The Japanese transnational corporation has stopped deducting union fees in a clear attempt to hurt the union. The president of the Union of Food Industry Workers of Limeira commented on this new attack by the transnational company.

-What problem is your union facing right now?

-We’ve been having problems with Ajinomoto for a couple of years now, mostly in connection with demands from the workers which the company refuses to grant.

But after the union had finally been able to include a provision in the collective bargaining agreement that meant the company would deduct union fees from the workers’ salaries and withhold them for the union, the company has now all of a sudden and without warning decided to stop deducting the fees.

For the union this measure, in addition to constituting a breach of the agreement, is a direct attack on the workers’ right to organize, because Ajinomoto’s strategy is aimed without a doubt at undermining us.

As the company failed in its attempt to neutralize our work with the various legal schemes it has been trying to impose on us, it now seeks to attack us financially.

-What measures did you take to counteract this situation?

-As a first step we met with management to reject their measure as illegal and demand that they change their position.

At the meeting last Wednesday, April 13, Ajinomoto for its part made it clear to us that, in order for the company to start deducting the union fee again, the union would have to sign certain agreements.

Its position was that if we sign, it will deduct the union fee, otherwise things will stay as they are. This is blackmail and we won’t stand for it. So we gave them until Tuesday, April 19 to change their position or we will begin with union measures.

-What are the agreements that Ajinomoto wants you to sign?

-Agreements that have to do with the Participation in Profits and Income and the working day and which were not signed in the last negotiation as the workers do not agree with what the company proposes.

With respect to the issue of Participation in Profits and Income, the company offers a percentage that the workers find unacceptable, and as for the working day, the company wants to implement a change in shifts that would mean having rotational days off, and the workers want to have their days off on weekends.

In sum, the transnational corporation is seeking to undermine the union with this new attack; but it won’t get away with it.

We know we have the support of the workers and we can count on the IUF’s support at the international level.