Viernes 31 de enero y sábado 1 de febrero de 2014:

Encuentro internacional “La Economía de los Trabajadores”
I encuentro regional Europa y Mediterráneo.
En la fábrica ocupada Fralib
Gemenos, Bocas del Ródano, Francia

Organización: Comité Organizador del “Encuentro Internacional La Economía de los Trabajadores”, Programa Facultad Abierta, UBA (Argentina).
Con la Colaboración de ASPAS

Informaciones e inscripción: economyworkersmarseille2013@gmail.com

El I Encuentro Regional Europeo “La Economía de los Trabajadores” se realizará los días 31 de enero y 1 de febrero en las instalaciones de Fralib, fábrica ocupada por los trabajadores en defensa de sus puestos de trabajo. Este Encuentro es una continuidad de los Encuentros Internacionales “La economía de los Trabajadores” organizados desde 2007 por el Programa Facultad Abierta de la Universidad de Buenos Aires a partir de la experiencia de las empresas recuperadas y otros movimientos por la autogestión del trabajo en América Latina.
En el IV Encuentro Internacional, desarrollado en Joao Pessoa, Brasil, en julio de 2013, se propuso que, además de los encuentros internacionales que se vienen organizando cada dos años (Buenos Aires, 2007 y 2009, México 2011, fueron los anteriores, Venezuela 2015 es la sede propuesta para el V), se propuso a la organización la realización de encuentros en distintas regiones en los que se puedan discutir las especificidades de las distintas áreas (Europa, América del Norte y Central, Sudamércia, Asia y Oceanía, África) en los años intermedios entre los eventos. De ahí surgió la propuesta de co-organizar con los trabajadores y trabajadoras de Fralib y el apoyo de ASPAS el I Encuentro Regional Europeo “La Economía de los Trabajadores”. El objetivo de este evento en la zona europea y mediterránea es hacer llegar este debate y la discusión de estas experiencias, su práctica y su teoría a un alcance más accesible a participantes de países de Europa, Norte de África y Medio Oriente, con especial énfasis en la defensa de los puestos de trabajo afectados por la crisis y contribuir también al intercambio y el conocimiento de las experiencias latinoamericanas de autogestión.
Este encuentro adquiere una dimensión de gran actualidad en un contexto internacional donde la crisis global capitalista afecta aún más a los países europeos, especialmente los de la zona mediterránea, y la única reacción de los gobiernos consiste en las mismas recetas que ya han probado en el resto del mundo que solo llevan al empobrecimiento, la desocupación estructural, la marginación y la precarización de la vida de las mayorías sociales que viven de su trabajo. El surgimiento de grandes movimientos de protesta que han comenzado a reaccionar en los países “desarrollados” más afectados por la crisis, como en Grecia y España, y la proliferación de experiencias prácticas en que se revitaliza el viejo cooperativismo como forma de defender los puestos de trabajo destruidos o precarizados por la crisis, vuelven a poner en el centro de la escena la necesidad de que la gestión de la economía no sólo contemple las necesidades sociales, sino de que esté en manos de trabajadores y trabajadoras.
Asimismo, muchos de estos movimientos que impulsan la autogestión se ven reflejados o inspirados en la experiencia de América Latina, donde amplios movimientos sociales, organizaciones populares y movimientos de trabajadores han ido desarrollando procesos de organización de base que en muchos casos se han expresado en la autogestión de unidades económicas productivas o de servicios, como es el caso de las empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores y otras formas de autogestión del trabajo, tanto urbanas como rurales.
El Encuentro Internacional “La economía de los trabajadores” busca poner estas cuestiones y otras relacionadas con la lucha de los trabajadores y trabajadoras en debate entre diferentes perspectivas y contextos nacionales, articulando el mundo académico e intelectual comprometido con estas luchas junto con los trabajadores y militantes sociales. Busca conformar así un espacio de debate que se viene desarrollando desde la perspectiva de las experiencias de autogestión económica de los trabajadores como punto de partida. Empresas recuperadas, experiencias de autogestión del trabajo, cooperativas, movimientos de trabajadores organizados sindicalmente, trabajadores rurales, movimientos sociales, corrientes políticas e intelectuales, entre otros, hemos ido desarrollando este Encuentro del cual han participado en las sucesivas ediciones representantes de más de 20 países de los cinco continentes.
Los temas de debate no se limitan a la autogestión, las empresas recuperadas o el cooperativismo, sino a los distintos problemas que enfrentan los trabajadores en la crisis global, incluyendo, por ejemplo, las luchas de los trabajadores migrantes, precarios, informales o reducidos a condiciones de servidumbre, o los nuevos desafíos para las organizaciones sindicales bajo contextos de crisis y de reestructuración capitalista.
Proponemos los siguientes ejes de trabajo para este Encuentro, que tienen continuidad con los de los Encuentros Internacionales:


Propuesta de Programa:

Viernes 31 de enero:
Apertura (organizadores), invitados.
Mesa 1: La crisis y las respuestas desde la autogestión: América Latina.
Mesa 2: Empresas ocupadas y recuperadas en Europa
Mesa 3: Precariedad laboral, migraciones y desocupación en Europa. Políticas y conflictos.
Proyección de la película “Industria Argentina”, de Rocardo Díaz Iacoponi.
Cena con comida latinoamericana.

Sábado 1 de febrero:
Mesa 5: Los movimientos de resistencia a la crisis: España, Grecia, Turquía, “primavera árabe”, Argentina 2001, Occupy Wall Street.
Presentación del espacio workerscontrol.net (Darío Azzellini)
Mesa 6: Desafíos del sindicalismo en el nuevo contexto europeo y mundial.
Rueda de intercambio entre experiencias y Plenario de cierre

Rome, dans le quartier de Tiburtina qui accueille la nouvelle gare de TGV, projets pharaoniques et spéculation immobilière vont bon train. C’est dans ce contexte qu’un atelier de réparation de matériel ferroviaire a été fermé. Trente trois travailleurs maintiennent le site envers et contre tous, construisent, avec l’aide des habitants du quartier, un projet de reconversion du site. Bienvenue à Officine Zero.

Pour qui prenait régulièrement le train de nuit pour Rome, la dégradation des conditions de voyage est patente, et les privatisations, abandons, sous-traitances en cascade n’y sont pas pour rien. La priorité est donnée aux projets pharaoniques de trains à grande vitesse avec une gare à Tiburtina, à Rome. Le quartier de Tiburtina, c’était (c’est encore) un quartier populaire et industrieux, avec sa petite gare qu’on pourrait qualifier de banlieue s’il y avait une banlieue à Rome. Il connaît des transformations profondes. Gare à grande vitesse, spéculation immobilière accompagnent la transformation en « Tiburtina Valley ». Voilà  l’environnement d’un atelier de maintenance des wagons lits dans lequel 33 travailleurs portent un projet alternatif à la fois social, économique et environnemental.  L’atelier ex-RSI (“New Rest Servirail Italia”), ex Wagons-lits, c’est deux ans de lutte de 33 travailleurs en « Cassa integrazione » depuis la fin 2011 ¹. Le 20 février 2012 ils ont occupé les lieux, avec le soutien du centre social « Strike » et des réseaux de collectifs de travailleurs et d’habitants. Face à la faillite de l’entreprise, soutenus par une large coalition sociale d’ouvriers, d’étudiants, de travailleurs précaires et indépendants ², après une année et demi d’occupation, l’atelier a rouvert ses grilles, avec un projet neuf et ambitieux: « Une vie nouvelle là où les patrons ont fait faillite, exploité et spéculé ».

Les 1^er et 2 juin 2013 à Rome, à l’occasion d’une rencontre avec tables-rondes consacrées aux expériences alternatives, on a pu prendre connaissance d’une série de reprises par les travailleurs. Ri-MAFLOW était là (voir notre article précédent), ainsi que « l’Officine zero », l’Atelier zéro, pour « zéro patron » mais aussi comme un nouveau départ.

Quels en sont les objectifs principaux ?

- assurer l’emploi des 33 travailleurs en dernière année de « Cassa integrazione »,

- la sauvegarde productive de la zone des locaux de via Umberto Partini,

- la reconversion de l’entreprise,

- l’organisation et le développement d’un espace de co-travail, mutualisé, sous l’autotutelle des travailleurs.

A deux pas de la gare de Tiburtina, nouveau nœud central de la Haute Vitesse qui bouleverse l’aspect urbanistique et social de la zone entière, l’Atelier est devenu rapidement un symbole du paradoxe de la crise. Quand en 2008 la société Barletta l’acquiert, ce n’est pas pour en relancer l’activité mais pour réaliser une opération spéculative immobilière. La rente immobilière se substitue à la production. Pour 33 familles, c’est une vie de compétences et de savoirs qui part en décombres. Mais l’atelier est aussi devenu le symbole de la résistance à la crise.

Après une année et demi d’occupation, en l’absence de réponses institutionnelles, la lutte est arrivée à un tournant : ĺe « laboratoire de la reconversion » est né. En quelques mois, avec l’apport d’architectes, d’économistes, d’experts et de militants, le projet concret alternatif à la spéculation est élaboré. Il s’agit de relancer la production en mettant à profit tous les savoirs et toutes les compétences. Et quand le 3 mai 2013 la justice prononce la faillite de CSF (ex-RSI), le projet connaît une accélération inattendue, il est présenté dans la ville, avec des assemblées publiques réunissant des centaines de personnes. C’est ainsi qu’est née cette idée de « l’Atelier zéro ». Dans ce « laboratoire » se rejoignent et s’auto-organisent les travailleurs de tous statuts : précaires, indépendants (soumis à la TVA, collaborateurs, consultants) pour donner vie à un espace qui soit à la fois un espace de co-travail et une sorte de bourse du travail, un lieu de production en commun, liant savoir et compétences, avec des dispositifs de service et d’assistance, contrant la précarité et le chômage, « par un « welfare » universel » : (c’est-à-dire revenu de base, formation, santé, prévoyance).  La combinaison de cette diversité fait émerger une « nouvelle figure productive ».

Au centre du projet, l’idée que les compétences des manutentionnaires des trains peuvent être en grande partie et pendant un temps, ré-employées par un service public d’utilité sociale orienté vers la formation du personnel qui travaille dans le monde du recyclage, des énergies renouvelables, de l’artisanat traditionnel ou nouveau. En effet, pour cet Atelier zéro, le recyclage et les nouvelles formes d’artisanat produisent une nouvelle forme d’économie, où le social et l’environnemental vont de pair. « L’Atelier zéro renoue avec les origines du mouvement ouvrier, unissant ce que les patrons veulent diviser » : mutualisme et production autonome. Le produit principal est l’union, sans patron, ni chefs d’atelier, un espace où cohabitent « co-travail et autogestion, travail artisanal et autoformation ». La mutualisation peut dès lors créer du lien face à la fragmentation et à la solitude.

Les ateliers zéro sont aussi des lieux d’études et de formation autogérés, dans une ville dans laquelle les services pour les universités publiques sont réduits au strict minimum. Les ateliers zéro accueillent les projets élaborés et écrits par les communautés d’habitants, pour restituer à la communauté locale la richesse sociale et la solidarité.

« L’alternative que nous proposons pour rompre la solitude dans laquelle on veut nous reléguer, dans laquelle les étudiants, les précaires, les travailleurs dépourvus de garanties pourront se confronter pour construire un lieu à habiter, et non plus seulement à traverser, un espace de dignité, d’humanité et d’autonomie ».

« Les ateliers zero recommencent, et pas à zéro ».

Have you heard the story about the Italian workers who took over the bankrupt company that previously employed them and started a new cooperative, all while doing something for the environment?

This is the story of Ri-Maflow.

In March 2013, a group of some fifty workers in the town of Trezzano sul Naviglio near Milan, decided to occupy the factory where they used to work and run it as a cooperative making and selling recycled electric and electronic components.

These workers were previously employed by Maflow, an Italian multinational that made pipes for car air-conditioning systems.

For many years, Maflow was a market leader servicing many big car companies; BMW was its biggest customer.

But after a series of financial difficulties, the company closed down its main Italian arms at the end of 2012.

The workers, however, refused to give in. A few days after they were made redundant, a group of former employees broke into the factory and started the machines again.

And that’s when Ri-Maflow was born as a social co-operative making its first steps towards providing a future for the occupiers and their families.

Turning disaster into opportunity 

At its peak in 2007, Maflow comprised 23 factories across the world including four in Italy. There were 350 workers at the Trezzano plant alone.

Founded in 1973 under the name Murray, the company was originally a role model for reconciling the need for profit with a strong commitment to its workers.

However, in 2004 it was sold to a private equity company and in 2009 it went into receivership after it declared 300 million euros of debt.

Various attempts were made to revive its ailing fortunes including a buy-out by the Polish industrial group Boryszew, who reduced the number of employees to 80.

It was during this time that the seeds of the idea of turning Maflow into a social enterprise were planted. Nevertheless, in December 2012 the Trezzano plant was closed for good.

Before the announcement of the closure, former Maflow workers were already holding sit-ins and strikes to fight for their jobs. They even pitched tents in front of the factory and camped outside. But once the factory was finally closed, they decided to occupy it.

The question was what to do next.

Michele Morini, one of the workers, explains: “We were quite confused, but after month-long discussions some of us decided that we could use the plant and the materials to start a cooperative.

“We would reuse the electric and electronic components, and kill two birds with one stone: creating a job for us in the long term, and doing something good for the planet.”

That’s how, in March 2013, Morini and 16 fellow workers founded Ri-Maflow, supported by another fifty former Maflow employees. Together, they set up the association Occupy Maflow.

“With the small bonuses we’ve received for being fired and with the social security allowances, we know that we can go on with this project for a couple of years without worrying too much about making our ends meet,” says Morini.

“And looking for a job, nowadays, is time and resource-demanding anyway, so we’ve chosen to invest in our future and in an environmentally-friendly activity.”

A fast-growing sector 

It would seem that Ri-Maflow has tapped into an emerging but potentially profitable niche.

According to RREUSE, a European federation for social enterprises active in the reuse and recycling, the need for the services of organisations that can separate and re-utilise electronic and electric equipment (WEEE) is a fast-growing sector.

For example, the EU sets a WEEE collection target of 4kg per inhabitant per year, but in countries like Germany, this target has already been succeeded with a total collection of 7 kg per person per year.

The revised WEEE Directive, which is currently being transposed into Italian law, sets a target of 20 kg per inhabitant per year for collected WEEE from 2019 onwards.

In France, a network of social enterprises called ENVIE – which collects, reuses and recycles electric and electronic equipment – currently employs 1653 workers, 1076 of which come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

ENVIE also put an estimated 70,000 household appliances back onto the market every year.

Michal Len, THE Director of RREUSE, told Equal Times: “Reuse, repair and recycling of electronics has real social, economic and environmental value. Proper implementation of the EU waste laws with a stronger focus on waste prevention and reuse would make it possible for good examples such as the one of Ri-Maflow to become increasingly widespread. The Rimaflow story shows how social enterprises working in the waste management sector combine resource efficiency with socio-economic inclusion.”

Writing our own rules

In the past few months, Ri-Maflow has attracted a considerable media attention in Italy and abroad, and its members have made contact with other similar organisations.

Through the Occupy Maflow association, they’ve hosted representatives from Argentina’s Fabricas Recuperadas (Recovered Factories) movement, Italy’s Officine Zero (a former company which repaired train coaches for the Italian railways and which was eventually taken over by workers to deal with recycling and reuse in transport) and Vio.Me in Greece (another experiment of workers taking control of a bankrupt building company and kicking start the production using left-over material).

“We’ve just begun and we’re still far from being self-sufficient,” says Morini, “but we’re already receiving requests from other workers who are in the same situation, and they want to know how we built the co-op.

“Some people are already sending their CVs for our consideration. I smile when I get such mails, but I also hope that in the future we will be able to give a job to some of them. When we decided to start the Ri-Maflow, we thought we had the long overdue opportunity to make our own small contribution to change something in the capitalist system. To start writing our own rules. And if we hadn’t done it here and now, when would we have?”

Today, in a revamped Campbell’s Soup building in an industrial and residential section of southwest Chicago, the New Era Windows Cooperative will celebrate the grand opening of its new factory.

Becoming a worker-owned cooperative is the latest chapter in the saga of the workers of Republic Windows and Doors, who gained the nation’s attention by occupying their factory—twice—and became a symbol of resistance in the face of corporate corruption and the economic crisis.

The journey to this moment has been a long and rocky one. Right before the December 2008 holidays, with the economy plunging into crisis, unemployment skyrocketing and a cold snowy winter setting in, 300-some workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Goose Island in the Chicago River learned they were about to lose their jobs. Owner Richard Gillman announced that the factory would be closed, leaving workers without the unused vacation pay and severance pay legally due them. And their health insurance would be cut off promptly.

So they occupied their factory in protest, demanding the money they were owed and earning national headlines. The workers cheered when the California company Serious Materials bought the factory and promised to hire everyone back and honor the union contract.

But what followed was a roller coaster of ups and downs. Serious Materials’ business in Chicago never took off, and by early 2012 the company was planning to close and liquidate the factory. Workers staged another occupation, this one resolved more quickly as the owners agreed to give the workers time to raise money to buy the operations themselves. With the help of the New York microfinance group The Working World, they eventually gathered enough money to purchase the factory equipment and rent a less expensive space.

I visited that space on a chilly day in November 2012, when the workers were on the cusp of, in the words of leader Armando Robles, “becoming CEOs.” They had incorporated during the summer and on this day, they were gathered to officially sign the lease on the new factory.

Entering through one of the loading docks, I saw a cavernous space with an array of strange-looking machines with wheels, blades and presses—equipment standing ready to make windows and doors. In an office on the factory floor, about 20 workers were squeezed between a chunky black refrigerator and wire shelves holding four microwaves. They talked excitedly in English and Spanish below a whiteboard with the factory's floor plan and pieces of butcher paper with bilingual lists of tasks.

The tight-knit group of men and women, comprised of Latino immigrants and African Americans, discussed logistics like insurance, electric wiring, the location for the permanent office and the restrooms, and the number of heating units they’d need during the coming winter. They debated whether to elevate the air compressors on a platform, to cut down on noise and open up more space, and how to locate the office so visitors would not need to walk through the factory without safety goggles. Such pragmatic details come naturally to them, familiar as they are with the inner workings of a window and door factory. All had worked at Republic Windows and its successor for between one and three decades.

The workers know launching and running a company won’t be easy, but given their deep knowledge of the industry and their personal investment in the project, they are confident they can do it. Many of them spent last summer taking business management classes at the union hall of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)—the progressive union that the workers have belonged to throughout their journey.

 “The incredible thing is the ownership they already feel,” noted Brendan Martin, the president and founder of The Working World, which invested in New Era and advised the group.

Martin, who acted as an informal facilitator during the November meeting, has spent seven years in Argentina working with cooperatives. He says he has seen few co-ops or businesses as promising as New Era. The project was well under budget, Martin noted, thanks in part to the worker-owners’ personal hard work and commitment. For example, they spent long hours in the fall moving almost all the equipment and inventory themselves from Goose Island seven miles to the northeast, spending just $18,000 instead of the $100,000 originally planned.

“They're doing an incredible job—it shows that when workers have true control they can do things like finding ways to save costs,” he said. “They aren't just the raw material; they are the protagonists. They’re making capital work for people, not people work for capital.”

As the meeting wound down, Robles pulled a dark bottle of liquor out of the refrigerator, and someone found a stack of shot glasses. It was an almond concoction Robles had brought back from his recent trip to his native Mexico to visit workers’ cooperatives on a strip known as the “Road of Co-ops” near Mexico City. Along with numerous co-ops, he visited a sandal factory where workers have been on strike for two years. The owner was trying to get the government to declare the strike illegal, which would deny workers the strike pay they otherwise are due under Mexican labor law, Robles explained. The sandal workers will likely form a co-op.

He also visited a building co-operative in Mexico; he dreams New Era could sell them windows and doors. Though he knows there would be a lot of logistical and cost issues involving the border, it would be a powerful statement.

“I saw how people did these different things to survive,” said Robles with a touch of awe in his voice, even as he helps lead a similar struggle. “Instead of working for someone, they create these things of their own.”

The workers passed around the liquor and toasted to New Era. Then it was time to go sign the five-year lease on this space, making it truly their own. They filed upstairs to a lushly decorated office, smelling of perfume, where they greeted the building owner. The group makes decisions collectively, so in the meeting they voted on who would actually sign the lease on behalf of the cooperative. However, everyone received their own copy and read it over before the signing.

Waiting on the couches in the office lobby, Robles fooled around and told the more reserved workers, “You can talk, it’s not like church!” Robles and coworker Melvin “Ricky” Maclin noted that their company does not have a president or a hierarchical structure; they will all be owners. “It’s a lot easier for a worker to become an owner, than an owner to become a worker,” laughed Maclin.

 “Some people thought we were crazy, but we did it,” said Robles, who was wearing a “Troublemakers” T-shirt from the 2012 LaborNotes conference in Chicago.

Maclin said it was no accident that the workers around the table waiting to sign the lease had stuck together through various ups and downs. The bonds they’ve formed over the years will be the bedrock of the success of New Era, he said.

“When you have a cooperative it’s not just about your skills. You have to really get along, have the ability to work together. You’re like a family.”