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New boost in fight against
occupational illnesses
in meatpacking plants
This Second Workshop was held in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, from June 24 to 26, as a continuation of
the June 2008 workshop in Porto Alegre. Once
again it was co-organized by the Trade Union
Solidarity Center of Finland (SASK), the
Federation of Food Industry Workers (SEL)
and the IUF’s Latin American Regional Office.
Among the workshop’s participants were Henri
Lindholm and Eila Kämäräinen,
representatives of the Federation of Food
Industry Workers of Finland (SEL),
Liisa Mery, on behalf of the Trade Union
Solidarity Center of Finland (SASK), and
representatives of Brazil’s Confederation of
Food and Agroindustry Workers (CONTAC),
the Federation of Food Industry Workers of the
State of Sao Paulo (FETIASP), the
National Confederation of Food Workers of Brazil
(CNTA), members of the IUF’s
International and Latin American Executive
Committees, and IUF Regional Secretary
for Latin America Gerardo Iglesias.
During the workshop participants addressed the
various situations and conditions affecting the
industry’s workers in their respective
countries, after which a special session was
devoted to the examination of data and analysis
presented by IUF Regional Secretary
Gerardo Iglesias on the recent merger of
Brazil’s two leading poultry companies, Sadia
and Perdigao, which resulted in the
creation of the new company Brasil Foods
(BRF).
This new company will sell 25 percent of all the
chicken marketed worldwide and will employ 125
thousand workers.
SEL
General Secretary Henri Lindholm gave an
interesting presentation outlining the different
aspects of work in Finland’s meatpacking
plants, as well as working conditions and labor
legislation that applies specifically to them.
He also gave a very detailed description of
trade union structures inside and outside the
companies and the systems in place to regulate
worker-management relations.
Dr. Roberto Ruiz, for his part, presented
a major scientific study on occupational health
in connection with Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs),
which was conducted by a large research team
that worked for over two years in the field with
poultry industry workers.
Lastly, the exchange among the various
organizations and institutions participating in
the Workshop resulted in the drafting of common
guidelines for work, which will serve to direct
the efforts to combat occupational illnesses in
Brazil’s poultry and meat processing
facilities.
What follows are the conclusions drawn by some
of the most representative participants at the
Workshop.
Dr. Roberto Ruiz
Occupational Health and Working Conditions
Specialist
This was a highly positive meeting, allowing
Brazil’s labor movement to engage in an
extensive information exchange with Finland’s
labor movement. Also, we realized that with the
findings from a project we implemented in
Brazil we have the necessary input to draft
proposals regarding changes in the length of the
workday and in working conditions in general.
The results we presented here today were
obtained through a research study that, to the
best of our knowledge, is unprecedented. When we
examined the literature available on the
subject, prior to beginning our fieldwork, we
found nothing similar to what we were setting
out to do.
It was a unique experience that involved more
than 40 professionals working for two years, 425
workers who suffer from occupational illnesses
receiving treatment while removed from their
jobs, and 20 thousand medical interventions.
Now, with the support of IUF Latin America,
we’ll be able to complete the study with the
launching of a book and a publication with eight
scientific articles covering all our work.
Henri Lindholm
SEL General Secretary
The Workshop was excellent, especially towards
the end, when we agreed on a common line of work
to guide our efforts from now on. So, in our
opinion, the Workshop was a great success.
This project poses a huge challenge, because
there are many, many problems, and they’re major
problems too. So it’s hard to know where to
begin and what direction to take. But we’ve
taken the first step and we can now move
forward.
The emergence of this new company, Brasil
Foods, resulting from the Sadia-Perdigao
merger, changed the scenario completely, and
that has some effect on our work in the project,
because now we have to wait and see who will be
put in charge of managing the company, who we’ll
be dealing with.
Neuza Barbosa de Lima
Secretary of Education at the Federation of Food
Industry Workers of Sao Paulo (FETIASP)
This activity is a continuation of the workshop
we held in June 2008 and marks the beginning of
the project we drafted then. We’re pleased
because we’ve found a common line of work and
decided on actions to carry out from now on. I
sincerely think that the work accomplished
during these three days in Sao Paulo deserves an
A+.
I’d like to highlight the work presented by Dr.
Roberto Ruiz, who we’ve known for a long
time and have enormous respect for, as he has
always shown that he is on the side of the
workers. It’s very important for the IUF
to be able to work with people of Dr. Ruiz’
professional, ethical and political standing.
Siderlei Silva de Oliveira
President of the National Confederation of Food
and Agroindustry Workers (CONTAC)
This second meeting, held with fellow unionists
from Finland, has been very significant
because we’ve made great progress, and we’ve
realized that we’re all on the same page in
terms of what we want, which is to
fight to eliminate occupational illnesses in
poultry processing and meatpacking plants.
The assistance provided by our Finnish brothers
and sisters is very valuable, because they are
one step ahead of us in this issue. Over there,
the government and the State have taken an
interest in the issue; and we don’t have that
here. In Finland, the State does not tolerate
the idea that people can become ill merely by
engaging in production, or the idea that work
makes you sick. Work dignifies workers when it
doesn’t make them sick. This confirms our
conviction that here in Brazil the State
needs to act in some way to change things, and
I
think that after this meeting we’re going to
step up our campaign against occupational
illnesses in meatpacking plants.
We also decided to publish a technical book
dealing with this issue. It’ll be written by
doctors and researchers, because this is
something we need, as we’re often asked to back
our statements with technical data, and we have
none available.
This publication, coordinated by Dr. Roberto
Ruiz, will be a very valuable contribution to
our struggle.
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