided to occupy the plant. And now the workers are producing deliciously sweet delicacies without the supervision and exploitative practices of Charlie.

Factory closure

On January 5, the workers got the news that they were fired. Diana Arrufat left a poster on the gate of the factory to inform the workers they no longer had jobs. The 50 workers still employed hadn't been paid their salaries for much of 2008. "They fired us without having to look at our faces. They abandoned us," says Alberto Cavrico a worker who has worked at the plant for more than 20 years. That they same day they to open the factory gate and remain inside the factory.

Within hours owner went to the police accusing the workers for "usurpation" and trespassing of the plant. Meanwhile, she has been unwilling to meet with the workers and labor ministry to discuss how to normalize the situation.

Arrufat, founded in 1931 had been a national leader in chocolate. The family run business was finally inherited by the original owner's granddaughter, Diana Arrufat in the late 90's. Since she took over the company, the factory took a turn for the worse. Workers describe how the owner would cut corners sacrificing product quality - using hydrogenated oil instead of cocoa butter and imitation cocoa instead of the real beans imported from Ecuador or Brazil. In its heyday, when the company produced high quality chocolate, it employed more than 300 workers. By 2008, the chocolate manufacturer only had 66 employees.

Throughout 2008, the owner was not paying workers their full salary, with the promise that they would be paid at a later date. The workers sent a report to the labor ministry in May 2008 that the owner owed them nearly 6 months in back salaries, was emptying out the plant and hadn't paid the workers' retirement funds for 10 years. By the end of 2008, on Christmas Day the owners gave the workers 50 pesos (less than 20 dollars) and then five days before firing them paid them 50 pesos again on New Year's.

Many of the workers had heard about factory occupations but never thought that they would face a factory closure. "I never thought that I'd have to sleep inside the factory on top of a machine to defend my job post," says Marta Laurino, a stead fast woman with over 30 years working at the plant. Concluding that the owners weren't coming back, at least to open up shop again - the workers decided in an assembly to continue to occupy the plant and form a cooperative.

Chocolate without a boss

Just 30 days after occupying the plant, the workers of Arrufat had already formed a cooperative and sought out the advice from other occupied factories operating since the 2001 financial crisis. They have successfully begun producing, although sporadically because the electricity in the plant has been turned off since Diana Arrufat ran up a $15,000 dollar debt with the privatized electric company Edesur. And the electric company won't turn the lights back on until the debt is paid.

Meanwhile, the workers have invented alternatives in order to produce. For Easter, the cooperative produced more than 10,000 chocolate Easter eggs. They got a loan of $5,000 dollars from the NGO La Base that provides low interest loans to occupied factories and worker cooperatives. They used this money to rent an industrial generator and buy raw materials - cocoa beans, cocoa butter, liquor and sugar needed to make high-quality chocolate. They decided to re-open the store front on the side of the factory. The day that they started producing the government health inspector came to the plant, the same inspector's office which hadn't visited the factory in probably 20 years according to the workers. The police also came because the workers opened the store front.

All of the eggs were sold out of the factory's store front before the end of the Easter season. The workers were able to pay back the loan within a week, sell the entire stock of Easter eggs and each take home around $1,000, no small feat after not getting a full salary for more than a year. With the remaining capital, rented a generator and bought more raw materials.

During much of the occupation before getting the loan and afterward, the workers were producing small quantities of chocolate by hand, unable to use the machinery because the electricity was shut off. A neighbor, a niece of Diana Arrufat, let the workers connect an electric line that way they would at least have lights and a refrigerator in the factory. And in a small space, with a domestic freezer, the workers began producing small batches of bonbons, chocolate bars and chocolate covered delicacies.

Production has helped the workers transform their subjectivity, seeing that they have more power to fight against the owner, judges, private companies and police constantly throwing monkey wrenches at their dreams. "The worker occupied factories insisted that we get back to work giving us the advice that we won't gain anything by sitting around. They're right producing without a boss does change your outlook and ability to believe in yourself," said Marta Laurino.

Now the cooperative hopes that they can gain enough momentum in the market to continue production with regularity. But they are fighting an eviction notice, criminal charges and bureaucratic offices preventing them from accessing a tax number for their cooperative, which they consequentially need to get an account with the electric company. Looking at the business model other worker recuperated enterprises have established, the workers at Arrufat make all their decisions collectively in a weekly assembly. All workers are paid the same wage. And they want to continue to reinvent social relations inside the plant.

New wave of occupations

Arrufat isn't the only factory that has been occupied since the global recession crept up. Since late 2008 there have been several new factory takeovers in Argentina. For example, the owners of Indugraf printing press shut down operations in a similar manner to Arrufat in November 2008. The printing house workers in Buenos Aires occupied their plant on December 5, the same week that workers in Chicago decided to occupy the Republic and Windows Doors Plant - to demand severance pay and benefits after being abruptly fired. Currently, they are fighting to form a cooperative and start up production without a boss. Other occupations include Disco de Oro, a plant producing the pastry dough to make empanadas, a meat filled pastry common in Argentina. Febatex, a textile plant producing thread and Lidercar, a meat packing plant are two more examples of recent worker occupations. These workers have had to collectively fight violent eviction threats and are still struggling to start up production as worker cooperatives.

Many workers from the newly occupied factories say that their bosses saw the crisis as the perfect opportunity to clear their debts by closing up shop, fraudulently liquidate assets, fire workers and later re-start production under a new firm. This was the case in Arrufat, and seems to be a global trend with many companies hoping for a bailout plan to re-open shop.

All of these newly formed cooperatives have said that they were influenced and inspired by the previous experiences of worker self-management in the nation. "The other worker occupied factories bring us hope that we can win this fight," says Mirta Solis, a long time chocolatier. Essentially, the worker run BAUEN Hotel in downtown Buenos Aires, has become the landing place or you could say launch pad for many of these factory takeovers. Workers, who decided to take over their plant, come to the BAUEN Hotel occupied since 2003 to get legal advice and political support.

FACTA or the Federation of Worker Self-managed Cooperatives has played an important role in supporting the cooperatives. FACTA, founded in 2007, is made up of more than 70 worker self-managed coops, many worker occupied others worker owned inspired by the recuperated enterprise phenomenon. FACTA's objective is to group cooperatives together so they can collectively negotiate institutional, political, legal and market challenges together; the idea being that 70 cooperative united can better negotiate with state representatives, institutional offices and other businesses. FACTA also brings identity. For Adrian Cerrano, from Arrufat FACTA's work has helped the new occupied factories to organize legally and as cooperatives. "We were occupying not knowing what to do and workers from the BAUEN, which forms part of FACTA and provided a lot of support. We decided to ask FACTA's lawyer to represent us legally."

Utopia tale

Arrufat is not yet a utopia, but at least workers are fulfilling the dream of fighting for their rights. "I worked at this factory for 25 years. I lost part of my body inside this factory because I lost my hand while working in this plant. This is what makes me make the sacrifices and work towards forming the cooperative and produce." They are setting an example for workers all around the world that through direct action and occupations they can prevent companies from using the crisis as an excuse to further exploit workers and make unnecessary cut-backs in hopes of getting a bailout plan. The government should support these experiences of worker-self-management, provide them with the same benefits and subsidies that capitalist business receive.

And if Charlie, or any other boss, wants to leave his or her factory, let them! But the workers have the right to continue their work with dignity. "Maybe one day our story will be included in a chapter on the working class history that a group of workers occupy a plant and begin producing," said Adrian after lamenting the loss of his hand in the factory under capitalist supervision. And the occupied factories in Argentina are doing just that; writing a new chapter in working class history sending the message that workers can do what capitalists aren't interested in doing creating jobs and dignity for workers.

Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in Argentina. She is currently writing a book on Worker Self-Management in Latin America forthcoming by AK Press. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com