Workers at Pepsico’s potato chip factory, who had already been bringing solidarity to embattled workers at many other plants, have been involved in a fight since the beginning of the year. On January 11 the Pepsico bosses fired 52 temporary workers in this plant of 400. Just a week earlier the newly appointed government of President Eduardo Duhalde had devalued the peso, a measure that further shook a battered economy.

In a July 21 interview, three workers described how their struggle has unfolded. One of the workers, Katy, explained that conditions at the plant had become increasingly brutal, "Pepsico instituted the ‘American shift’ in some departments," she said. "We work 12-hour days--four-day shifts one week, then three night shifts the next week. But on top of that, they’ve forced us to work a lot of double shifts several times a week. We have to stand the entire day, so many people have problems with their backs and their legs."

María de los Angeles, one of the fired workers, said, "Temporary workers aren’t in the union. We are hired for six-month contracts. On January 11, just before the end of the day shift, the company told several temporary co-workers that we were fired. During the afternoon shift they announced more firings and ordered people to go home early. When they refused to leave the plant, the company called the security guards to force them out. Those of us on the incoming shift were met by security guards who had lists of fired workers and told us we couldn’t come in."

The workers’ factory delegates immediately called meetings for workers on all the shifts, and the unionists voted to oppose the mass firings. The factory delegates make up the internal commission, an elected factory committee that exists in many workplaces in Argentina parallel to the regular union structure.

The fired workers set up a protest tent in front of the plant gate, and they were joined by some of the "permanent" workers as well as working people from the neighborhood. Since then they have organized road blockades, marches, and other actions. They have reached out for support from other workers, joining rallies by unionists and unemployed workers, such as a march of 15,000 demanding the arrest of cops who on June 26 fired on an unemployed demonstration and killed two young workers. They have visited the occupied Brukman garment plant in downtown Buenos Aires and sent delegations to the southwestern city of Neuquén to back the workers at the Zanón ceramic tile factory, which is also occupied.

María de los Angeles said she and other workers have gone before meetings of the local "popular assembly" in the nearby working-class suburb of San Martín, and have enlisted their support. The popular assemblies are neighborhood organizations that have appeared throughout Buenos Aires since the beginning of the year, in which local residents gather to discuss social and political problems they face and how to deal with them.

"Pepsico has practically militarized the factory," said Leo, 27, a worker who is one of the six members of the internal commission. Cops and security guards toting Itaka rifles have been deployed inside and outside the plant, he said. Security guards snoop on workers’ conversations in the lunchroom. The company films workers on the job, while cops have tailed unionists’ cars, seeking to create an atmosphere of terror and to divide the permanent and temporary workers. Many workers in the plant would like to express their support for the fight but are afraid they will lose their jobs if they do so.

While battling the company, the workers, who are members of the food workers union, have been hampered by the stance of the top officialdom, headed by Rodolfo Daer, who is also the general secretary of the General Labor Confederation (CGT), Argentina’s main union federation. The officialdom has urged the fired workers to accept the company’s severance pay offer and has refused to organize a fight. The CGT leadership supports the ruling Peronist party of Duhalde.

Under pressure from the top officials, three of the internal commission members have decided to go along with this collaborationist position, while the other three have continued to urge workers to mobilize and decide themselves how to fight. Two of these delegates were illegally suspended in February, and are fighting to get reinstated.

Some of the permanent workers who have joined this fight have also been fired. Katy, who is one of them, said, "They claimed they were firing me for poor performance but then offered me severance pay. I’ve refused to accept the money because we’re fighting to get our jobs back."

After Katy’s firing on July 15, the unionists immediately called workers from other plants to attend a protest rally. The meeting drew workers from the Brukman and Zanón plants; from the Panificación Cinco bakery, which workers took over in response to a threatened plant shutdown and are operating as a cooperative; and a visiting delegation of coal miners from Río Turbio in southern Argentina, where workers are resisting layoff plans. Several hundred people marched July 23 to demand the reinstatement of the fired workers.

"The plant occupations at Brukman and Zanón are examples for workers in Argentina, but they are still an exception," Leo noted. Workers at many other plants confront the threat of layoffs and the brutal conditions faced by those at Pepsico. Some are waging defensive fights, while others are discussing what to do.  
 
 
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