INTERNATIONAL LABOUR:

MONDRAGON AND WORKERS' CO-OPS IN NORTH AMERICA:

You know, if you live long enough and are patient enough, you will eventually see something really good start to take form. This is the way that I view the following item from the website of the United Steel Workers. It has been too long since labour actually had a vision , a social goal that went beyond the all-too-necessary everyday fighting over small details of work life, punctuated by dramatic strikes that end up more like a football game without passing ie a struggle over, at best, small gains in yards. The traditional vision of socialism ie state ownership has been discredited not just in its barbaric Marxist dictatorial forms but also in its more civilized forms of democratic social democracy. It didn't work. In many ways it didn't work, not least because whether by prison camps or by civilized methods (which proved to be the most enduring in the end) it became obvious that it was not a method for achieving equality and liberty but rather one whereby a new class of managers rose to power.

There was, however, always, an alternative view of socialism, held in its purest forms by the anarchists but also shared, in many ways, by other socialists the failures of the statist model. "Cooperative Socialism" whereby the decisions at work are made democratically by all workers in an enterprise has always been there as an alternative vision to the statist socialism that has failed. Nowadays this vision is becoming ever more popular. Whether they truly hold to the ideal or not modern socialists find it almost obligatory to cover themselves with at least the mantle of such a vision. In some cases, such as with communist sects or caudillos in power one can seriously doubt the sincerity of their commitment. In other cases such as, here in Canada, people such as Pierre Ducasse (see his Ecodema blog), once a contender for the NDP leadership, one cannot doubt the sincerity of these "semi-libertarian socialists" because they are fully committed to a non-dictatorial method of change.

This brings us to the following item from the USW website. It seems that the USW have entered into an agreement for collaboration with the Spanish/Basque Mondragon group of workers' cooperatives. The purpose...to promote the idea of workers' cooperatives in Canada and the USA. Now, I have no doubt that one can have many doubts about both parties to this agreement. In the case of the USW one can certainly quibble about its internal democracy. This varies from area to area. Here in Canada one could also quibble about its almost religious devotion to the NDP, and in the USA the attachment to the Democratic Party is even more problematic (no kidding). If an union is to be an instrument of worker democracy it has to be an exemplar of democracy and involvement itself. No organization, however, is perfect, and the membership of the USW are certainly trying to live up to that democracy. Mondragon is also open to criticism, particularly as it sems to have a "two-tiered" system of membership whereby non-Spanish enterprises are subject to considerably more centralized control and have fewer rights than those in Spain. Like other cooperatives it is also a, perhaps eternal, battleground between those who defend the rights of the membership and those who wish to see more power vested in management.

This battle may be inevitable, but the workers' cooperative model at least allows for a field in which it is possible for this battle to be fought. Government owned enterprise, just like private corporations, are automatically manager controlled. The following is also interesting in that it shows the recognition, at least on the part of the USW, that the usual 'Employee Stock Ownership' programs that some companies have are not the same as actual worker cooperatives. Molly has discussed this question before, especially in regard to the airline industry here in Canada, but she perhaps didn't emphasize enough the limitations of these programs.

So, here's the item, one that I find to be a very hopeful sign. One can only hope that the idea is not going to be restricted to small enterprises, and that it will also become an alternative idea for dealing with larger industrial enterprises in the future.

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Steelworkers Form Collaboration with MONDRAGON - World’s Largest Worker-Owned Cooperative:
PITTSBURGH--(ENEWSPF)--October 27, 2009.

The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”

“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants. We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”

Josu Ugarte, President of MONDRAGON Internacional added: “What we are announcing today represents a historic first – combining the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative with one of the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking manufacturing unions to work together so that our combined know-how and complimentary visions can transform manufacturing practices in North America.”

Highlighting the differences between Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and union co-ops, Gerard said, “We have lots of experience with ESOPs, but have found that it doesn’t take long for the Wall Street types to push workers aside and take back control. We see Mondragon’s cooperative model with ‘one worker, one vote’ ownership as a means to re-empower workers and make business accountable to Main Street instead of Wall Street.”

Both the USW and MONDRAGON emphasized the shared values that will drive this collaboration. Mr. Ugarte commented, “We feel inspired to take this step based on our common set of values with the Steelworkers who have proved time and again that the future belongs to those who connect vision and values to people and put all three first. We are excited about working with Mondragon because of our shared values, that work should empower workers and sustain families and communities,” Gerard added.

In the coming months, the USW and MONDRAGON will seek opportunities to implement this union co-op hybrid approach by sharing the common values put forward by the USW and MONDGRAGON and by operating in similar manufacturing segments in which both the USW and MONDRAGON already participate.
Click here for the full text of the Agreement.
About MONDRAGON:
The MONDRAGON Corporation mission is to produce and sell goods and provide services and distribution using democratic methods in its organizational structure and distributing the assets generated for the benefit of its members and the community, as a measure of solidarity.

MONDRAGON began its activities in 1956 in the Basque town of Mondragon by a rural village priest with a transformative vision who believed in the values of worker collaboration and working hard to reach for and realize the common good.

Today, with approximately 100,000 cooperative members in over 260 cooperative enterprises present in more than forty countries; MONDRAGON Corporation is committed to the creation of greater social wealth through customer satisfaction, job creation, technological and business development, continuous improvement, the promotion of education, and respect for the environment. In 2008, MONDRAGON Corporation reached annual sales of more than sixteen billion euros with its own cooperative university, cooperative bank, and cooperative social security mutual and is ranked as the top Basque business group, the seventh largest in Spain, and the world’s largest industrial workers cooperative.
About the USW:
The USW is North America’s largest industrial union representing 1.2 million active and retired members in a diverse range of industries.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-ARGENTINA:

ZANON WORKERS WIN IMPORTANT LEGAL VICTORY:

As the economic crisis continues more and more workers are discovering the power of factory occupations in bringing the bosses to heel. Unfortunately few of the many instances in which this tactic has been used have seen the workers involved take the further step of actually taking the factory over and running it as a producers' cooperative. Sometimes this is unrealistic, but it has been proved to be more realistic in most cases than depending upon politicians to solve the problem, either by nationalization or by propping up the enterprise. In the country of Argentina, which entered an economic crisis years before the rest of the world, this step of "taking over" has actually been done dozens of times and the new self managed enterprises are usually successful, showing that bosses, either private or government, are not needed.

The following article from the Upside Down World website tells of a recent victory by one of the most successful of these take-overs, the Zanon ceramics factory.

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Zanon workers win major legal battle:

The workers at Argentina's occupied ceramics factory, FASINPAT (Factory Without a Boss), won a major victory this week: the factory now definitively belongs to the people in legal terms. The provincial legislature voted in favor of expropriating the ceramics factory and handing it over to the workers cooperative to manage legally and indefinitely. Since 2001, the workers at Zanon have fought for legal recognition of worker control at Latin America's largest ceramics factory which has created jobs, spearheaded community projects, supported social movements world-wide and shown the world that workers don't need bosses.

"This is incredible, we are happy. The expropriation is an act of justice," said Alejandro Lopez the General Secretary of the Ceramists Union, overwhelmed by the emotion of the victory. "We don't forget the people who supported us in our hardest moments, or the 100,000 people who signed the petition supporting our bill."

Hundreds of workers from the FASINPAT factory waited anxiously until the late hours of the night for the legislature's decision. The expropriation law passed 26 votes in favor and 9 votes against the bill. Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers as they waited outside the provincial legislature in the capital city of Neuquén. Enduring the Patagonian winter weather, activists played drums and shouted: "here they are the workers of Zanon, workers without a boss."

FASINPAT has operated under worker control since 2001 when Zanon's owners decided to close its doors and fire the workers without paying months of back pay or severance pay. Leading up to the massive layoffs and plant's closure, workers went on strike in 2000. The owner, Luis Zanon, with over 75 million dollars in debt to public and private creditors (including the World Bank for over 20 million dollars), fired en masse most of the workers and closed the factory in 2001-a bosses' lockout. In October 2001, workers declared the plant under worker control. The workers subsequently camped outside the factory for four months, pamphleteering and partially blocking a highway leading to the capital city of Neuquén. While the workers were camping outside the factory, a court ruled that the employees could sell off remaining stock. After the stock ran out, on March 2, 2002, the workers' assembly voted to start up production without a boss. Since the occupation, the workers renamed the factory FASINPAT (Factory without a Boss).

The workers set up a stage with a giant screen for the thousands of supporters to view the legislative vote. As the decision was read, workers embraced one another in tears in disbelief that after 8 years of struggle they finally won legal control of the factory. "This decision reflects an organized struggle that won the support all of society," said Veronica Hullipan from the Confederation of Mapuche. She said that the network of Mapuche indigenous communities in the Patagonia have supported the Zanon workers' struggle and said legal decision is a "political triumph of workers' organization."

Zanon workers reminded their supporters that the struggle of Zanon, was also the struggle of Carlos Fuentealba, a public school teacher from the province of Neuquén killed by a police officer during a peaceful protest in defense of public education. The Zanon workers have not only created jobs, but they have supported workers struggles locally, nationally and internationally. Workers from FASINPAT were present at the protest where Fuentealba was shot point blank in the head with a tear gas canister, in police repression ordered by the conservative ruling coalition of Neuquén MPN, which has ruled the Patagonian province since the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

"This is an important chapter in the struggle of the Zanon workers, who have been fighting in the streets for more than 9 years. First they tried to evict us in order to auction off the factory, the workers' struggle and the community pressured the government to expropriate the factory," Raul Godoy, Zanon worker told the national news daily Página/12. Today, the plant exports ceramics to 25 countries.

Many legislative representatives wanted to demand that the workers at the self-managed factory "guarantee a pact for social peace." But for the workers, the pact for social peace is broken when businessmen fraudulently go bankrupt and throw hundreds of workers out into the street. "The capitalists are constantly declaring war with tariff increases, by privatizing public companies and with firings. Before this situation, the workers must defend themselves; and the workers at Zanon commit to defending ourselves, in the street, however we have to."

According to the legislation passed, the FASINPAT cooperative which employs 470 workers and exports ceramics to more than 25 countries, will remain under the control of the cooperative. The state would pay off 22 million pesos (around $7 million) to the creditors. One of the main creditors is the World Bank - which gave a loan of 20 million dollars to Luis Zanon for the construction of the plant, which he never paid back. The other major creditor is the Italian company SACMY that produces state of the art ceramics manufacturing machinery and is owed over $5 million. However, the workers have resisted the state pay-off, saying that courts have proven that the creditors participated in the fraudulent bankruptcy of the plant in 2001, because the credits went directly to the owner Luis Zanon and not investments into the factory. "If someone should pay, Luis Zanon should pay, who is being charged with tax evasion," said Omar Villablanca from FASINPAT.
Victory, then an eviction
While the victory of FASINPAT brings hope to many of the 200 occupied factories currently operated under worker self-management in Argentina, many are still facing legal attacks. Early yesterday morning, just hours after the Zanon victory, a police operative evicted the factory Textil Quilmes, a thread factory occupied in the new wave of factory occupations in 2009. The four workers on night guard were evicted violently. The Buenos Aires provincial government is currently debating an expropriation bill for Textil Quilmes and several other new occupations in the Buenos Aires province. The textile workers are resisting the eviction at the factory's doors, rallying support to re-enter the factory despite police presence. They also had temporary legal protection, following an expropriation bill that was approved unanimously by the lower house in the provincial legislature.

The workers occupied the plant on February 11, 2009. "We camped outside the plant to avoid the bosses' liquidation of the machinery. And the workers decided to take a direct action, occupy and form a cooperative," said Eduardo Santillán, a Quilmes textile worker. With the remaining cotton left in the plant, the workers immediately began to produce cotton thread. At the time of the firing, more than 80 worked at the plant. In a common practice for business owners who file bankruptcy despite an increased demand for their product, the owner Ruben Ballani of Febatex owed the workers months of unpaid salaries, unpaid vacation time and social security. The workers also reported that the owner would force his employees to work 12 hour shifts, a practice outlawed nearly 100 years ago.

Six months after the workers were fired and the union (Sindicato Textil - AOT) failed to intervene, the workers at Textil Quilmes started up production. They claim that the union, who turned their backs on the workers once they were fired, is now negotiating on behalf of the bosses.

The occupations in Argentina continue to rise as the global economic crisis hits the South American nation. The Arrufat chocolate factory, Disco de Oro empanada pastry manufacturer, Indugraf printing press, Febatex thread producer and Lidercar meat packing plant joined the ranks of the worker occupied factory movement from 2008 to 2009. Textil Quilmes has fought along with workers from other factories occupied since the onset of the global economic crisis to demand expropriation laws; none have a definitive legal future.

Many independent analysts expect the global recession to hit Argentina's real economy. Unemployment rates have gone up and industry growth has halted, while the financial sector remains unaffected because it already took a major blow in 2001. Those who benefited from Argentina's economic recovery of course are now those who are using this crisis as an excuse to downsize and lay-off workers with the promise of public bailout packages and government credits.

The phenomenon of worker occupations continues to grow as the world falls deeper into the current recession. Nearly 20 new factories in Argentina were occupied since 2008. This may be a sign that workers are confronting the current global financial crisis with lessons and tools from previous worker occupied factories post-2001 economic collapse and popular rebellion. Today, some 250 worker occupied enterprises are up and running, employing more than 13,000. Many of these sites have been producing under worker self-management since 2002, providing nearly a decade of lessons, experiments, strategies and mistakes to learn from.

Zanon and others from the occupied factory movement have proven that they are capable of doing what bosses aren't interested in doing: creating jobs and work with dignity. This may be why government representatives, industry leaders and factory owners have remained silent and often times reacted with hostility on this issue; they are afraid of these sites multiplying and the example they have set.

At Zanon, workers constantly use the slogan: "Zanon es del pueblo" or Zanon belongs to the people. The workers have adopted the objective of producing not only to provide jobs and salaries for more than 470 people, but also to create new jobs, make donations in the community and to support other social movements. For many at the recuperated enterprises, the occupation of their workplace meant much more than safe-guarding their jobs, it also became part of a struggle for a world without exploitation. While the Zanon victory is a step in the right direction, many of the occupations are facing eviction orders. FASINPAT can now operate legally and focus their attention to producing ceramics in a faltering economy. The Zanon collective has expressed their continued commitment to defending workers' rights and self-management, which means defending all worker occupations with slogan: "si nos tocan a uno, nos tocan a todos": "if they mess with one of us, they mess with all of us."
Marie Trigona

http://upsidedownworld.org

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-ARGENTINA:

WORKERS' CONTROL WORKS:

While workers across the world struggle with the effects of the present economic crisis in one country people have shown the way years ago. Workplace occupations are becoming increasingly frequent as the only tactic capable of putting sufficient pressure on management. The step beyond, however, is rarely taken...to take over the workplaces and actually start working them themselves under workers' control. Following their local economic crisis in the early 90s many workers in Argentina did take this step. Today they are prospering. Here's the story from The Indypendent, the newspaper of the New York Indymedia.

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Worker-Run Businesses Flourish in Argentina:

By Jaisal Noor

Maria Alejendra, a factory worker in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina, spends her days cutting pieces of rawhide at the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative. Along with the 33 other original workers at the dog treat factory, Alejandra now makes twice as much money — 2,000 pesos a month — as she did under her former boss. Alejandra, 41, who has worked at the factory for 14 years, is now able to listen to music and drink maté, a South American herbal tea, while she works.

The Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative is just one of more than 250 worker-recovered businesses in Argentina, which employ a total of 13,000 workers. Part of a broader effort to recover factories, which started after the country’s economic collapse in 2001, the workers at Huesitos de Wilde first occupied the factory and took over production in January 2007.
Though Argentina’s economy has improved since the crash, the current economic downturn has caused a recent increase in factory take overs, with a significant uptick since February.

Nearly 20 factories have been occupied since 2008, and 33 new cooperatives have been officially registered with the government in the past few months. While the government readily grants businesses cooperative status — there are currently some 10,000 cooperatives in Argentina — gaining this recognition is the first step for the few hundred recovered enterprises that wish to be worker-run. However, the government has yet to recognize the legal right of any of these recently recovered businesses to exist.

While cooperative enterprises do allow workers a greater role in company decisions, worker recovered businesses allow employees to reclaim lost jobs, as well as receive the same wages and equally participate in management decisions, as is the case with Huesitos de Wilde.

Workers who seek to recover a business from their owners are faced with numerous challenges. In addition to often lacking management experience, the struggle to find start-up money and maintain a profitable business can often sideline reclaimed enterprises.

The workers at Huesitos de Wilde were offered guidance by an array of groups, including the Argentine Workers Center, a trade-union federation.

“Once we were taught, we came back to take over the factory,” Alejandra said.
Reclaiming factories that have been abandoned by owners provides workers with a way to counter the self-interest of some employers, according to Marie Trigona, a journalist and filmmaker who has worked with Free Speech Radio News and Z Magazine.

Businessmen often exploit crises by declaring bankruptcy so they can set up shop elsewhere and hire cheaper labor or invest their money in more lucrative projects, Trigona said.

While Argentina has provided business owners with the option to run cooperatives since the late 19th century, the country’s road to an option such as worker-run enterprises has not been an easy one. Argentina’s history has been plagued by neoliberal policies, such as widespread privatization, deregulation and cutbacks in social services.

Prior to the military coup of 1976, Argentina was one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America. It was the envy of the developing world, with strong labor laws and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent. But after seven years of brutal military dictatorship — which were marked by widespread torture and the “disappearance” of 30,000 political opponents — followed by a string of pro-free market governments, these progressive policies were eroded.

By the 1990s, Argentina was viewed by the West as a poster-child for embracing neoliberal policies championed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But when the speculation- driven economic bubble of the 1990s burst in December 2001, the country’s banking system collapsed. Business owners declared bankruptcy, fired scores of workers and moved their money offshore, resulting in a capital flight of $18.7 billion in 2001.

Argentine civil society responded through popular revolt against the government and economic elite. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and toppled four governments in a matter of weeks. Factory takeovers were commonplace, and violent clashes with police led to dozens of civilian deaths over the next several years.

In 2002, the unemployment rate was 25 percent, with another 20 percent of workers underemployed and 60 percent of the country living in poverty. Workers began taking over factories in an attempt to reclaim their livelihoods.

Argentina’s economy began recovering from the collapse in 2003. From 2003 to 2008, for “most recovered factories, the priority was growing economically, finding capital, or raising capital through work. Most of them have done pretty well, while others have just survived,” said Esteban Magnani, who has worked extensively with the recovered-business movement in Argentina and is the author of The Silent Change: Recovered Businesses in Argentina.

By early 2007, more than 170 businesses were worker-run, though the vast majority were not recognized by the government as legal businesses.

Members of the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative credit La Base, the Argentine-based counterpart of the U.S. micro-finance organization The Working World, as well as the broader community of groups that support worker-run cooperatives, with the factory’s continued success.

This support network proved to be invaluable when the workers returned to the factory to reclaim it and discovered that most of the plant’s machinery had been removed.

With help from the Employees and Supervisors Union and a $15,000 loan from La Base, the workers were able to buy back the equipment before it was sold at the auction block as well as purchase raw materials. But the process was far from easy. For many months, workers went without paychecks, and only 33 of the original 200 workers chose to remain in the cooperative. Of the workers that left, some have found work while many are still unemployed.

The Working World, founded by Brendan Martin in 2004, offers collateral-free loans with no enforcement mechanism for repayment. While the interest rates on the loans given to Huesitos de Wilde range from 10 to 18 percent, the repayment rate for all Working World loans is 98 percent.

Though the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative has managed to keep its factory doors open, the workers still do not own the property. They could be evicted at anytime. While Huesitos de Wilde only received preliminary approval last February under the law of expropriations, they must continue producing so they can pay off the debt owed by the former owner, thus keeping them in a state of legal limbo until they receive final approval and can be granted ownership of the factory.

According to Magnani, while the state has indicated that expropriation laws, which would provide cooperatives with legal permission to use owner assets, might be enacted, the legal support provided by this legislation would be weak.

“The future of the recovered factories, both the new and the old, is still uncertain,” Magnani said. “Of the older ones, just a few have managed to get the property of assets.”

Despite the challenges facing the workers at Huesitos de Wilde, the state of worker-run cooperatives in the United States is still far behind Argentina.

Late last year, more than 250 fired workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago held a successful six-day sit-in demanding vacation and severance pay.

While the factory remains open after recently being purchased by California-based Serious Materials, a company that manufactures green building supplies, only 15 of the workers have been able to return to work since May, as production has been slow. Serious Materials hopes that an infusion of federal stimulus funds for weatherization will increase demand for the company’s products and allow them to re-hire all 250 workers.

Though the workers did consider the possibility of taking over the factory themselves, Mark Meinster, a representative of United Electrical Workers, the union to which the Republic workers belong, told The Indypendent earlier this year that the lack of a recovered-factory movement in the United States made this an unlikely possibility.(Sounds like the old "You First Jack"- Molly)

“The fact that no real movement of worker-run enterprises exists in the U.S. makes this option much more difficult at this point,” Meinster said.

Despite the current global recession, the Huesitos de Wilde Cooperative is thriving, and has recently hired eight more employees. The workers remain optimistic, regardless of their lack of legal ownership of the factory.

“The truth is that you can work without a boss. We have learned that you can continue … and you can succeed,” Alejandra said.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-RUSSIA:

RUSSIAN AUTOWORKERS CALL FOR WORKERS' CONTROL:

Here's an item from the Moscow News about a recent protest by autoworkers at the AvtoVAZ works in Russia. Note that, as usual, the protest was in response to planned layoffs. Note also that it gathered far more participants than expected. Molly would also like the reader to note that the "official" union response ie calling for nationalization is very much beside the point. the plant is, for all intents and purposes, nationalized already, and the demand for workers' control by "union activists" is far more relevant than nationalizing an already nationalized company.

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AvtoVAZ protest prompts inquiry:

Ayano Hodouchi
A protest rally by 2,000 AvtoVAZ car workers on Thursday prompted the state corporation running the factory to threaten to fire troublemakers, while President Dmitry Medvedev reacted to workers' complaints of mismanagement by announcing an inquiry into state-run companies.

The protest, organized by the Edinstvo, or Unity, trade union, went off without incident, although many more than the planned 500 participants attended. Union leader Pyotr Zolotaryov called for AvtoVAZ to be nationalised, and union activists said the plant should come under workers' control.

AvtoVAZ, which is controlled by state corporation Russian Technologies, announced last month it was sending workers on an enforced furlough for August and slashing hours and wages in half starting in September. The company has denied it has plans to fire 26,000 employees - one-quarter of the workforce at its giant plant.

Analysts fear there may be social unrest in Tolyatti, a city of 700,000, on a much larger scale than in Pikalyovo, a small Leningrad region town where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intervened in June to get three factories reopened and back wages paid.

Vladislav Kapustin, minister of industry, energy and technology in the Samara region government, said that AvtoVAZ did not need any more state support for the time being. "AvtoVAZ makes as many cars as it sells," Kapustin told RIA Novosti, adding that the situation may worsen in the case of a second wave of the economic crisis many analysts fear will come this autumn.

Kapustin also said that regional authorities planned to offer extra part-time work to 22,000 AvtoVAZ employees to make up for short-time working.

Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov, a close ally of Putin's, told reporters in Ankara last week that he is confident AvtoVAZ sales would grow again in August. "In July, sales volumes expanded by 12 per cent to 15 per cent, in August, that figure will grow even more," RIA Novosti quoted Chemezov.

Chemezov slammed the workers' protests as "provocative", adding: "There are people who are not at all happy that we are in the factory. They have been asked to leave."

He reiterated that mass layoffs would not take place at the factory if sales recovered and the market stabilised, Vremya Novostey reported.

AvtoVAZ's press service declined to comment on Monday on who the company wanted to dismiss.

On Thursday, Medvedev removed Chemezov from a presidential committee for economic modernisation, the Kremlin's press service said. Vedomosti reported that his removal may have been due to the fact that he was not an active enough participant in the committee, according to sources close to the Kremlin.

Seemingly putting more pressure on Chemezov, Medvedev on Friday ordered a probe into the activities of state corporations, including Russian Technologies. According to the Kremlin website, Medvedev ordered Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and the head of the Kremlin's oversight department, Konstantin Chuichenko, to investigate the activities of state-owned corporations, and in particular, the use of state funds.

The probe may be aimed at addressing workers' complaints, rather than preparing any drastic changes.

"A change of management is possible but not very likely," said Ivan Bonchev, an auto industry analyst at Ernst & Young.

"It is one of the options, but not the most likely one."

CANADIAN LABOUR-SOUTHERN ONTARIO:

CIVIC WORKER STRIKES IN ONTARIO:

The strike of city workers in Windsor Ontario has now now entered the realm of "months" while that of city workers in Toronto is working towards the one month post. The provincial government of Ontario has been reluctant to legislate the workers involved back to work. Molly suspects that this is because, in a climate of economic crisis, the province hopes that the end result of the strike will be the "breaking" of the unions involved. Perhaps the conservative provincial government is more realistic than the so-called "leftist" administration of Toronto who no doubt would welcome any face saving intervention from the provincial government.

As these strikes drag on and more are threatened (see below) Molly's main question is how can the workers involved bring the situation to a successful conclusion, and do more "radical" tactics have to be employed. Molly is a "libertarian socialist". What that means in plain English is that she believe that the majority of the economy should be "socialized", not by nationalization, but rather by converting it to producers' cooperatives. I have often harped on this blog about the utility of "workplace occupations", and there is little doubt that these tactics are much more effective than traditional picketing and strike action in bringing the bosses to heel. can these be used in a 'public service' situation ? I'm agnostic about this, but it is something to consider. On a greater note, is it possible that the public services of various cities could be better delivered by self-managed workers' cooperatives ? Could garbage collection, for instance, be better managed by a cooperative in which the workers are the "shareholders", rather than having it managed either as a government enterprise or a private business ? It may be a thought to consider as these strikes drag on and on.

Could a producers' cooperative be "competitive" with private enterprise. First of all it would be better for the consumer than a government monopoly simply because it would automatically shed hugely expensive layers of bureaucracy. Its costs would also be transparent, unlike present municipal operations. I personally believe that, in the end, it would also be competitive vis-a-vis private contractors because there would be no need to produce profit for non-workers.

Is such a "solution" in the interests of the workers involved. I am not too sure of this. Setting out on your own as a cooperative involves the same sort of willingness to take risks as is involved in setting out in business on your own. Could the benefits so far gained from previous city contracts be preserved ? Maybe yes. Maybe no. The balance of whether taking such a risk is worthwhile depends upon just how savage the city administrations want to be. What Molly suggests, without demanding any ideological certainty from the people involved, is that the workers in these situations do some calculations as to the costs and benefits of trying something quite different. Not being immediately involved it is hard for me to suggest any firm way to go. All that i suggest is that there is an alternative to simply holding out on strike. Should people want to "take the risk" the FIRST action would be workplace occupations.

OK, that's the ideological prologue. Here's the news from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) about the latest offer from Windsor city workers to resolve the dispute in their city.

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CUPE puts settlement to City of Windsor:
Negotiations between locals 82 and 543 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the City of Windsor have been adjourned today.

The union has put forward a proposal to resolve the labor dispute and have requested the employer bargaining committee to bring the proposal for settlement to City council members.
No details of the proposal will be released by either party at this time.

CUPE local 82, representing outside workers, have been on strike since Wednesday, April 15th. Their colleagues of local 543, the inside workers, joined the picket line on Saturday, April 18th.

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The antagonism between city administrations and their workers is hardly confined to the cities-Toronto and Windsor- in which there are active strikes. Many other cities, in Ontario and elsewhere are presently in conflict with their workers, either in contract negotiations or in a "propaganda war". The claims of city adminstrations actually have very little to do with the present financial crisis. In some cases, such as here in Winnipeg, they are the long standing result of a "tax freeze". In some cases there is no "crisis whatsoever. In some the "crisis" is the result of civic give-aways to private interests In others there is no "crisis" to speak of, and the "crisis" is only a bargaining excuse. Where there is not a strike situation Molly's "radical remedy" of a producer cooperative obviously has less appeal- to say the least. I would, however, like to implant this idea as an alternative to consider.

Here's another story from CUPE about yet another city in southern Ontario where the city is trying to download a real or fictitious crisis onto its workers.

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Open letter to the Mayor and Council of the City of Brantford:

Dear Mayor Hancock and Councillors Littell, Kinneman, Sless, Bucci, McCreary, Martin, Carpenter, Calnan, Bradford and Ceschi-Smith:

We are writing on behalf of over 500 Brantford city workers who provide vital public services to the residents of our city.

The unions representing public works, housing, welfare, libraries, water and hydro, city transportation and parks and recreation workers have formed a Labour Coalition to stand up to the City’s public positions against unionized workers and their collective agreements.

Collectively we are requesting that city leaders stop using the recession to target workers and our collective agreements. As city workers and long-time residents of our community, we are happy to work with senior elected officials and management to overcome this global economic downturn. But we will not participate in any actions that undermine the collective bargaining process including the City’s request to open up existing collective agreements.

We are fully aware of the global economic downturn that is affecting everyone. We remind you this global recession was not caused by workers. We expect the leaders of this city to show leadership and work with us to find innovative ways to overcome this downturn. Targeting unionized workers and undermining the collective bargaining process is simply a non starter and could set back labour relations for years to come.

As city workers and full-time residents of our community we know intimately the strength, vibrancy and the current and potential growth of City of Brantford. So it came as a surprise and disappointment when senior management shared the City’s ‘Economic Position and Budget Direction’ report with us.

We question the ‘doom and gloom’ picture the report tries to portray. This predominantly negative report seems to be missing important sections including current stimulus activities (such as the approved federal stimulus plan for the re-build of the Wayne Gretzky Arena and others that create local jobs) and a pro-active strategy by the City to combat this economic downturn. Surely a report of this nature should show a full and complete picture including jobs created in growth sectors and what the leaders plan to do to attract new investment to lead us out of this economic wilderness.

As public servants, we are happy to help senior leaders and work with management to outline the current growth in our diversified economy (a pro-active diversification strategy adopted by the City to combat the recession from the early 90’s) that is not identified in the report and help you find savings including bringing back many public services that have been contracted out to private companies that cost more to the city. This is an opportunity to bring these contracted services in-house so the city can have cost savings with more control and greater accountability over public services.

As requested by the City, we are in the process of identifying savings that will help the city finances and will be happy to share this with you once our report is completed.

In closing, this coalition is urging elected officials and senior management to work respectfully with city workers. As city workers begin negotiations on Monday, July 13, 2009 we expect a fair bargaining process that will lead us to fair collective settlements.

Working together, like we have done with our coalition, is the positive solution to move the City of Brantford forward.
Respectfully,
The City of Brantford Labour Coalition
Phil Hotte, President of Amalgamated Transit Union 685

Ryan Hantz, Vice-President of International Brotherhood of Electrical (Power) 636

John Longo, President of International Brotherhood of Electrical (Water) 636

Jeff Van Wyk, President of CUPE 181

Jane Davidson, City Hall Unit Chair of CUPE 181

Angelo Mancini, Parks, Cemeteries and Recreation Unit Chair of CUPE 181

Glen Quackenbush, Public Works Unit Chair of CUPE 181

Karen Gamble, Library Unit Chair of CUPE 181

Shawn MacKeigan, Ontario Works Brant Unit Chair of CUPE 181

Anne Derosse, Housing Unit Chair of CUPE 181
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