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As cattle
slaughter continues to drop, pushed down by several factors,* meatpacking
companies refuse to absorb the resulting costs, transferring them instead to
their workers. Sirel spoke with
Mariano Ebert, president of the Labor Association of Workers of Establecimiento
Colonia (ALPEC), who described the situation at this Marfrig Group plant located
in the Uruguayan department of Colonia.
-Can you tell
us about the events leading up to the current situation?
-In June of
this year, following six months of negotiation, we signed a very positive
agreement with the company, through which we secured significant wage increases
for sections of the plant where workers were earning very low wages. This was a
great satisfaction for us. But only a week later, they sent us all on forced
leave because, according to company executives, cattle started to run short.
-Things didn’t
end there though…
-At first they
only ordered us to take half of our annual leave, but then they extended it to
the entire leave plus four months on the unemployment insurance program, which
we’re still on.
We were later
told that the company was “restructuring,” and this essentially entailed the
firing of 160 people in a total of 900 employees.
The company
also announced that it would be suspending the transportation service provided
to the workers. This will affect a significant number of workers who live some
40 to 50 kilometers away from the plant, and who, from now on, will have to pay
for transportation, thus suffering a direct reduction of their income.
There’s no
transportation service in
Marfrig’s
other plants because they’re located in larger cities and the workers
live within city limits. But things are different here; people live in small
towns in the surrounding area. Nearly 200 of our fellow workers could lose their
jobs because if they have to depend on public transportation they’ll be unable
to make it on time for the different shifts they are required to work, as some
shifts start at hours in which public transportation is not running.
-The company is
also attempting to limit other rights.
-We were told
that the daycare center provided here for the workers’ children, paid for by the
company, will be suspended. This would also entail another loss of income for
the workers.
If that weren’t
bad enough, just today we were informed that the company’s eliminated what we
called “the meat market,” that is, the right to buy meat directly from the
meatpacking plant at preferential prices, and would also be closing the
well-stocked pharmacy we had. The meat they used to sell us is now being sent to
a meat market in the city, and we’ll only be given a 10 percent discount on the
price it is sold to the general public. This harms the families of the workers
directly, as it impacts the quality of their diet, because most cuts will costs
us an average of 80 percent more than they do now.
In addition,
they’re telling us that not all of the workers will be reinstated, that some
will remain on unemployment, but they’re not giving us any details as to how
many, who, etc. The situation is critical.
-Why is the
company acting this way?
-They argue
that cattle for slaughter is scarce, that the plant has a slaughter capacity of
1,000 heads of cattle per day and it will only reach 700. But it’s an abuse,
because when there’s enough cattle they hire people from all over the place
without thinking twice, but when work is slow, even if it’s only a temporary
slump, they put people out on the street. So they’re taking advantage of the
situation to try to take away gains we’ve achieved years ago. They’re pressuring
us so that we’ll quit in large numbers, because many of us will see a complete
change in working conditions.
-What are you
planning to do now?
-Being on
unemployment puts us in a pretty vulnerable position. We’re going to convene an
Assembly to examine the situation together and discuss possible actions. It
seems pretty obvious that there’s been a deliberate strategy to undermine the
union. For weeks we’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors, such as that the
company would be sold, that the plant was being relocated, that it was shutting
down, etc. So people are very worried, fearing they might lose their jobs.
It’s sad, but
it’s as if nobody cares. We only had one congressmen come by once, and the
city’s mayor hasn’t bothered to see us. Shop owners panicked, and immediately
after they met with the company’s management, we were denied credit in small
local shops. Marfrig’s
exerts
enormous pressure over a population that is dependant on it. It’s almost like a
feudal situation.
-What’s the
city of Tarariras like?
-Tarariras has
a population of 8,000, which means half it’s people are linked to the plant.
Marfrig
has a total of four plants in the country, and accounts for almost 40 percent of
all the cattle slaughtered in Uruguay. We’re coming against a very
powerful company. At first it suspended activities in this plant, but continued
operating the other three plants. Now it’s suspended activities in a second
plant, but it’s not losing out on any profit. It’s operating at full capacity in
the other two plants. We asked them to provide workers with a minimum basket of
goods -not even a basic goods basket, just a minimum one-, so they can get
through these four months of unemployment. The basket we asked for would cost
approximately 90 US dollars per worker, which would be deducted from future
wages. But they told us they couldn’t give it to us because they’re already
spending too much money as it is keeping the plant idle. It’s pretty clear to us
that they’re trying to undermine our union because it’s strong.
I must say that
we’re going through a huge crisis. We’re not going to give up, but we’ve been
hit pretty badly.
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