Company sets up Frankenstein union
The
Compañía Española de Financiación al Desarrollo (COFIDES), which is
financing Calvo in El Salvador, refuses to disclose the outcome of a
self-imposed social audit. Meanwhile, Calvo intensifies its anti-labor
tactics with the aim of destroying the workers’ union, and sets up a
Frankenstein union created “in its own image” and headed by personnel in
positions of trust.
On March 26, union leaders from the Calvo Conservas Division of the
General Union of Fishing and Related Industry Workers (SGTIPAC)
submitted two petitions to the Ministry of Labor: one denouncing the
escalating and increasingly sophisticated antiunion campaign waged by the
company, and the other challenging the negotiation of a Collective
Bargaining Agreement between the company and a management-controlled union.
That same day, both petitions were also filed with the ILO Committee on
Freedom of Association, under the international body’s pending Case No. 2571
concerning the situation at Calvo.
Let’s review some of the facts. In June 2007, the Compañía Española de
Financiación al Desarrollo (COFIDES) was asked to intervene in the
Calvo
case, based on the fact that it had granted a 52-million-euro loan to the
Spanish canning company, who had in turn guaranteed that it would respect
human and labor rights, in accordance with the code of ethics that must be
observed by all COFIDES fund recipients.
According to the Salvadorian and international labor organizations that
signed the petition (attached to a copy of the complaint filed with the
ILO),
Calvo
is violating the Code of Ethics and consequently, if it does not amend its
practices, it must return the funds to COFIDES.
In January 2008, COFIDES sent a social audit to El Salvador,
commissioned to COVERCO, a Guatemala-based organization that
specializes in code of conduct related issues.
During the course of the investigation, COVERCO officers gathered a
significant amount of documentary evidence and testimonies from
Calvo
workers in support of the claims made by the petitioning labor
organizations. However, two months after the “Social Audit,” COFIDES
is now refusing to disclose the full report of COVERCO’s
investigation. And although COFIDES maintains that it is issuing
recommendations to
Calvo
aimed at solving its labor problems, in reality, exactly the opposite is
happening.
Not only has
Calvo
not tempered its antiunion behavior, it has adopted more sophisticated
practices. Now it has created a management-controlled union, with which it
plans to surprise public opinion by announcing that it has successfully
negotiated a Collective Bargaining Agreement. At the same time, it is doing
everything possible to force workers to join this pro-management
organization, and it is penalizing members of the workers’ union, the
Calvo Conservas Division of the SGTIPAC.
An example of the incidents reported
|
The labor organizations would hate to think that COFIDES
is gaining time to allow Calvo to fully neutralize the
workers’ union. |
|
At 2 a.m. on March 13, 2008, the general secretary of the Calvo Conservas
Division was performing his tasks as fish supplier when he became aware that
the “Cooking” Department had let 64 trays of hot fish get through to the
production line in two unmarked shelves. He immediately detected the anomaly, as
is required under his tasks, and, as at that moment his superiors were away
celebrating a birthday, he alerted the suppliers, so that they would stop this
fish from reaching the cleaning stage.
When the production supervisor, Cristela Vides, returned, she blamed the
general secretary, Mariano, even though he had detected the anomaly
-which had originated in the “Cooking” department- before it was too late.
Vides, along with the Plant supervisor, Erasmo Suárez, then issued an
admonishment letter against Mariano, blaming him for what had happened
and citing José Leonidas Valladares as a witness. Later, Erasmo Suárez
ordered that the workers be told that because of Mariano’s carelessness
hot fish had been processed.
It should be noted that José Leonidas Valladares, Cristela Vides
and Erasmo Suárez are representatives of the labor organization
controlled by management, in spite of the fact that the law expressly prohibits
supervisors from representing labor.
This is a clear act of reprisal against the general secretary of the workers’
union, the SGTIPAC, perpetrated by representatives of
Calvo
Conservas
management, who illegally hold positions in a union under corporate control.
Moreover, these supervisors have taken advantage of their position of power in
the company to intimidate workers, in particular those in the day shift, forcing
them to sign documents stating that they voluntarily support the new union or
have joined it of their own free will, when actually their signatures are
obtained under duress. In fact, the workers who have signed such documents are
not given the chance to read them in full, and much less are they given a copy
of what they sign. When out of earshot of management and its lackeys, the
majority of these workers declare that they signed the documents out of fear of
reprisal from their superiors.
On March 5, the Head of Human Resources at
Calvo Conservas,
Eduardo Meléndez, used the loudspeakers to address workers at the factory
cafeteria, accusing the SGTIPAC of being a destabilizing organization,
bent on undermining business with the sole purpose of bankrupting companies.
Flanked by plant supervisors as he delivered his speech, he also informed
workers that the only union that has the company’s approval is the one headed by
these supervisors.
And what is COFIDES doing?
While all these reports and allegations have already been filed with the ILO
Committee on Freedom of Association, under Case No. 2571, COFIDES
appears to be trying to gain time for
Calvo
But the
question is, time for what? The petitioning labor
organizations would hate to think that COFIDES is gaining time to allow
Calvo
to fully neutralize the workers’ union, so that it can then, like a puppeteer,
present a union under its control, lying to the international community and
pretending that everything is ok at
Calvo.
They’d hate to think that.
But right now
that’s exactly what it looks like.
