Honeywell, Zanon, and Republic
It's easy to forget that there's any industry left in Springfield until the company announces they're moving the jobs to Mexico. It's even sadder that the Honeywell Hobbs plant has been here for 71 years. Apparently, the company is showing its patriotic support for American workers with the usual negotiated severance pay and retraining for jobs with lower pay.
It reminds me of the Zanon factory workers featured in The Take, shown in Springfield last June. A few months ago the regional legislature in Argentina voted to give the employees full legal ownership of the factory. It's a final victory after eight years of struggle by workers who were laid off when the company moved to a cheaper labor market.
FASINPAT has operated under worker control since 2001 when Zanon's owners decided to close its doors and fire the workers without paying months of back pay or severance pay. Leading up to the massive layoffs and plant's closure, workers went on strike in 2000. The owner, Luis Zanon, with over 75 million dollars in debt to public and private creditors (including the World Bank for over 20 million dollars), fired en masse most of the workers and closed the factory in 2001-a bosses' lockout. In October 2001, workers declared the plant under worker control. The workers subsequently camped outside the factory for four months, pamphleteering and partially blocking a highway leading to the capital city of Neuquén.
The closest we've seen to this in the United States is the Republic Windows sit-in. Strikes like that one used to be broken up by police or militia decades ago, but it's hard to imagine that happening today in a city governed by a labor-friendly Mayor and Governor.
Hopefully actions like that aren't necessary at the Springfield Hobbs plant, but American employees need to think about new tactics if we're going to save what's left of our manufacturing economy.