A contingent of 30 workers from Zanón took part in a January 7 union march in downtown Neuquén to protest the government's antilabor policies. They invited Militant reporters to visit the plant the following day.

The workers, members of the Ceramics Workers Union of Neuquén (SOECN), keep a round-the-clock union guard at the plant. Outside they have turned a trailer into a food pantry with donations from other unions, working people, and merchants.

Zanón, one of the largest ceramic tile manufacturers in South America, has four plants in Neuquén province, all of which are organized by the union.

While the company has long been profitable, over the past couple of years the bosses have pleaded poverty, repeatedly delaying wage payments and seeking to lay off workers. "Their goal is to keep the plant running with 60 out of the 327 workers," said union general secretary Raúl Godoy. The union is calling on the state to take over the plant and keep it running.

Safety has been a major issue in the plant, several unionists reported. Before the plant occupation, an average of one worker was injured every three day. Some workers suffer from lead poisoning. There is a two-year probation period, allowing the company to get away with unsafe practices. Over the years, workers have been fighting to slow down production. They began shutting down a line if it went too fast, prompting objections by the bosses.  
 
Nationwide antilabor offensive
The attack on workers at Zanón is part of the nationwide antilabor offensive by the bosses. Two years ago the government passed "labor flexibility" legislation that extends probation, guts industry-wide bargaining, gives employers a freer hand to hire and fire, and weakens union rights. The officialdom of the General Labor Federation (CGT), the dominant union organization, went along with these attacks. After backing the Peronist administration of Carlos Menem, which launched a broadside against working people throughout the 1990s, the bureaucracy consented to the passage of the antilabor measure in April 2000, which was approved with votes from both the Radicals and the Peronists, the main capitalist parties.

At the Zanón plant, the death of a worker sparked anger. In July 2000, Daniel Ferrás, 21, suffered a heart attack on the job. The company nurse put an oxygen mask on him but the tank had no oxygen. The ambulance was delayed and Ferrás died before arrival at the hospital.

This incident coincided with the company's announcement of wage cuts and the layoff of 100 workers. The workers struck for nine days. They raised demands including an ambulance at the plant and a safety committee, and opposed the job and wage cuts. They won all their demands plus pay for the days they were on strike.

Throughout much of last year, the unionists have engaged in numerous skirmishes over back pay and working conditions. In April 2001 they struck for 34 days when the company did not pay their March wages. They set up tents to camp out at the plant gate, organized two demonstrations of hundreds of workers from around Neuquén, and blocked Highway 7, which passes in front of the factory. Workers sent teams to the local campuses to win support from students. A women's commission was organized by the unionists' wives.

The unionists returned to work after winning all their demands, but the company attacks continued. After the company announced mass layoffs, refused to pay back wages for September, and threatened to shut down the plant, the workers at Zanón occupied the plant October 2.

Julio Araneda, 36, a palletizer and sorter, explained that the utility companies turned off the gas and electricity after the plant takeover. After some public pressure from the workers and their supporters, the electric company, run by the provincial government, agreed to turn on the electricity to prevent damage to machinery if the ceramic molds dried.

The unionists are currently running two lines using precooked ceramic material. They are pressing the government to have the gas turned on so they can operate the ovens.  
 
Unionists expose bosses' poverty claim
"We showed that with two days' worth of production, we were able to pay the wages of all the workers for that month," Godoy said, exposing the company's claims of poverty and its real priority of profits.

To cover their lost wages, the unionists now market the tiles at 60 percent of the previous prices. They organize to deliver the product by truck and have a network of young vendors who sell the tiles in the city.

A few months ago a labor judge ruled against the company, finding that it was conducting an "offensive lockout" and ordering that 40 percent of its stock be used to pay back wages.

The owners of Zanón, with the help of the provincial government and its cops, have stonewalled. The bosses and the big-business press have red-baited the union leadership. Union president Godoy, a loading machine operator with nine years' service, does not hide the fact that he is a member of the PTS, the Workers Party for Socialism. Another unionist, José Romero, remarked, "They accuse our leadership of being 'red.' I'm not left-wing or right-wing--I just want leaders who help us fight, and that's why we elected them."

On November 30, after the company sent dismissal notices to all the employees including supervisory personnel, the union organized a demonstration in front of the provincial government house, throwing all 380 telegrams into a bonfire. The police assaulted the demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. As word of the attack spread through the city, state employees joined them in the street. The cops arrested 19 workers from Zanón and wounded 12. In face of a demonstration of 2,500 unionists, unemployed workers, and students demanding their release, the detainees were freed that evening.

The union fight at Zanón has won solidarity from workers around the province of Neuquén and has become a national working-class cause. SOECN has sent delegations to link up with unemployed workers in the town of Mosconi in Salta province, electrical power workers in Córdoba, state workers in La Plata, and airline and telephone workers in Buenos Aires.

Workers report that in the course of fighting the company's attacks on their jobs, wages, and working conditions, they took more control over their union. SOECN is part of the national ceramics workers union FOCRA, which is affiliated to the "dissident" wing of the CGT. The previous union officialdom, several workers said, turned a blind eye to the company's abusive practices. In 1998, after the company fired 30 workers without a response from the union officials, a group of 80 workers met and decided to run an opposition slate in the elections for the comisión interna (internal commission), a plant-wide body existing in many factories that is parallel to the regular union structure and that has the power to call local strikes and other actions. The slate won by an overwhelming margin. Two years later, in December 2000, the same slate swept the entrenched local officialdom out of office.

"Now we have no full-time officials. The officials work eight hours like everyone else and we do our union activity after hours," said Godoy. "The decisions are all made at general assemblies of workers, not behind closed doors."

The national ceramic workers union has given no backing to the workers at Zanón, limiting solidarity to the support that the local union has been able to win. Officials of the Argentine Workers Federation (CTA), while offering some support, have also expressed criticism of the local leadership at Zanón for not settling the fight earlier.

The company has made several offers to the workers including a "temporary" layoff at 77 percent of their pay. But the unionists say that would only be a step toward permanent layoffs. They maintain their job action and call on the state to take over the plant.
 
 
Related article:
'Perspectiva Mundial' editor speaks on building a communist leadership in Argentina  
 
 
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