Dita (Factory)

</image> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Level</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> </infobox>Dita is a detergent factory in Tusla, Bosnia and Herzegovina which has been under workers' control since June of 2015. In June 2015 workers at Dita detergent factory in Tusla, following bankrupcy, look over the factory to stop it becoming derelict.  Following repairs, particularly to the roof and steamline, they have gone back into production as a workers' cooperative.  The following is a short piece from the Sarajavo Times.  Hope to have a fuller story soon. "After months of hard work and effort in the Tuzla detergent factory Dita, the production of powder detergent Arix Tenzo started yesterday. First packaging of Arix are already getting ready for the market and they will be soon on the shelves of Bingo, who financed the raw materials for 140 tons of this detergent, and later on the shelves of other shopping centers as well. We managed to repair the steam line, 70 % of the raw materials are imported, and Bingo has provided us with raw materials, same as for liquid products,” said President of the labor union of Dita Mehmedovic Dzevad. “This concluded program for Dita,” he said, adding that Dita returned to its original position, and that it can work as 10 years ago. Arix is returning on the market with 18 raw materials as high quality detergent. The export of Arix was also announced, primarily 25 tons for Kosovo. Employees in Dita are expecting to have a lot of work to do. Six new experts started to work in Dita, and they will need more manpower. Tatjana Paunoski, employee in the Office for public relations of company Bingo, recalled that Bingo supported Dita in the production of liquid detergent “3de” in June, emphasizing that Bingo financed 138 tons of raw materials for the production of powder detergent, and expressed satisfaction that Arix Tenzo will be present in homes of many citizens.

Reclaiming the factory: a story from Bosnia

Privatisation processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina have gradually destroyed workers' rights and ownership. But there are stories of hope and resistance emerging from this battered country.

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Workers on break in Tuzla, Bosnia. Flickr/Kingmoor Klickr. Some rights reserved.Privatisation processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the 1990s onwards have gradually transferred ownership and power from the socialist state to private entrepreneurs. As elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the world, this process, in most cases, was accompanied by a large number of lay-offs. Company assets floated in the market and were bought and sold at unusually low prices, dismantling large factories and industrial giants of former Yugoslavia.

Financialisation/globalisation became embedded in Bosnia especially in the wake of the Dayton Accords. The workers, who were once deemed to be the owners of the enterprise, overnight became proletarians, deprived of fundamental rights and any form of possession over the production process. This was pretty much the case across the entire East-Central Europe, although the case of Yugoslav socialism was different, as the workers, through the self-management system, had had a much more direct control of the means and objects of their production units than anywhere else in the so-called countries of “really-existing socialism”.

Yugoslavia’s dissolution and transition to free market capitalism was also different in that it set in motion a bizarre process of primitive ethno-accumulation, i.e. primitive accumulation on the basis of ethnocratic-conflictual lines. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a typical example.

Among the many examples of the negative effects of privatisation processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one that was under the media spotlight in the past two years, is the case of “Dita” detergents factory from Tuzla, an industrial city in the central part of North-East Bosnia. The factory was privatised in two rounds (2001 and 2005) and become part of retail chain, “Lora”, from Sarajevo, who owned the majority of shares. The privatisation of “Dita” resulted in more than 20 million Euros in debt for the enterprise and over 20 wages being unpaid, affecting a four-year retirement plan, also due.

In the end, this led to the official bankruptcy of the enterprise. A series of workers' strikes ensued in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The 2014 February protests started as joint protests of workers from several factories and enterprises in Tuzla (Dita, Konjuh, Aida) requesting the government of the Tuzla Canton to resolve the outstanding issues and waive the blame attributed to workers. The workers claimed that the cause of the crisis was and is the privatisation process and irresponsible management. These protests turned out to be the trigger for wider social protests in several cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In early 2015, the Tuzla Canton government decided to revise the privatisation process of several enterprises, including “Dita”, starting an orderly bankruptcy procedure in view of enabling the creditors to get their money back while creating possibilities for re-launching and reviving production. The problem with the bankruptcy procedure (according to the existing legal framework) is that the workers are the last in the list of priorities: the “investors” and bureaucratic agencies will have to be paid first, and whatever is left over would go to the unpaid wages, pensions etc.  

A sparkle of hope for the workers themselves is actually their own efforts for restarting production and trying to save what is possible to be saved in order to keep their jobs and eventually have their salaries paid. In June 2015, the Union of Workers of “Dita”, and the bankruptcy manager, reached an agreement to restart some of the production lines (since much of the production lines are in need of repairs for which there is no money available).

The plan is to start with production of some famous (in former Yugoslavia) products and support for this initiative is enlisted by civil society actors and people across the country (mainly expressed through support on Facebook and calls for support for purchasing “Dita” products). Some of the supermarket chains have already decided to support the efforts of “Dita” workers by buying their products and making them available on their stores' shelves. However, this all is just a trial version of activities to be tested and any form of continuity has to be decided by the shareholders’ assembly to be held on 30 June 2015.

Will these efforts take root or quickly fade away? Does this mean that the spirit of the workers’ self-management is coming back in advanced and mature post-socialist colours, emblematically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most ethnically fragmented region of the former Yugoslavia in which primitive accumulation was criss-crossed with vicious ethnic war?

After years of their voices being unheard, struggles to keep the factory under collective ownership seem to bear some fruits. These struggles exposed corrupt governments and managers and brought to the fore the class issue as opposed to the ethnic and religious division which, if anything, divert attention from the real social issues.

Prior to 2014, there were numerous cases of workers’ rights violations that were only seen as a by-product of “transition“ and “post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which were mostly related to ethnic, religious and political divisions. This is no longer the case after the protests of February 2014.

The narrative begins to change and the story of workers is becoming more and more important. Class cleavages supersede religious and ethnic ones and the ethno-capitalism of primitive accumulation and privatisation, of political clientelism and corruption have shown their limits. No one can explain the spirit of this mini-revolution better than the words of a “Dita” worker: “Industry is alive as long as there are workers ready to fight for their basic right – the right to work”.

Workers at the Tuzla's bankrupt Dita detergent company have restarted production on their own, following years of financial problems - and are winning cheers from the local community.

The Dita Detergent factory in the north-eastern industrial town of Tuzla was once a leading brand in the former Yugoslavia.

But after surviving the 1992-5 war it went bankrupt and stopped production as the global recession swept through the region from 2008 onwards.

These days Dita seems to be setting a new trend, however, one that could be followed by dozens of other companies struggling amidst the economic crisis.

After a year of protests over unpaid wages, health care and pension contributions, its workers have organized to restart production themselves, and are winning strong support from the local community.

“We started production again, but not fully, as we are still preparing the production drives for the powder products and liquid detergents,” Dzevad Mehmedovic, one of the workers who is also president of the trade union of Dita, told BIRN.  

Help started coming because many people remembered Dita as one of Bosnia’s leading brand names for decades.

Dita was founded 38 years ago by the salt mine company Sodaso. It started production of an Italian licensed product, the powder detergent Ava, which was one of the most popular detergents on the Yugoslav market until the 1990s when the country broke up and war started.

Despite the war, production in Dita continued and the company donated some 6,000 tons of detergent for people who lacked the most basic hygienic products.

After the war, when the Italian partner did not extend the license for Ava, the company launched its own product, the powder detergent Arix Tenzo and a liquid dish washing detergent, 3D.  

Like many other Bosnian companies after the war, Dita was privatized, and like many similar cases it was not a successful endeavor.

After encountering many problems, Dita stopped producing in February 2013 and is now registered as a company in insolvency, which therefore could be liquidated.

But Dita workers wanted their jobs back, as well as unpaid salaries and contributions for their health and pension funds. For years they staged protests and strikes, until recently opting to try a new approach.  

They restarted production without a new investor, working for free and using materials that still remained in the company’s storerooms.   

“We agreed to work for free, just to show that this company can work. We will bring back the quality, the old recipe,” Mehmedovic said.

“After the war there were 760 workers, but now there are just 70 of us. We are open to investors, to partners, to young professionals that want to re-run this company. 

“We will start full production soon I hope. Now, any kind of help is more than welcome,” Mehmedovic told BIRN.

Dita’s attempt to rise from the ashes quickly became the business news story of the month across Bosnia, generating interest in the media and support from the local community. 

Numerous journalists have visited the factory and written about the initiative of its workers. Social networks have brimmed with positive messages and also became a place where different actors from the local community discuss ways to help.

Most of the local media have offered free marketing services while actors and producers have offered to make free advertisements for Dita products once they restart full production.

Mehmedovic said some regional companies also offered help. One is an old partner company, TKI, from Hrastnik, Slovenia, which has promised to send some raw materials.

“We used to work with them for 20 years and they will help now, even though we still own them around 250,000 euro!” he added.

Representatives of the company as well as Tuzla cantonal government also said they have already met representatives of several supermarket chains which have agreed to include Dita products among their offer.

Many customers can’t wait. “I eagerly awaiting your products to appear so that now, as a grown-up, I can buy a gift package of your products for my mom,” one posts on social networks reads.

Production of another recognizable detergent “Ida” have started in detergent factory Dita from Tuzla, after new machine from Germany was put into operation.

This is the second powder detergent that is produced in this factory in bankruptcy, and its price will be lower than the detergent Arix Tenzo, which is also in production since recently.

Member of the Council of creditors of Dita Emina Busuladzic said that Dita is returning to the market with its highly recognizable brand.

“After 10 years, women, employees of Dita, are going to celebrate the International Women’s Day, the 8^th of March, which is something huge for us,” said Emina.

President of the Union of Workers of Dita Dzevad Mehmedovic said that all the facilities in the factory are in operation and producing top quality detergent, whose price is adjusted to the purchasing power of citizens.

New-old Dita’s product “Ida” will be placed on the market of Tuzla Canton on Wednesday, after which will follow the delivery throughout BiH.

Raw materials for the production of “Ida”, as well as the first raw material powder for production of detergent Arix Tenzo, were provided by the company Bingo.

We, the workers of Tuzla-based detergent factory DITA, have been fighting a wave of corrupt privatisation, exploitation and asset stripping that is destroying the industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For over two years now, we have guarded our factory around the clock to prevent the removal of machinery and assets.

The process of privatisation of DITA was carried out in collaboration with corrupt politicians, judiciary and banks, which failed to carry out due diligence, and provided toxic loans to the new owners – money that never reached the factory.

Our country is suffering from lack of rule of law: criminal elites have pushed through amendments to the criminal code that mean there is no court that can try financial and trade crimes.

This legalised theft has denied us our basic human rights: we are over 40 monthly salaries in arrears, all of which left us hungry and destitute; we have been forced to watch our family members die because we could not afford medical treatment.

Now bankruptcy proceedings have begun. We are resolved to maintain the occupation of the factory and are refusing to recognise the authority of the trustee managing the bankruptcy unless the interests of the workers are protected, or new investment to reactivate the factory is found.