The conflict has taken on a political dimension that is so big that even those who have a narrow view of the working class struggle (who only see the class struggle as workers against their bosses), in light of all the evidence, they must admit that it encompasses much more. After 50 days of struggle, the US embassy, the national and provincial government, the courts, the chamber of deputes, in the executive dinners and meetings, amongst the CGT and the CTA, on political TV and radio programs, on the pages of all of the newspapers throughout Argentina and the world, even in Hugo Chavez’s humorous reference in the UN, in factories, offices and classrooms everyone is talking about the great Kraft workers struggle and its implications. The impact of the conflict became so big that it even reached the Clarin’s political comics. It has been decades since there has been a conflict of this magnitude and importance. Because of this situation the court was forced to call for a ruling that obligates the company to immediately reincorporate Ramon Bogado (Shop Steward) in the Kraft plant. Before Tuesday the 6th, after the hearing in the Ministry of Labor, where the company promised to reincorporate 20 more workers, the CGT had to change their position. In front of almost all of the Central Advisors, Moyano, taking back his attack on the Kraft workers, when he had accused them of being “ultra-leftist”, said that his words were “misunderstood”. The CGT vocalized their support for the Kraft workers, but they refused to meet the Kraft Shop Stewards demands and call for a national strike. A month ago the Ministry of Labor had refused to extend the Obligatory Conciliation and were now pressured to say they were going to use the public forces to help the worker delegates enter the Kraft plant. Because of the overwhelming support that the Kraft workers are receiving from the public the government has tried to cover up the images of the government ordered repression in the Kraft plant, thus demonstrating the crisis that this workers struggle is causing for the Kirchner administration. Scioli has promised to remove some of the police from the plant, which proves that he has been the one responsible for the militarization in the Kraft plant. Last week 29 of the fired and suspended workers returned to their jobs, and although many of them supporters of the trade union caucus “Green List”, which is the slate loyal to Daer (the general Secretary of the Food Industry Workers’ Union (STIA); however, the few activists that were allowed to return, lifted the workers spirits.

These changes began to have an effect inside the plant. The feeling of constant fear began to break down. The morning shift workers, who had been struggling for more than a month under the constant pressure from factory managers and police, were once again ready to continue the struggle. They heard songs and they began to boo the scabs. On the night shift the encouragement and support for the reincorporation of the workers pressured the bosses to react and as a punishment they wanted to change their shifts. Everything is just beginning, but these are the chances we have to take so that the fired workers are reincorporated. The reincorporation of Bogado has been a big help in organizing the factory workers struggle from within the plant, while they fight for the reincorporation of all of the fired workers as well as stop the company’s plans to speed up the production line and implementing more discipline. Despite what the company and Daer says, the factory workers were a fundamental factor in the historic 37 day strike, during which the workers stopped production. The workers outside of the plant analyzed how to proceed and what were the necessary next steps. Meanwhile, the demonstrations and marches continued like last Tuesday in the march from Plaza de Mayo to the UIA, despite the unexplainable boycott by the CCC, the MST and the PO, who had only sent a small number of supporters to the march.

The unity between the most active sectors (most of who work the night shift and have been fired) with the majority of the factory workers has played an important role and always will. Those who don’t understand this won’t understand what happened in Kraft. Now the fight is for the reincorporation of all of the fired workers, the factory delegates and for the Shop Stewards and for all of the workers. We won’t be divided.
Although the enemies have been forced to change their position on the conflict, this doesn’t mean that they’re willing to hand the victory over to the workers. They want to leave the activists, worker delegates and some of the Shop Stewards out in order to make the factory as “domesticated” as possible, where the active participation of workers in decisions about struggles and demands would be nothing more than a memory. They repressed the workers and offered them 2 or 3 times more for severance pay; they tried to do everything they could to break them down, but they couldn’t. And now they want to divide them.

How do they want to do it? Last week Noemi Rial expressed his view and now it’s their official stance: in a press conference the company said that they would be willing to abide by the courts ruling on delegates’ reincorporation except for Hermosilla, his case would be thrown out, in turn protecting themselves behind the court’s ruling. The truth is that Javier “Poke” Hermosilla has a ruling against him, but it only states that he isn’t allowed to return to his normal work tasks and it doesn’t keep him from returning to the plant. If they were to give him a tribunal it would be unconstitutional and in violation of the delegates’ basic rights. So? If the court rules in favor of Jorge Penayo, María Rosario and Alfonso Arcadio, like they did in Bogado’s case, and allow them to return to their jobs, then why the Ministry of Labor just like the company and the bureaucratic union, Daer, will want to separate Hermosilla from the rest of the Shop Stewards?

The Night Shift

Javier is the one of the night shift workers, that despite being the smallest shift it has the highest amount of fired workers. The company wants to super-exploit the remaining workers by implementing what they call the American shift (12 hours). At the same time they want to get rid of the most combative workers, many of whom work the night shift, along with Poke and the other delegates. They demonstrated their drive to struggle in more then one occasion, starting with the roadblocks. There were always more night shift workers present during the morning shift of the Pan American, which had the most impact. Like La Nacion newspaper stated, it’s the most experienced shift. This is the shift that they want to defeat and get rid of. The night shift contains 60% of the fired and suspended workers, 90% of the delegates were fired and 15% of all of the shifts workers were sacked.

The company justified the firings by accusing the workers of violent acts and kidnappings on July 3rd amidst the peak of the H1N1 pandemic. But apart from this false accusation nobody, including the company, can explain why they fired over 80 workers from the shift that entered the plant an hour after the supposed violent acts and kidnappings. This is an extremely weak argument.

The night shift had become stronger since March, when Oscar Coria and other brothers and sisters were elected as sector delegates. Poke and Oscar are members of the STIA’s (Food Industry Workers’ Union) Association of Members from Below, which includes Shop Stewards of Pepsico like the historic leaders Leonardo Norniella and Katy Balaguer, as well as members in many other factories in the northern industrial area of Buenos Aires. The PTS participates and propels this association in the union and is defined as class-conscious because it’s independent from the State and any kind of political business owners. The attack on the night shift workers is just the beginning of a plan to get rid of any kind of organization that’s independent of the bureaucracy within the factory. That’s why we can’t let the company, the courts, the Ministry of Labor and the bureaucratic union lead by Daer divide the workers. Everyone join together to support the reincorporation of all of the workers, the Shop Stewards and the worker delegates.

The diversionist tactics are aimed to make us weak and lead us to defeat or feed us their lines that “hey, there’s just nothing more that you can win”. All that we can win in this historic struggle will depend on maintaining unity; despite our differences we have always upheld the “reincorporation of all of the workers”. That’s how a representative from the CI put it: EVERYONE IN THE PLANT, THEY WON’T DIVIDE US.