As the smell of freshly baked pizzas wafts from the brick ovens, employees of Empire Pizzeria tell how they've kept this 32-year-old institution afloat since its owners abandoned them last October, leaving a heavy burden of debt.
Mozzarella and tomato sauce have become unlikely weapons in their fight to maintain their jobs amid the turmoil of Argentina's four-year recession. Choosing entrepreneurship over joblessness, the 30 workers created a cooperative and took the bankrupt business over.
The restaurant is unique; factories and shops are the typical failing businesses that are taken over by employees fighting to keep their jobs in an economic crisis rivaling the Great Depression.
With 22 percent of Argentines out of work and half living in poverty, Empire's survival now ensures that chefs and waiters will maintain their livelihoods.
"If we were not running the business, we would be out on the street," said Luis Pinilla, a jovial waiter who has served up pizza and small talk for the loyal neighborhood crowd for 26 years. "Most of us are over 50 and no employer wants someone our age."
Since Oct. 1, Pinilla has been president of the cooperative, paying overdue salaries, four years of back rent and settling debts. The fact that workers at Empire have struck back underscores the struggle of entire working-class communities to survive the country's economic crisis. The pizzeria is one of about 100 bankrupt Argentine businesses now in the hands of workers after the original owners went bust or fled.
Jose Abelli, a former meat packer, has united these companies into a single organization, the 2-year-old National Movement of Rescued Businesses.
"We did not plan on becoming entrepreneurs but we were left with no other option," said Abelli, the organization's secretary.
The businesses provide employment to 10,000 Argentines in a dismal job market. Although small compared to the country's 15 million-strong labor force, its supporters say they believe the movement is a start to ending the economic crisis and rebuilding the country.
Analysts say the growing trend of workers-turned-entrepreneurs reflects larger problems that may in part explain how the country slid into economic turmoil last year.
"When things became difficult, the owners fled instead of reorganizing their businesses as they do in other countries," said Jorge Schvarzer, an economist at the University of Buenos Aires.
Some say many businesses struggled to find their footing during the last decade, as a flood of foreign-owned businesses began investing in Argentina as then-President Carlos Menem opened the economy to foreign investment, increasing competition.
Some business owners, already weary of the country's seemingly endless boom-and-bust cycles, struggled to adapt, leaving companies like Empire Pizzeria to fall into bankruptcy.
The government has helped worker-run companies, with the passage of a law giving employees a legal right to control the businesses either through cooperatives or under the state's ownership.
The government also provides small and medium-business loans and technical assistance. Empire Pizzeria will soon receive a US$17,000 loan to help the cooperative reorganize and possibly expand to a different location within the neighborhood.
This helping hand has sparked optimism in Empire's workers, not only about the fate of the pizzeria but the country's future.
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