News

JUDGE DECLARED THE FACTORY BANKRUPT

ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS LEGAL RECOGNITION OF THE FASINPAT COOPERATIVE

On Friday August 5th Judge Rafael Barreiro, of Commercial Court #18 in Buenos Aires, declared the bankrupcy of the Zanon factory in response to a request from the E Appeals Court. Luis Zanon, who was convicted of owner’s lock out (illegal stripping of the factory’s assets) and displaced from the board of directors for fraudulent administration, has now lost all control over the factory.

There is now a concrete opportunity for the judge to recognize the workers’ control over the factory through the Fasinpat cooperative, a demand put forward by the ceramic workers more than a year ago. In the ruling, the judge indicates his intention for the plant’s trustees to take over, clearly trying to condition the handover of the factory to the workers’ cooperative.

The ceramics workers, having administered the factory for almost 4 years, with 475 jobs and producing over 300,000 metres a month, continue to demand a political solution to this conflict, including the expropriation of the factory in order to use earnings to meet the social needs of the community.

We have already demanded the definitive expropriation of the factory under workers’ control on numerous occasions through bills introduced both to Jorge Sobisch’s provincial government and Nestor Kirchner’s national government, without any concrete responses as of yet.

In this new stage of the struggle we call on all regional organizations in solidarity with the Zanon workers’ struggle to attend a meeting tomorrow, Friday August 12th at the Ceramics Union Building (Las Heras and C. H. Rodríguez) at 7 PM.

Zanon Press.

Translated by Fernando Rouaux and Shana Yael Shubs