The workers of the FEMSA distributor plant in the municipality of Cosmopolis mobilized recently to protest against the company’s intention to maintain the hour bank,* imposing a different scheme than the one agreed on at the Jundiai bottling plant, where it was eliminated. Sirel spoke with Artur Bueno de Camargo, President of the National Confederation of Food and Related Industry Workers (CNTA), to learn more about this situation.

-How is the situation now in Cosmopolis with respect to the hour bank?

-Among the bottling plants that FEMSA has, there is one in Jundiai, Sao Paulo. There the union’s leading demand was to eliminate the hour bank. 

-Why?

-It’s a totally harmful system for workers! -It’s as simple as that.

But this year we were able to eliminate it in Jundiai, and last August, the workers in Cosmopolis –organized in the Union of Limeira Food Industry Workers– mobilized to extend that agreement to their distribution center.

-What was FEMSA’s response?

-Locally it strongly resisted our demands, which is why we decided to ask the Latin American Federation of Coca-Cola Workers (FELATRAC) to intervene. In late August, Pablo Quiroga, Vice President of the Federation, and Gerardo Iglesias, IUF Regional Secretary for Latin America, met in Buenos Aires with Virgilio Mena and Eulalio Cerda of the FEMSA Group. Today we see that meeting as having been instrumental in the Cosmopolis distributor’s decision to stop applying the hour bank.

-Are you satisfied?

-This is a very significant development: it paves the way for the union to completely eliminate the hour bank through future negotiations. In this sense, we are scheduling a meeting with representatives of the different FEMSA unions across the nation, with the aim of devising a strategic mobilization plan.