La Verdad Obrera Nº 309
Thursday, January 8, 2009
In view of the maneuvers of the bosses and the Ministry, and the threats of expulsion: Indugraf belongs to the workers!
By Ernesto González (worker at the recovered printshop Chilavert)
For more than a month, workers at Indugraf, a big graphics workshop in the Parque Patricios neighborhood, have kept the plant occupied, demanding that it be reopened and that they be paid the wages they are owed. The Martínez family, bosses that had postponed paying wages, closed the plant on November 24 and sent telegrams laying off their 90 workers. The comrades camped out in the entrances of the establishment, and, in a December 10 assembly, decided to occupy the plant to safeguard the machines and jobs. With unusual speed, public prosecutor's office No. 10 heard a complaint of unlawful seizure from the bosses and is threatening to clear the plant.
No expulsion!
From the PTS [Socialist Workers Party of Argentina], as well as other leftist organizations, delegates, militant activist workers, neighbors and students, we have followed this experience, and we are helping the Indugraf wokers with publicity and building the strike fund, and, of course, by being present to defend the occupation. On the other hand, from the beginning, the leaders of the union (Federación Gráfica Bonaerense) have tried to convince the workers to desist from any measure of struggle and, since their defeatist advice finds no echo among the comrades, the union leaders have also refused to make any significant contribution to the struggle fund, much less calling rank and file graphics workers to any action in support.
For workers' management!
The Ministry of Labor, to which the workers turned to demand its intervention to guarantee jobs, revealed its real role during the last meeting they held on Monday, January 5, and attacked the workers' right to undertake a struggle to defend the source of their jobs; at the same time, the Ministry offered no solution to the workers' needs. One of the comrades told us: "It seemed like we were talking to the boss." This caused enormous indignation, and the workers' assembly resolved to intensify the struggle, and they decided to maintain the plant seizure, to block streets and go out to seek support by visiting workers' organizations, human rights organizations and prominent people. Now the comrades are proposing workers' management of the printshop and seeking the money to start the press up under their control. In this situation, the Indugraf workers are not alone: they have the experience of several factories that have been functioning under workers' control, like the comrades of Zanon, Brukman, Chilavert, the Hotel Bauen, and others.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
In view of the maneuvers of the bosses and the Ministry, and the threats of expulsion: Indugraf belongs to the workers!
By Ernesto González (worker at the recovered printshop Chilavert)
For more than a month, workers at Indugraf, a big graphics workshop in the Parque Patricios neighborhood, have kept the plant occupied, demanding that it be reopened and that they be paid the wages they are owed. The Martínez family, bosses that had postponed paying wages, closed the plant on November 24 and sent telegrams laying off their 90 workers. The comrades camped out in the entrances of the establishment, and, in a December 10 assembly, decided to occupy the plant to safeguard the machines and jobs. With unusual speed, public prosecutor's office No. 10 heard a complaint of unlawful seizure from the bosses and is threatening to clear the plant.
No expulsion!
From the PTS [Socialist Workers Party of Argentina], as well as other leftist organizations, delegates, militant activist workers, neighbors and students, we have followed this experience, and we are helping the Indugraf wokers with publicity and building the strike fund, and, of course, by being present to defend the occupation. On the other hand, from the beginning, the leaders of the union (Federación Gráfica Bonaerense) have tried to convince the workers to desist from any measure of struggle and, since their defeatist advice finds no echo among the comrades, the union leaders have also refused to make any significant contribution to the struggle fund, much less calling rank and file graphics workers to any action in support.
For workers' management!
The Ministry of Labor, to which the workers turned to demand its intervention to guarantee jobs, revealed its real role during the last meeting they held on Monday, January 5, and attacked the workers' right to undertake a struggle to defend the source of their jobs; at the same time, the Ministry offered no solution to the workers' needs. One of the comrades told us: "It seemed like we were talking to the boss." This caused enormous indignation, and the workers' assembly resolved to intensify the struggle, and they decided to maintain the plant seizure, to block streets and go out to seek support by visiting workers' organizations, human rights organizations and prominent people. Now the comrades are proposing workers' management of the printshop and seeking the money to start the press up under their control. In this situation, the Indugraf workers are not alone: they have the experience of several factories that have been functioning under workers' control, like the comrades of Zanon, Brukman, Chilavert, the Hotel Bauen, and others.
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