Argentine tyre manufacturer FATE announces immediate and definitive closure of its industrial plant, leaving 920 employees redundant. So many workers have lost their jobs overnight! To top it all, those people have families that depend on that income. Therefore, those affected by the sudden closure of this legendary tyre-making plant are even more numerous.
Maybe influenced by Virginia Woolf’s stream of consciousness technique, I can’t help being tempted by free association and linking the name of this company: FATE. “Fábrica Argentina de Telas Engomadas,” but as in “fate” in English, pronounced “/feit/,” meaning destiny. Tragic fate for those workers; tragic fate for a country where thousands of companies have been lost in the last couple of years; tragic fate for such a decline in our labour market. Milei’s “chainsaw plan” might turn Argentina into a barren “wasteland,” to cite another famous writer: T.S. Eliot.
It’s what it is. Sigh …
Buenos Aires Times, Feb 21, 2026