Textile company Blanco Nieve, based in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, known for producing white home textiles and holding official licenses for clubs like River, Boca, Racing, and Independiente for supplying sheets, has announced the cessation of activities due to 'lack of sales' and the dismissal of 35 employees. The firm, which has been operating for over 30 years, had been facing several months of wage conflicts. With the approval of the Ministry of Labor, the textile workers decided to sell their products directly at fairs and sales points in Tolhuin and Ushuaia, with the help of the Renacer Cooperative, to survive. Concerns at the plant began in July when the owner started delaying salary and bonus payments. In September, he proposed paying wages in weekly installments, but only fulfilled part of the agreement. During one of the conciliation hearings, he claimed his accounts were embargoed due to debts with banks and tax authorities, and then offered the workers to sell the merchandise stock to recover the owed money. However, at the beginning of November, they found the plant locked. Later, according to the local site '0223', they received dismissal notices in which the owner, Diego Russo, invoked Article 247 of the Labor Contract Law, which allows him to pay only half of the indemnity in cases of 'force majeure'. Employer abandonment The union SOIVA, which, along with SETIA, represents the workers, described the maneuver as 'employer abandonment' and denounced that the businessman 'fled without facing anyone'. The workers' representative, Marcela Cárdenas, told 'Actualidad Tdf' that 'we went to work like any normal day and found the gate closed. We tried to contact the Human Resources person and they told us the company is not going to open anymore'. According to Cárdenas, the owner's decision was made without prior notice, despite an existing agreement to continue selling sheet sets to cover the September wage arrears. 'This has been a terrible trick by the owner, because it was agreed that we would be paid with the sale of sheets. No one from management or Human Resources came down to face us,' she stated. The former Blanco Nieve employees remain inside the plant to guard machinery and goods, awaiting official intervention to guarantee the payment of their wages and the continuity of their jobs. Textile crisis in Tierra del Fuego In recent days, another local sheet manufacturer, Sueño Fueguino (brands Danubio and Cannon), also fired 35 people. There are currently five textile factories operating in Tierra del Fuego. The closure of Blanco Nieve represents the first total case in the province, directly impacting dozens of families. This adds to the long list of closures in the national textile industry. According to data from the Pro Tejer Foundation, since President Javier Milei took office, 380 companies in the sector have closed and 11,500 textile jobs have been lost. The entity attributes the crisis to the fall in internal consumption, the appreciation of the peso, and the opening of imports, which grew by more than 30% in the first eight months of the year.
