Positive Factors in the Consolidation of Enterprises Recuperated by Their Workers in Argentina

ABSTRACT

Enterprises recuperation by their workers in Argentina refers to processes of reconversion of capitalist enterprises into worker cooperatives originated in the collective action of employees in defense of their labor source. Based on our interest in the transformation that these experiences have been able to sustain over time, this article intends to analyze the positive factors in their consolidation as cooperative companies. The methodological strategy is based on a comparative and, at the same time, individual analysis of 10 consolidated recuperated enterprises. The techniques used are semi-structured interviews with key informants of the enterprises, non-participant observation, and documentary analysis. Our hypothesis sets forth that the main factors that positively contribute to consolidation are: the resources that are inherited from the failed enterprise, the hegemony of a cooperative project that gives relevance to economic management, the ownership of the means of production, the production of commercially competitive goods and services within a framework of plural economic exchanges, and the involvement in political and social networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Work
• cooperative
• enterprises recuperated by their workers
• social change
• sustainability

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributors

Julián Rebón is Lecture Professor and Secretary of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences School at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, as well as Independent Researcher of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONICET) at Gino Germani Research Institute (UBA). He is also currently member of the Steering Committee of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). His research interests focus on the study of the linkages between conflict and social change. He has authored Conflicto Armado y Desplazamiento de Población. Chiapas 1994‒1998 (FLACSO-Prorrúa, 2001), Desobedeciendo al desempleo. La experiencia de las Empresas recuperadas (PICASO-La Rosa Blindada, 2004), La empresa de la autonomía. Trabajadores recuperando la producción (PICASO-Colectivo ediciones, 2007), and Las vías de la acción directa (with Verónica Perez, Aurelia Rivera, 2012). He has edited, with Carolina Mera Gino Germani, La sociedad en cuestión (CLACSO-IIGG, 2010), with Massimo Modonesi, Una década en movimiento, Luchas populares en el amanecer del siglo XXI (CLACSO, PROMETEO, Sociales Publicaciones y FYL UBA, 2011), and with Verónica Pérez, La perturbación como motor de la historia, Los ferrocarriles metropolitanos durante el kirchnerismo (Biblos-CLACSO, 2017).

Denise Kasparian is Assistant Researcher of the National Council of Science and Technology at Gino Germani Research Institute (UBA). She is also Assistant Professor in Social Sciences School at Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her research interests focus on conflict and social change regarding associated and self-managed work. She has edited the book Saberes Recuperados: herramientas para la autogestión (UBA, 2016), and has published several papers, including “De la ‘inducción’ a la ‘cooperativa sin punteros’. El conflicto constituyente de una cooperativa del Programa Argentina Trabaja,” “Protección social y políticas de promoción del trabajo asociativo y autogestionado en la Argentina (2003‒2013): el Programa Argentina Trabaja,” and “Conflictividad en el trabajo y clivajes sociales en una empresa recuperada de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.”

Notes

1 According to the National Institute of Associativism and Social Economy (INAES, for its Spanish acronym) of Argentina, there are 8618 cooperatives with 17,818,197 members. Among these, 115,728 are members of worker cooperatives.

2 Adequate work conditions refer to the access to certain rights conferred by formal wage labor, including pension contributions, health care, paid vacations and the 48-hour work per week. We must recall that the members of recuperated enterprises had this type of employment contract in the failed companies.

3 According to the Cooperatives’ Law 20,337, the constitution of any cooperative must include the election of the board by the assembly. It is also mandatory to conduct at least the annual ordinary assembly for approving the balance. Due to the characteristics of the origin of worker-recuperated enterprises, assemblies are more frequent.

4 The resolution 360/75 of the INAES allows the hiring of personnel by worker cooperatives only for limited periods and under the following circumstances: (a) circumstantial overload of tasks for a period not exceeding 3 months; (b) need of a technician or specialist for a specific task not exceeding 6 months; (c) seasonal work for a period not exceeding 3 months; and (d) trial period, which may not exceed 6 months.

5 The survey was carried out in a context of high economic fluctuation characterized by a recession towards the final portion of the period. Even though during the first quarter of 2018 there was a mild growth of GDP of 0.7% in comparison to the last quarter of 2017, from the second quarter a recession period began, with a decrease of 4.1% during the second quarter, and 0.7% during the third. Thus, in comparison to year 2017, annual decrease was 1.4%. These negative values were higher in the industrial sector, in which the monthly industrial estimate recorded an annual accumulated decrease of 2.5% as of October 2018, compared to the same period of the previous year. Considering the different activity sectors, there was a notable variation, for instance, the textile industry recorded a decrease of 11.8% (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos 2018a, 2018b, 2018c).

6 One of the control cases evidences the importance of this variable. The analyzed hotel services cooperative was not able to steadily achieve the legal ownership of the facilities, which altered the rendering of services due to the iterated threats of eviction. Concurrently, precariousness of that ownership led to a lack of investments required for the maintenance of the facilities due to the impossibility to access subsidies and loans, as well as the incentive of workers. Deterioration of facilities further back-fed the productive crisis.

7 Only half of the enterprises have contracted loans. This is not only related to difficulties in accessing loans, but also related to, among other elements, the aversion workers and their organizations have to contracting loans, given the company itself was born out of the bankruptcy of its predecessor and the economic history of the country.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research project “Positive Factors in the Maintenance and Consolidation of Recuperated Enterprises,” financed by the “Program for Cooperativism and Social Economy in the University,” belonging to the Secretariat of University Policies, Department of Education, Argentina.