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Having
failed to convince workers to willingly accept dismissal, Cervecería Nacional, a
Panamanian brewery owned by the transnational corporation SABMiller, closed the
doors of its plants with its unionized workers inside and refused to let them
out unless they signed their layoff acceptance notices. The union issued the
following communication denouncing this serious human rights violation.
We inform all IUF
affiliates and the international labor movement in general of the attempted
union wipeout by Cervecería Nacional. The brewery, property of
SABMiller, tried to fire all unionized workers, represented by the
Industrial Union of Soft Drink, Beverage, Soda, Beer, Liquor and Similar
Beverage Production and Distribution Workers (SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS).
In the afternoon of May
4, after closing negotiations with the government regarding a series of Labor
Code violations, the company began calling workers unionized under
SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS to inform them that they were being made redundant through a
mutual agreement, and that they would have to sign a document on the spot
without being advised by a union representative.
Workers nationwide
refused to sign the document, as the so-called mutual agreement was in fact a
technically concealed dismissal.
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The trade unions representing workers employed by this vicious
company need to come together and sign a joint report to be
presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
denouncing the situation, backing it with testimonies from victims
of the violations. |
As it failed to achieve
its goal, management instructed its security guards to prevent workers from
leaving the premises. After finishing their shift, the workers were held against
their will for several hours.
The National Police had
to be called in to several workplaces, where workers reported that they were not
allowed to leave until they signed a mutual agreement with the company that
would put them out of work.
The workers were only
allowed to go home after the police intervened.
This action by the
transnational corporation SABMiller is a criminal offense as it entails
depriving workers of their liberty. It also constitutes one of the most
condemnable human rights violations.
For this reason we will
file a complaint in the competent courts.
SABMiller is attempting
to get rid of unionized workers because it has lowered wages for all of its
distribution personnel. Aware that it will have to face a lawsuit for these wage
cuts, the company has tried to fire current workers and hire new ones under the
new wage conditions it has imposed.
On Tuesday, May 8, all
Panamanian workers members of SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS who are employed by the
SABMiller-owned Cervecería Nacional will suspend working
activities and will not allow delivery trucks to leave the plant until the
situation is solved on a national level.
We have denounced
repeatedly that the transnational corporation SABMiller has an
anti-worker attitude, systematically violating its workers’ human rights. So we
call on all the trade unions representing workers employed by this vicious
company to come together and sign a joint report to be presented to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denouncing the situation, backing
it with testimonies from victims of the violations.
If we do not take joint
action to denounce this serious situation, SABMiller will continue to
implement its policy of labor savagery, violating the human rights of its
workers and destroying human lives.
Lets put a stop to this
barbarous labor culture of the transnational corporation SABMiller.
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