Bolivia's President Evo Morales issued a government decree on October 7 that allows workers to establish “social enterprises” in businesses that are bankrupt, winding up, unjustifiably closed or abandoned.
These enterprises, while private, will be operated by the workers and qualify for government assistance.
Morales issued Supreme Decree 1754 at a ceremony in the presidential palace marking the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the General Confederation of Industrial Workers of Bolivia (CGTFB). Minister of Labour Daniel Santalla said the decree was issued to comply with article 54 of Bolivia’s new constitution.
The article says workers “in defence of their workplaces and protection of the social interest may, in accordance with the law, reactivate and reorganize firms that are undergoing bankruptcy, creditor proceedings or liquidation, or closed or abandoned without justification, and may form communitarian or social enterprises.
“The state will contribute to the action of the workers.”
In his remarks to the audience of several hundred unionists, Morales noted that employers often try to blackmail workers with threats to shut down when faced with demands for higher wages.
“Now,” he said, “if they threaten you in that way, the firm may as well go bankrupt or close, because you will become the owners. They will be new social enterprises.”
Santalla said the constitutional article had already been used to establish some firms, such as Enatex, Instrabol and Traboltex, and that more such firms could now be set up under the new decree.
Business spokespeople predictably warned the new provisions would be a disincentive to private investment and risk the viability of companies.
Santalla said firms that do not comply with their workforce obligations under the law will lose preferential mechanisms to export their products to state-managed markets.
He cited some recent cases in which the government had intervened in defence of workers victimized for their attempts to form unions. In one case last month, Burger King was fined 30,000 Bolivianos (about $4500), ordered to reinstate the fired workers and to recognise the union.
[Reprinted from Richard Fidler's blog, Life On the Left. Fidler has also translated an article from Rebelion by Alfredo Rada, Bolivia’s deputy minister of coordination with the social movements. It draws attention to some important developments within the country’s labour movement and suggests some means by which the unions can be more effectively incorporated within the “process of change” being championed by the government of the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples. It can be read at Fidler's blog.]
