The Cure for Layoffs: Fire the Boss!

In 2004, we made a documentary called The Take about Argentina's movement of worker-run businesses. In the wake of the country's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, thousands of workers walked into their shuttered factories and put them back into production as worker cooperatives. Abandoned by bosses and politicians, they regained unpaid wages and severance while re-claiming their jobs in the process.

As we toured Europe and North America with the film, every Q&A ended up with the question, "that's all very well in Argentina, but could that ever happen here?"

Well, with the world economy now looking remarkably like Argentina's in 2001 (and for many of the same reasons) there is a new wave of direct action among workers in rich countries. Co-ops are once again emerging as a practical alternative to more lay-offs. Workers in the U.S. and Europe are beginning to ask the same questions as their Latin American counterparts: Why do we have to get fired? Why can't we fire the boss? Why is the bank allowed to drive our company under while getting billions of dollars of our money?

Tomorrow night (May 15) at Cooper Union in New York City, we're taking part in a panel that looks at this phenomenon, called Fire the Boss: The Worker Control Solution from Buenos Aires to Chicago.

We'll be joined by people from the movement in Argentina as well as workers from the famous Republic Windows and Doors struggle in Chicago.

It's a great way to hear directly from those who are trying to rebuild the economy from the ground up, and who need meaningful support from the public, as well as policy makers at all levels of government. For those who can't make it out to Cooper Union, here's a quick round up of recent developments in the world of worker control.

Argentina:

In Argentina, the direct inspiration for many current worker actions, there have been more takeovers in the last 4 months than the previous 4 years.

One example:

- Arrufat, a chocolate maker with a 50 year history, was abruptly closed late last year. 30 employees occupied the plant, and despite a huge utility debt left by the former owners, have been producing chocolates by the light of day, using generators.

With a loan of less than $5,000 from the The Working World, a capital fund/NGO started by a fan of The Take, they were able to produce 17,000 Easter eggs for their biggest weekend of the year. They made a profit of $75,000, taking home $1,000 each and saving the rest for future production.

UK :

- Visteon is an auto parts manufacturer that was spun off from Ford in 2000. Hundreds of workers were given 6 minutes notice that their workplaces were closing. 200 workers in Belfast staged a sit-in on the roof of their factory, another 200 in Enfield followed suit the next day.

Over the next few weeks, Visteon increased the severance package to up to 10 times their initial offer, but the company is refusing to put the money in the workers' bank accounts until they leave the plants, and they are refusing to leave until they see the money.

Ireland:
- A factory where workers make legendary Waterford Crystal was occupied for 7 weeks earlier this year when parent company Waterford Wedgewood went into receivership after being taken over by a US private equity firm.

The US company has now put 10 million Euros in a severance fund, and negotiations are ongoing to keep some of the jobs.

Canada:

As the Big Three automakers collapse, there have been 4 occupations by Canadian Auto Workers so far this year. In each case, factories were closing and workers were not getting compensation that was owed to them. They occupied the factories to stop the machines from being removed, using that as leverage to force the companies back to the table - precisely the same dynamic that worker takeovers in Argentina have followed.

France:

In France, there's been a new wave of "Bossnappings" this year, in which angry employees have detained their bosses in factories that are facing closure. Companies targeted so far include Caterpillar, 3M, Sony, and Hewlett Packard.

The 3M executive was brought a meal of moules et frites during his overnight ordeal.

A comedy hit in France this spring was a movie called "Louise-Michel," in which a group of women workers hires a hitman to kill their boss after he shuts down their factory with no warning.

A French union official said in March, "those who sow misery reap fury. The violence is done by those who cut jobs, not by those who try to defend them."

And this week, 1,000 Steelworkers disrupted the annual shareholders meeting of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company. They stormed the company's headquarters in Luxembourg, smashing gates, breaking windows, and fighting with police.

Poland:

Also this week, in Southern Poland, at the largest coal coking producer in Europe, thousands of workers bricked up the entrance to the company's headquarters, protesting wage cuts.

US:

And then there's the famous Republic Windows and Doors story: 260 workers occupied their plant for 6 world-shaking days in Chicago last December. With a savvy campaign against the company's biggest creditor, Bank of America ("You got bailed out, we got sold out!") and massive international solidarity, they won the severance they were owed. And more - the plant is re-opening under new ownership, making energy-efficient windows with all the workers hired back at their old wages.

And this week, Chicago is making it a trend. Hartmarx is 122-year old company that makes business suits, including the navy blue number that Barack Obama wore on election night, and his inaugural tuxedo and topcoat.

The business is in bankruptcy. Its biggest creditor is Wells Fargo, recipient of 25 billion public dollars in bailout money. While there are 2 offers on the table to buy the company and keep it operating, Wells Fargo wants to liquidate it. On Monday, 650 workers voted to occupy their Chicago factory if the bank goes ahead with liquidation.

To be continued...

Comments

[USAFree1]

For the nay-sayers, we have and are seeing the largest theft in the history of the world. Your money and my money is being given to corporations and people who failed at their businesses. We are given no grace by the receivers of OUR money and no guarantee that we shall ever get it back. And then they will return and return for more of our money. GM gets bailout funds and invests in overseas factories. Meanwhile US workers and dealers are told to take a hike. The banks use bailout fund to buy smaller banks. Meanwhile credit card holders get a surprise in their mail; you rate just went through the roof. What we have here, folks, is a REAL failure to communicate. We are the victims of mass robbery. These people are corporate raiders. They are so pitiful and greedy that nothing will ever satisfy them. But we must do something or we will all be starving and living in the streets. They are a cancer and will devour the entire planet if not stopped.

[yathink]

The Peter Principle has been at work for a long time in this country. Kick the idiots upstairs and let the workers manage on their own. My job is now in jeopardy because the suits upstairs always support the directors. Never mind how stupid and incompetent and greedy they are. Will any of these clowns ever be held accountable? Don't think so.

[breakingpoint]

lovely

[mergina]

Haaaaaa. Now you're talking. Why is it that the managers and others in charge are never let go when they run their companies into the ground?

[Norge]

Yes though only the boss can fire oneself and such is really very unlikely.

[kimk3]

Most of the stories were very inspiring. The violence, however, is of concern. It's just the kind of thing our government has been preparing for and I fear if there are outbreaks of violence, it will lead to even more crackdowns on all our civil liberties and use of Blackwater and the Army inside the U.S., etc. But, yeah, it's great to hear about workers taking things into their own good hands.

[fisharefreinds]

This is coming, you can bet on it! We will ship US Army to Iraq and Afganistan and other "hot spots," and continue our "war on Islamic terriorists...." The US Army will be occupied while Blackwater and other "private security" companies begin the war here. We must not be afraid!

[steppenwolfsayshi]

Functioning democracies don't need Marxism.

[vagabondvet]

Dictators, on the other hand, love Marxism.

[Snowball]

Most dictators are right wing representing ruling moneyed elites and corporate interests.

Check out a few of these:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html

[Kassandra]

I think Ms. Klien would prolly endorse nationalizing these corporations if we had the political will to do so. that's what even Pinochet had to do when he collapsed Chile's economy with Milton Friedman's "test lab" economics. And now, our leaders have brought them home to US!!!

[Liberal2]

Heh. It amuses me how people fail to grasp the function of top management. Their function is to chart a course for the company that prevents layoffs. Any damn fool can run a successful business during boom times, you don't need a ten million dollar a year CEO for that. You need a CEO who understands the industry the business is in, identifies areas of risk, and takes action to mitigate risk and recession before they occur..

That's a CEO worth $10,000,000 a year. Too bad no one understands that anymore.

[hoosier96]

I know. It's like when a baseball club pays millions for a player. Fans don't care as long as he's hitting, but if he gets into a slump all they want to do is complain about his paycheck.

It seems that most of these people got their perception of senior management from Hollywood.

[BeachBubbaTex]

"Their function is to chart a course for the company that prevents layoffs"

Really?

[Jason Smith 1]

No one is worth $10,000,000 a year, I don't care who they are.

[joebaggadonuts]

Everyone is potentially worth ten million.

[RuWii]

It also always amazes me why people don't understand the anger toward these Highly Paid execs when layoffs and downsizing are occurring. People get laid-off and their boss gets a pay bump. It doesn't make you feel good inside.

How many people can be employed actually producing something for that same $10,000,000? Or even just $8,000,000 of it?

[crablover]

Under our system, the only function of top management is to maximize shareholder value. Co-operatives will be branded as "socialist," even though they work well.

[Mixpixlix]

The only sharehold values these CEOs care about is their own.

It's way past time people woke up to the fact that "enchancing sharehold value" is just double speak for "getting as much as I can as fast as I can and damn everyone else."

The sheep seem to be awake, now it's time for a stampede.

[myzenthing]

I think it's worth noting here that banks (and the Fed) have not always held such sway over the country. Many of the Founding Fathers and subsequent Presidents fought the bankers and warned of the dangers of having banks accumulate too much power.

The problem is that most Americans have no idea of this history, and the MSM is certainly not going to tell them about it.

"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham Lincoln

"(to bankers) You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out!" - Andrew Jackson

[hoosier96]

Actually, what Andrew Jackson feared is a national bank with too much power, that could be corrupted by political appointees. Which is why he allowed its charter to not be renewed in his second term.

And if this administration has their way, we will have a new one.

[BeachBubbaTex]

Jackson killed the Bank of the US in 1833 (ish) and we lacked a civic monetary policy until the Fed was created in 1913 (ish; sorry, too lazy to google). In between the emerging industrial capitalist market was defined by massive booms and busts (which waylaid millions of small businesses) and an intense and sustained concentration of capital (why today is referred to as a second Gilded Age). Ostensibly, Republican­/conservat­ives should support strong monetary controls because it provides equal access to capital. Hard work and innovation have a chance against the raw power of established capital.

[joebaggadonuts]

Inheritance taxes help too.

[RandVictims]

I'm still hearing the same chants from the pro-corporate echo-chamber about "Nobody owes you a job....", trying to guilt the hundreds of millions of disenfranchised Americans into believing that the corporate giants got where they are exclusively by innovation, hard work and they are all self-made success stories.

I have a couple thoughts on that:

(Part-1)

- You say; Nobody "owes" Americans jobs and fair pay for their labor. If you want to play in that box then, nobody owes the aristocracy civil obedience. Nobody owes the corporate-­controlled Congress allegience to their legislation. Nobody owes the elite loyalty, - we're free to align with any world leader or international revolutionary we wish. Chances favoring that a foreign leader will offer a sweeter deal than the Corporate Plutocracy running Washington (the Pluocrats lose 200 million - no electoral viability)

- We have an undeniable right to survival and to feed a

[RandVictims]

(Part-2)

- We have an undeniable right to survival and to feed and protect our own at ALL costs. This means, doing whatever we have to and that isn't compatible with the overbearing enforcement and judicial system under plutocrat rule. Since total employment in the Corporate State Utopia is 10-15%, there won't be near as much tax revenue to pay for this Orwellian Police state and many young people and retired, hungry former police officers are going to be looking for ways to get what they need [Paint your own picture here]

Those of you apathetic Darwinists who are taunting "Too bad, so sad!" are reaping the rewards of an unnatural system that builds the illusion of superiority based on success at hoarding paper.

The next time you pound your family-mon­ey/country­-club chests and spew lectures of failed policy and culture to those homeless and hungry on the other side of fortune because they can't articulate Wallstreet jibberish, you might want to think about what your survival chances will be in a failed state where the prisons have abandoned and the paper you've hoarded is only good for kindling. (I have 3000+ hardened, pissed-off gang-bangers that say you're toast by sundown)

[hoosier96]

I'm sorry, but your marxist us-versus-them class struggle BS rings hollow in this day and age.

[Kaviraj]

That's not Marxism. The state as the employer is Marxism. You guys have not the faintest clue. He is simply right and you can't heck it - just admit is way above your heads.

[000Jade000]

Class struggle as BS? LOL!! Turn off the teevee and do your homework. The top 1% of wealthy Americans in this country currently take home 20% of all national income and own 40% of the nation's wealth. That has not occurred in this country since 1929. Class struggle is real. Class warfare is real. We're currently experiencing the blowback from 3 decades of aggressive class warfare.

[Anita Chariw]

wake up!

[therealredstateblues]

Indeed - they can move to Somalia - the ultimate libertarian paradise

[BeachBubbaTex]

While no one is owed a job, since we moved to an industrial capitalist society there emerged a "social contract" that suggests that if one plays by the rules they should have access to the American Dream. All very fuzzy, I know, but it underlies just about every major social reform of the twentieth century.

If this means you now realize you were BORN in a mixed economy then I'm sorry for the shock.

[ditsylilg]

More reason for EFCA to become law.

[RandVictims]

The Plutocracy is whining because they are still expecting something for nothing. They expect the same old Reagan welfare of giving most of the money to the least who earn it.

They are still acting like toddlers, crying and demanding that American working class taxpayers keep on paying for their "Free Trade" through military occupation. The "Corporate Al Qaeda" and their private Al Jazeera (CNBC, FOX) are stomping their feet with the hopes Obama will continue the Corporate Communist Welfare State that Reagan handed to them. The audacity of these lazy, useless and cowardly executives, floor traders and bond holders is truly astounding.

It's time to give the wealth to those who earn it, the **workers** of this country.

[hoosier96]

My goodness. Such reteroic with no substance. Where do you get this stuff. U.S. companies have some of the highest tax rates in the world. And investors in corporations are taxed twice on the income they earn through their investments.

[Kaviraj]

Except they all park their money in offshore tax havens and pay nothing. You ain't got a clue.

[crablover]

Another Rushbo brainwashed troll.

[John Horner]

It is crazy that the banks get bailed out, yet they still hold all the trump cards in regular people's lives.

Time to fire the boss, and his banker, for sure.

[overd0g1]

It's the government that is bailing them out. How about firing the government?

[Kaviraj]

It are the people bailing them out. It is with YOUR tax dollars that the government uses not to get you the goods and services you need, but to bail out the daylight robbers we call banks..

[joebaggadonuts]

And then what? put you in charge? No thanks.