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The Modena chapter of the Federation of Agro-Industrial Workers - General
Confederation of Italian Labor (FLAI
│
CGIL) denounces the persistently arrogant and taunting attitude exhibited by
management at the Inalca
│
JBS (Cremonini Group) plant in Castelvetro di Modena.
In addition to
showing no willingness to renew the Collective Agreement for the next
four-year period, management has refused to recognize the "ultra-activity"
clause of the expired agreement. This principle extends the validity of a
collective agreement beyond its expiration until the renewal comes into effect,
and as this agreement has not been revoked, it should continue in force until a
new one is approved.
The Collective Agreement expired
14 months ago and the workers presented the new List of the Demands a year ago.
Despite repeated trade union requests, the company intentionally dragged out the
negotiations, and at the end of 2009 it provoked the workers by declaring that
it planned to pay production bonuses with "tickets" that could be exchanged for
food or gasoline or given in payment for other expenses.
With this
maneuver, the company avoids paying social security contributions and thus
lowers the cost of labor, creating the illusion that workers will be earning
more money by not paying taxes on these bonuses.
This form of payment has never
been applied before by an industrial company of this size, or by any company in
the food industry.
This form of
payment belies the grandiose declarations of the company and of private business
regarding collective bargaining, considered as the only instrument that can be
used to protect the workers' purchasing power.
It is a form of
payment that also contrasts with the impressive economic results that this Group
is achieving nationally and internationally. One only has to look at the
rising net profits posted by
some of the Group's companies - such as MARR, which saw a 20.7% increase - and
the investments made abroad with the opening of the new plant in Russia (100
million euros).
Management's
attitude may be aimed at making workers pay for the group's economic investments
abroad and in the Castelvetro plant (10 million euros).
Following the
Jan. 29 eight-hour stoppage, and after the workers demonstrated once again their
willingness to sit down and negotiate, the company has continued to respond to
their demands with questionable and unfounded communications, meant to provoke
them, and has insisted on its refusal to apply the expired Collective Agreement.
This attitude
has raised concern among international labor organizations, which, as soon as
they learned of the conflict, did not hesitate to send messages expressing their
solidarity, thus evidencing that JBS has a different approach to its
labor relations in the United States, Canada and Brazil.
Paradoxically,
while Italian workers supposedly enjoy the fullest rights and guarantees
(as management is fond of saying), they are now receiving the solidarity of
fellow workers who live in places where representing labor is not always easy.
Trade unionists
from around the world have been alert to our difficulties in this negotiation,
and FLAI-CGIL Modena is grateful to them for their solidarity.
FLAI-CGIL
will press forward with these efforts, showing the same determination it has
shown throughout the conflict, and in the coming days it will do everything in
its power to convince the other labor organizations of the importance of
continuing the struggle.
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