Mexican Workers Win Ownership of Tire Plant With Three-Year Strike

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15570-mexican-workers-win-ownership-of-tire-plant-with-three-year-strike

Saturday, 06 April 2013 09:44 By Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes | Report

“If the owners don’t want it, let’s run it ourselves.” When a factory closes, the idea of turning it into a worker-owned co-operative sometimes comes up—and usually dies.

The hurdles to buying a plant, even a failing plant, are huge, and once in business, the new worker-owners face all the pressures that helped the company go bankrupt in the first place. Most worker-owned co-ops are small, such as a taxi collective in Madison or a bakery in San Francisco.

But in Mexico a giant-sized worker cooperative has been building tires since 2005. The factory competes on the world market, employs 1,050 co-owners, and pays the best wages and pensions of any Mexican tire plant.

Aware that this unusual victory is virtually unknown in the U.S., friends in Guadalajara urged me to come down and see how the TRADOC cooperative is working.

FULL story at link.

[Lobo27]

1. I'm amazed by the the plan they set up for pension.

Essentially their workers are gonna get equal to or more then retiree gets in the US. Makes it seem like the Mexicans are getting their shit together when ours is falling apart. I sometimes wonder if the immigrant rate will ever reverse. Seems their economy is doing great, and they have or will have healthcare for all by the end of the year. Hell, a friend at work has told me that as long as someone in the family pays taxes all get healthcare. I know Mexico gets a bad rap because of the cartels and immigration, but it really seems like our neighbors down south are working really hard to better themselves.

[Mnpaul]

2. The workers at this plant earn a higher retirement

than many Americans. Their version of SS pays them $1500 a month which probably is a lot of money in Mexico.

[hay rick]

3. Inspirational.

Thanks for posting this.