Made from scraps. Informal production in the workplace - chapter 6

Gabriela Popovici worked as an engineer at the ‘Steagul Roșu’ truck plant in Brasov from 1980 to 2004. The plant was an industrial mammoth with over 20,000 employees, exporting trucks and utility vehicles to not only countries in the former socialist bloc but also the US, China, Thailand and Peru. In 2003, however, it was privatised and gradually dismantled with, the new owners proving to be more interested in using the land for property development rather than manufacturing.

Gabriela remembers how the shortage of goods and services in the 1980s led to the large-scale emergence of a parallel DIY culture among the plant workers, who would use scrap metal, plastic and wood to fashion household items.