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A recovered factory (in Spanish, fábrica recuperada) is a company in which its workers have taken over control, commonly after intentional bankruptcy by the management. Note that the Spanish verb recuperar means not only "to get back", "to take back" or "to reclaim" but also "to put back into good condition". Although initially referring to industrial facilities, the term may be extensive to businesses other than factories.
English-language coverage of this phenomenon employs several different translations of the original Spanish expression besides recovered factory. Commonly attested ones are recuperated factory, reclaimed factory, and worker-run factory. It is also known as "autogestion" or workers' self-management.
In October 2005 the first Encuentro Latinoamericano de Empresas Recuperadas ("Latin American Encounter of Recovered Companies") in Caracas, Venezuela, with representatives of 263 such companies from different countries living similar economical and social situations. The meeting had, as its main outcome, the Compromiso de Caracas (Caracas' Commitment); a vindicating text of the movement.
The Argentine case
In the wake of the 2001 economic crisis, about two hundred Argentine companies were "recovered" by their workers and turned into co-operatives. Prominent examples include the Brukman factory, the Hotel Bauen and FaSinPat (formerly known as Zanon). As of 2005, about 15,000 Argentine workers run recovered factories. *
Many recovered factories are run co-operatively and all workers receive the same wage. Important management decisions are taken democratically by an assembly of all workers, rather than by professional managers.
The proliferation of these "recoveries" has led to the formation of a recovered factory movement, which has ties to a diverse political network including Peronists on the left and right, anarchists and communists. Organizationally, this includes two major federations of recovered factories, the larger Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas (or National Movement of Recouperated Businesses, or MNER) on the left and the smaller Nacional de Fabricas Recuperadas (National Movement of Recuperated Factories or MNFR) on the right *. Some labor unions, MTDs (unemployed workers movements) and the piqueteros have also provided support for these take-overs. The movement came to wider international prominence in The Take, a 2004 documentary film by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis.
See also
External links
- fabricasrecuperadas.org.ar
- Recuperated Enterprises in Argentina by Marie Trigona March 2006
- Occupied Factory Movement In Argentina Zmag, 2004
- Worker-Run Cooperatives in Buenos Aires Zmag, 2005
- The Working World (nonprofit organisation that financially supports a number of recovered facturies)
- Argentina Autonomist Project
"Recovered factory"