gained legal recognition as well a public support for their cause. In 1983, the courts found in favor of the workers in litigation against the company and in 1984, workers met with President Miguel de la Madrid . Jiménez declared the company bankrupt and tried to sell the facilities. However, the workers and federal authorities worked out an arrangement that the workers would take over the company entirely, including facilities and brand. A cooperative called the Sociedad Cooperativa Trabajadores de Pascual S.C.L. was formed on May 27, 1985. After years of being idle, the new worker/owners needed about 1.5 million dollars to restart operations. During the strike, over 320 painters sided with the workers including Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Francisco Toledo, Felipe Ehrenberg, Carolia Paniagua, José Chávez Morado, Alfredo Zalce, Guillermo Ceniceros and José Luis Cuevas as well as the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and Taller de Gráfica Popular by donating artworks to auction off. There were two small auctions but the money being raised was not sufficient and the continued selling of the artworks became difficult. Instead, the main union of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México provided the funds needed to obtain permits and service the machinery. The remaining painting remained with the company and in 1991 an entity called the Fundación Cultural Trabajadores de Pascual y del Arte, A. C. was created for their care and promotion. The new cooperative has had multiple struggles since it was created. The start of the cooperative was rocky with internal struggles among the workers as to how to organize and operate. However, operations as a cooperative began on November 27, 1985 with workers receiving their first share of profits in May 1986. The former owner, Jiménez, lost the legal right to use the name Pascual Boing but nonetheless was doing so from a plant in Aguascalientes until cooperative representative negotiated a deal. Another ongoing problem is that the land on which the original factories are located did not belong to the original company but rather to the owner's wife, Victoria Valdez. She was allowed to sue the cooperative in 1989 and won the case in 2003, with the court ordering Pascual off the land. At this point, then Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expropriated the land from Valdez to give to Pascual. However, in 2005, the Supreme Court decreed this expropriation to be illegal, since it