The workers at Brukman occupied the plant to oppose the company’s layoff plans and demand payment of back wages. They are demanding that since the owners claim bankruptcy, the government take over the plant to guarantee their jobs. In the meantime, workers are running the plant themselves, continuing to produce men’s suits and selling them to the bosses’ customers.

The struggle at Brukman takes place at a time when depression conditions in Argentina are devastating workers and farmers. Over the past months, employers have tried to cushion their losses by carrying out mass layoffs and plant shutdowns. In May and June alone some 140,000 workers were fired. The official unemployment rate has shot up to 22 percent, with a similar number underemployed. Despite a weak remeantime, workers are running the plant themselves, continuing to produce men’s suits and selling them to the bosses’ customers.

The struggle at Brukman takes place at a time when the capitalist economic crisis in Argentina is devastating workers and farmers. Over the past months, employers have carried out mass layoffs and plant shutdowns. In May and June alone some 140,000 workers were fired. The official unemployment rate has shot up to 22 percent, with a similar number underemployed. Despite a weak response by the top union officialdom, which backs the Peronist government of Eduardo Duhalde, many workers have engaged in fights to oppose the layoffs and other attacks on their livelihoods.

A banner hanging in front of the six-story Brukman garment factory declares, "Trabajo para todos: ni un desocupado más" (Jobs for all: not one more unemployed person). Another banner read: "Workers at Brukman fight for nationalization under workers control."

On the evening of July 18, the plant was a hive of activity. A group of workers was on guard duty inside the entrance. Visiting delegations came and went, as did a few customers. Among those bringing solidarity were workers from a local unemployed organization and from the Zanón ceramic tile plant in the city of Neuquén. Members of a neighborhood assembly were holding a meeting on one of the factory floors.  
 
Employer offensive
Torale, who began as a janitor seven years ago and now works both selling the products and as a sewer, gave Militant reporters a tour of the factory, which includes cutting, pressing, and sewing departments. The big majority of the workers are women between the ages of 40 and 65. Many are immigrants from Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, or from Argentina’s impoverished northern provinces.

Workers explained how the bosses had been on a stepped-up offensive since 1998--driving down wages by slashing piece rates, intensifying production, and increasing the abuse by supervisors. They discriminated against the foreign-born workers, refusing to recognize their elected union delegate, who is Bolivian.

Nilda Bustamante, a worker with nine years’ service who is originally from Jujuy, works in the pants section. There, she said, 27 workers produced 400 pairs of pants a day. Including the overtime, they would earn 400–500 pesos every two weeks. Over the past few years the boss, pleading financial trouble, began delaying the payment of their wages, handing them $100 and claiming he would fork up the difference later. In the weeks leading up to the takeover, they were receiving even less.

On the night of December 17 came the straw that broke the camel’s back. Once again the workers did not receive their promised paychecks. "One boss made fun of us," Bustamente said. "He told us, ‘There’s no money. What do you expect us to do--withdraw our money from abroad to pay you?’ Remembering that still makes me mad." On the spot, a group of 20 furious workers decided to stay in the plant. The next morning, when the rest of their co-workers came in, they decided to take over the plant. Over the preceding months many of them had been discussing whether to take such action.

The occupation coincided with Argentina’s accelerated economic collapse and the mobilizations of December 18–20 that forced President Fernando de la Rúa to resign.

The first few weeks were especially hard. The top officials of the national garment workers union, SOIVA, affiliated to the General Labor Confederation (CGT), refused to back their fight and told them to end their occupation. The workers at Brukman didn’t know who to turn to for support. Nonetheless, 50 of the 115 workers decided to stick it out. They began to receive help from other workers and from neighborhood residents in the industrial district.

"At first, our relatives didn’t like what we were doing," Bustamante said. "My mother, who lives up north in Jujuy, would call me and say, ‘Don’t get yourself arrested.’ My husband didn’t want to have anything to do with this. Now he and both my children understand and support me."  
 
‘Not so hard to run the plant’
The bosses, who were cocky at first and thought the workers would never dare take over the plant, or last more than a few weeks when they did, became increasingly concerned. They called the police to evict the workers. Early on March 16, dozens of cops burst into the factory, physically assaulting one worker. The garment workers called their supporters in the area. Working people nearby and members of the neighborhood assembly began to gather outside the factory. By the late afternoon, a judge had intervened and ordered the police to back off.

"We’ve learned a lot over the past months," Torale said. "The boss used to whine about how difficult it was to run the plant. But once we took it over, we realized it really wasn’t so hard to run it. All those people with ties and who were paid a lot more than us are not even needed," she explained.

Workers began looking through the company’s books and found the bosses hadn’t been complying with their obligation to make payments into the retirement fund but instead were keeping the funds themselves.

Torale explained that the workers have not only managed to continue production but have regained most of the bosses’ former customers. They are proud of the high quality standards they have been able to maintain through their collective efforts.

Workers at Brukman organize their own quality control, elect their section leads, and enforce their own work discipline. Everyone is expected to be on time and give notification if they have to leave work early. Workers assemblies are held weekly.

Their fight has become a pole of attraction for workers around Argentina. "Every day we get visits from other workplaces. We’ve even received visitors from other countries like Brazil," Torale reported.

To win broader support, workers at Brukman put out the newspaper Nuestra Lucha (Our Struggle) in collaboration with workers at the Zanón plant, who are engaged in a similar struggle that is also at the forefront of the working-class resistance in Argentina today.

Workers described to their U.S. visitors how Argentina’s economic situation has gone from bad to worse over the past months. Since the government devalued the country’s currency, the peso has lost 70 percent of its value in relation to the U.S. dollar. Bread and milk have doubled in price. Meat, formerly a staple in this beef-producing country, is a luxury for working people. "We eat less now," Torale said.

Workers described how foreign investors are bleeding Argentina dry. Referring to the country’s $140 billion national debt, the bulk of which is owed to foreign banks, Torale said, "The external debt--we call it the eternal debt. There is no way we can pay it. The United States dictates everything--they might as well come and plant their damn flag here." She rejected the government’s solution of more loans. "If the IMF [International Monetary Fund] gives us more loans, we’ll just be deeper in debt."

Torale added that they have learned about others facing similar problems who are also resisting. "Here you have the piqueteros [protesting unemployed workers], the university students who can’t afford to go to school, the retirees who face a dire situation--we’re all in the same situation."  
 
Interest in conditions in U.S.
After relating their story, a group of six workers on guard duty at the plant entrance asked the two socialist workers from the United States about conditions in the United States. They were surprised to learn about the effects of the U.S. employers’ drive to lower wages, extend the work day, gut working conditions, and cut health insurance and other social benefits. They were particularly stunned to hear about the worsening conditions facing clothing workers like themselves, as described by Romina Green, a garment worker in New York. "And some of us were even thinking about moving to the United States--I’m not sure about that anymore," one worker replied, as others laughed.

The garment workers were delighted to hear about the giant inflatable rats that follow the construction workers in New York who are campaigning to organize the Carpenters and Laborers unions at construction sites. When we showed them The Changing Face of U.S. Politics and Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, books by Jack Barnes, they were especially interested in the photo sections depicting struggles by U.S. workers and farmers. One photo in Perspectiva Mundial article that caught their attention showed a picket line outside the closed Forever 21 plant in Los Angeles. The garment workers are waging a fight for the back pay they are owed.  
 
 
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