I'm a little behind in my blog entries, we had a take home midterm due this morning (which i will discuss later...) so my attention has been elsewhere recently.
Last thursday we went on a field trip to a "fabrica recuperada ." To recap briefly, during the 1950s Argentina went through an industrialization phase, they tried to keep production local, and reduce imports. the program was called import substitution industrialization. government programs and policies during this period encouraged the growth of business and production. (the picture up top is from where the workers punch in every morning and clock their hours, the sign translates to we do things well, from the beginning).
however, in 1976, the economic policy shifted towards neoliberalism, which supported functioning on the global market. due to this, many of the factories were shut down, unemployment was rampant.
In response, some factories were taken over by the former workers and turned into cooperatives. although the structures from factory to factory the fundamentals are the same. there is no clear boss, and every employee earns an equal share of the profit.
the factory that was taken over in 2001, and made autoparts. when we visited we walked around and saw what kind of jobs everyone did. i got to talk to one of the employees. it was very interesting, he said that the factory was more productive when there wasnt a boss sitting in the back corner watching over everyone. i also asked him about a workmans comp insurance program (because the equipment they were using looked pretty hefty...) he told me that because everyone is a boss, everyone contributes to the insurance cost.
Last thursday we went on a field trip to a "fabrica recuperada ." To recap briefly, during the 1950s Argentina went through an industrialization phase, they tried to keep production local, and reduce imports. the program was called import substitution industrialization. government programs and policies during this period encouraged the growth of business and production. (the picture up top is from where the workers punch in every morning and clock their hours, the sign translates to we do things well, from the beginning).
however, in 1976, the economic policy shifted towards neoliberalism, which supported functioning on the global market. due to this, many of the factories were shut down, unemployment was rampant.
In response, some factories were taken over by the former workers and turned into cooperatives. although the structures from factory to factory the fundamentals are the same. there is no clear boss, and every employee earns an equal share of the profit.
the factory that was taken over in 2001, and made autoparts. when we visited we walked around and saw what kind of jobs everyone did. i got to talk to one of the employees. it was very interesting, he said that the factory was more productive when there wasnt a boss sitting in the back corner watching over everyone. i also asked him about a workmans comp insurance program (because the equipment they were using looked pretty hefty...) he told me that because everyone is a boss, everyone contributes to the insurance cost.
(this poster was in one of the lounge areas, and refers to the freedom that the employees enjoy since they have retaken the factory, it translates to "when one is able to choose, quality triumphs")
the trip was very interesting, and it was great to see how the policies that we learned about in class actually affected individuals. if you are interested in learning more about factories like the one that i visited, you should watch "La Toma" (the takeover) its a documentary, mostly in english, by Naomi Klein.
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