Thursday, October 20, 2005

Without a Boss: A Worker-Run Textile Factory in Montevideo, Uruguay

The story is very similar to that of Brukman.* A factory of suits and coats owes large amounts of back pay to its workers. After several attempts at negotiation the seamstresses decide to take the factory. They occupy it once, and are thrown out. They return to enter, this time with tactics straight out of a movie, and they are tossed into the street again. The third time is victory. Now they produce 2,500 garments a month.

A ferocious storm swooped down on Montevideo, demolished the roofing, and left this warehouse of 2,800 square meters a place of misery. Without end, dozens of women wash it down and clean it to put it back into good condition. The workers have already spent a month repairing the facilities of Dymac, the most modern textile factory in Uruguay, which since August 2002 they manage without bosses. Since that time, Alicia Paiva sleeps in the place with her family, taking care of the machines and other goods. "It will be like this until a definitive solution is found," explains this woman who has an image of Che Guevara stamped on her chest and displays a Singer sewing manual from 1948 above her desk.