Argentina's Worker-Recuperated Enterprises, 2010-2013: A Synthesis of Recent Empirical Findings

Abstract

Argentina’s empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores (worker-recuperated enterprises, ERTs) are formerly investor- or privately-owned businesses in crisis ultimately taken over and re-opened by their employees, most commonly as worker cooperatives. Since 2002, the Programa Facultad Abierta (Open Faculty Program) of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the University of Buenos Aires has carried out a series of national studies of Argentina’s ERTs. The aim of this article is to present the conclusions of the fourth survey of Argentina’s ERTs carried out by the Facultad Abierta. This survey focused on ERTs that emerged between March 2010 and December 2013, providing the most complete and up-to-date database of the characteristics of Argentina’s ERTs, and showing evidence of a wave of new worker-recuperated enterprises emerging in the postcrisis years, especially since 2010. The key findings presented in this article include: the political economic reasons for the emergence of ERTs; the characteristics of the growing ERT movement today as compared to earlier ERTs; the nature of the conflicts and issues leading to the creation of Argentina’s new ERTs; a critical analysis of new legal frameworks for ERT firms, comparing and contrasting them to older legal outlets for their formation; and the involvement of unions with Argentina’s ERTs.