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Melquíades de Araújo, president of the Federation of Food
Industry Workers of São Paulo (FETIASP), spoke with SIREL
and explained the reasons for the deadlock in the
negotiations with the transnational corporation.
-What are the reasons for the current deadlock in
negotiations?
-What happened is that, after several meetings, management
at Unilever Valinhos, a locality of the state of São Paulo,
decided it would not continue bargaining, without improving
its offer of 7.5 percent wage increase.
The union is asking for a 9 percent increase, taking into
account that inflation was 6.3 percent for the period and
that most of the state’s workers in the sector have obtained
wage improvements similar or equal to the percentage we
demand.
-Has negotiating with Unilever always been hard?
-This company is the only one among FETIASP’s unions where
negotiations are conducted directly between union
representatives and management.
All the other companies in the sector negotiate at the state
level. We usually have no problem reaching agreements with
Unilever, but the current difficulties coincide with the
change in human resource manager.
-What steps will FETIASP take?
-We have a hearing scheduled at the Labor Ministry, where we
will try to reach an agreement with the company.
If the outcome is not positive, the union, backed by the
federation, will give the company a 72-hour deadline as
established by law, and if the company doesn’t respond, we
will launch a strike for an indefinite period of time.
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