Every day, the 330 workers of Zanón Ceramics Factory (Cerámica Zanón) who
both work at and run the largest ceramic floor-tile factory in Argentina
are, legally speaking, usurping the factory and its machinery.
That they have been able to sustain this legally precarious situation for two
years is due to the incredible solidarity they have garnered from their local
community, Neuquén, a desert city of 300,000 in the south of Argentina.
While an outstanding order to evict these workers has existed
for nearly a year, the government will not order the police
to fulfill it because the political costs would be too high-
groups ranging from the teachers' union to the petroleum
workers' union to the Catholic Church have said that if there
is an eviction they will call a general strike throughout the
province until the situation is resolved.

CREATING A DEMOCRATIC WORKPLACE

Even before the Argentinian economy collapsed completely in
2001, workers in factories and businesses that had gone
bankrupt began the practice of continuing production even
after their businesses closed.

Thousands of workers in hundreds of workplaces-ranging from
ceramics factories to print shops to hotels-are currently
running their businesses better than their former bosses were
able to do.

The initial challenges to restarting production include
everything from very specific concerns, such as internal
sabotage from a small group of workers allied with the former
boss, to workers simply wondering how a factory will operate
without anyone ordering them around.

A common tactic used by workers to self-manage occupied
factories-and used at Zanón- has been to replace a management
structure with a group decision-making structure, referred to
as an assembly.

Each department or work unit elects a representative to
convey department concerns during assemblies, which are
attended by all the workers. There, workers vote to approve
or reject the departments´ proposals. This ensures that each
department is able to propose solutions to its problems and
that all of the workers are informed of the actions of each
unit.

So, the decision making process at Zanón is transparent and
representative. While there are 30 elected "coordinators,"
each is elected by their sector and all of their decisions
are made in an open assembly-any worker or member of the
community can ask at any time to see the financial
statements.

There are also two elected "coordinators of the coordinators"
who perform many managerial functions, with the difference
being that all of their decisions have to be reviewed by all
workers, and they are recallable.

Assemblies are held every week, one per shift, and when there
are important decisions to be made a shift is given up to a
long assembly, with all workers in attendance. These
"extraordinary" assemblies are not only about the strategy of
running the factory and winning their demands, but also about
how to work on joint campaigns with other community groups.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Zanón has won considerable support from all sectors of the
Neuquen community because they are committed to creating a
factory that is at the service of the community. Their goal
is to get the government to expropriate the factory and let
the workers run it, and the workers will prioritize
production for state and community institutions.

But instead of waiting for the state to act, they are already
donating tiles and supporting the struggles of other groups,
not just in the street, but having joint political
discussions with their allies.

Their openness to support from all sectors and their struggle
against corrupt government, bad bosses, and unemployment
resulted in solidarity early on in the struggle, with
families living below the poverty level donating food or
money during the interval between the takeover and the
restart of production.

One key factor in creating such a strong wall of support is
that Zanón is a large factory in a small city. Almost
everyone knows someone who works at Zanón, and while in a
large city campaigns come and go, Zanón is the backbone of
the labor activism in Neuquén.

Additionally, Zanón's press office doesn't just produce
internal bulletins, but rather publishes periodicals for the
entire community and produces three weekly radio shows. The
factory is open to any group who wants a tour, and past
groups have ranged from international visitors to the local
kindergartens.

They have also allied themselves with the struggle of local
native peoples, who have donated clay from their lands to the
factory.

Zanón's workers donate tiles to community centers and
hospitals. As a result, the nurses union donates a nurse
during each shift to supervise the health of the workers.
Most importantly, each group that supports Zanón receives
jobs as they become available. So far, Zanón has opened 90
new positions.

They have turned over security operations (about 30 jobs in
total) to members of an unemployed workers group-people who
have been marginalized and deemed as untrustworthy by the
rest of society due to their long term unemployment.

Zanón serves as a lesson to all workers that community
support cannot only be built during times of crisis, but must
be maintained day in and day out.

WEIGHING THE RISKS

Why would anyone want to take over their place of work? The
key reason is lack of other options-the risks appear smaller
when compared with long term unemployment in an economy that
shows little likelihood of improving. In this situation,
taking over the workplace could serve to solve a problem,
namely the preservation of jobs.

The Zanón workers began their struggle to improve conditions
within the factory in June 2000 when a worker died there due
to employer negligence and their union-Sindicato Obreros y
Empleados Ceramistas del Neuquén (Union of Ceramic Workers
and Employees of Neuquén)-did not respond strongly enough to
the crisis.

Despite the inaction of union leadership, Zanón's workers led
a nine day strike that ended with workers winning a joint
commission of workers and managers to oversee production and
safety within the factory. However, the union continued to be
unaccountable to the rank and file, doing such things as
holding meetings during the middle of shifts when workers
could not attend.

Later, in May 2001, management stopped paying full wages,
claiming that the factory was not turning a profit. After a
34-day strike (again, an action not supported by the union),
the workers won the right to review the accounting books,
which clearly showed that the factory was turning a profit.

Due to the strong internal organization that built during
this strike, workers from Zanón and other factories ran in
opposition to the union leadership and won.

However, on September 5, 2001 the factory's owner locked out
the workers, claiming that there was not enough money to pay
their salaries due to outstanding debts and that, despite
receiving huge state subsidies, the factory was unable to
turn a profit.

The workers camped outside of the factory in protest and, on
the 1st of October, entered the factory to prevent the owner
from removing the machinery. Soon after, a group of 20
workers proposed that they restart production. After a brief
discussion, the majority of the workers agreed that it was
the only way to continue to earn a living.

KEEPING PRODUCTION GOING

On March 2, 2002 the factory began producing again, with only
one line of production open. Initially, the workers decided
to start off producing about 10 percent of what was produced
before the lockout and slowly increasing production as not to
undermine the quality of the product.

However, by implementing their own ideas to improve
production, and with help from engineers from the local
university, within a year the workers were producing more
than 50 percent of what the factory made before the takeover.

Currently, they are looking to exporting tiles once again,
and have become recognized as a not-for-profit organization,
as all of the profits are used to improve production or make
donations to the community.

Before the takeover, some workers earned twice as much as
others; now everyone earns the same ($800 pesos, or about
$270 dollars, a good salary in Neuquen). Workers report
feeling less stressed as they can take breaks when they need
to and, most importantly, accidents, once common, are now
rare occurrences.

As one poster says "Now, there are no bosses. Safety is the
responsibility of all of us."