A labor center in Buenos Aires

This morning we took the subway downtown to the Taller de Estudios Laborales (TEL) -- which means labor studies center or labor studies workshop. There we met with the director, Daniel Ximenez, who told us all about their work. TEL is an independent center that works closely with union activists from many sectors: metal workers, telecommunications, teachers, food service, transportation, professionals, brewery workers, subway drivers, and more. They use popular education model to help workers to come up with new solutions to the problems they face in the workplace. They call it "building new knowledge" with union activists, because the problems they are facing now are different than anything that has happened in the past, and they need new approaches. Daniel compared TEL to Labor Notes, because of its focus on democratic grassroots leadership. But TEL does not have a regular publication and Daniel stressed that TEL does not take sides in internal union disputes -- they work with any group of workers who want to take a leadership role and improve their workplace or their union.

Daniel talked about the changes in the labor movement in Argentina over the past two decades. In 2001, after the economic collapse, workers were very afraid to participate in workplace actions or unions. Unemployment levels were above 25 percent and workers who had jobs could not risk losing them. Only once the economy improved did the labor movement start to gain strength again. Daniel was optimistic about the labor movement -- he said that in the last six years there has been a real recovery and workers are mobilizing. Two weeks ago, on Labor Day (May 1), over 300,000 workers demonstrated in the streets of Buenos Aires. The metal workers union grew from 70,000 workers in 2002 to 250,000 workers today. Daniel argued that the Argentine experience shows that when the economic situation is at its worst, people are not likely to protest. "People mobilize when they think they can achieve something better -- not because things are bad."

After a while, he was joined by a woman named Marianela, from an organization called FOL (Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha). They organize unemployed workers and "precarious" workers -- they estimate that 40 percent of workers are in positions that are not covered by the law, or part-time, or temporary, or otherwise marginal. Marianela talked about how her group has done many different things to mobilize these workers and improve their situations. The workers have created their own cooperative businesses (bakeries, carpentry, brick-making, building) to meet the needs of the workers themselves. They have protested and won changes in the law, so that even workers not covered by labor law are able to receive a subsidized salary from the state. They have done all kinds of direct action and creative protests to push the legislature to do the right thing, and they have been quite successful. We were all impressed with her work and her energy, and we made plans to go visit her organization later on.

Finally, just as we were getting ready to leave for lunch, a leader of the new union of subway drivers came by. Joaquin, who was wearing a Labor Notes "Troublemakers" sweatshirt, came to lunch with us and talked about his work. He also invited us to come to their office to participate in one of their regular "political discussions," as well as to a meeting that is happening tomorrow afternoon. Our schedule is already so busy, but everyone was excited about the work of TEL and FOL and we're trying to figure out a way to have more time to meet with workers, both the unemployed and union activists.