These photos were taken at the Crometal steel factory cooperative in Buenos Aires at the beginning of 2007. During Argentina’s financial crisis in 2002 hundreds of factories closed down and laid off their workers who had little hope of getting employment elsewhere. So began the phenomenon of ‘recovered factories’ - where the workers battled authorities and the owners to regain control of the factory and run it themselves.
In Crometal’s case, the recovery was an 18 month battle through the courts and against hired thugs to recover their jobs - a battle which they finally won. The struggle gave the workers the confidence to make the business successful but it hasn’t been easy - its meant retraining, learning business skills, and working 7 days a week in repetitive and often physically demanding jobs.
But for the trabajadores, the factory is more than just work. Keeping the factory going has meant that the workers have been able to stay in their local community and reinvest in an area that would otherwise be severely depressed.
I went there a few times with the local NGO La Base to visit the workers and take these photos. We even had Christmas dinner there - a belt loosening Argentinean asado (BBQ). It was the first year that the factory had started to turn a profit after 3 years of hard slog and the trabajadores had alot to smile about.
These photos are from a small steel foundry cooperative in the sprawling suburbs of Buenos Aires. Its hot and dirty work and the rewards are reletively meager for this cooperative. But the workers enjoy working for themselves even if its twice as hard as paid employment.
And finally some images from a balloon factory cooperative in Buenos Aires doing very good business for the children of Argentina. As with many of the other cooperatives, they are deeply involved in the local community and have set up a small training centre to teach languages and yoga.
See more about recovered factories here - The Take - by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis.