Positive Factors in the Consolidation of Enterprises Recuperated by Their Workers in Argentina

Abstract

Enterprises recuperation by their workers in Argentina refers to processes of reconversion of capitalist enterprises into worker cooperatives originated in the collective action of employees in defense of their labor source. Based on our interest in the transformation that these experiences have been able to sustain over time, this article intends to analyze the positive factors in their consolidation as cooperative companies. The methodological strategy is based on a comparative and, at the same time, individual analysis of 10 consolidated recuperated enterprises. The techniques used are semi-structured interviews with key informants of the enterprises, non-participant observation, and documentary analysis. Our hypothesis sets forth that the main factors that positively contribute to consolidation are: the resources that are inherited from the failed enterprise, the hegemony of a cooperative project that gives relevance to economic management, the ownership of the means of production, the production of commercially competitive goods and services within a framework of plural economic exchanges, and the involvement in political and social networks.