Dairy workers: the strategy for the future is global unity

 

After representatives of top government agencies and trade union organizations connected with Argentina's dairy sector opened the Conference, evidencing the broad base of representation and plurality of the participants, the members of the panel expressed their optimism over the outcome of the event, stressing the unique possibility it provides for strengthening global coordination among dairy workers.

 

The first part of the Conference featured presentations from representatives of the processing industry, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and dairy producers, who offered quite diverse views.

 

Engineer Miguel Angel Paulón, president of the Dairy Industry Center (CIL), highlighted that the Center's members -both medium and large companies- process 65 percent of all the milk produced in Argentina, and said that with the current growth in domestic and international demand and bearing in mind the significant idle capacity that exists today, CIL expects annual milk production to rise from 5,000 to 7,000 liters/hectare within five years, reaching an annual production of 14 billion (up from the current 10 billion). This would not only allow the industry to operate at full capacity, but would also bring about a significant increase in employment.

 

For his part, engineer Pablo Villano, president of the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Dairy Companies (APYMEL), said that the sector's SMEs work primarily for the domestic market, and that the main difficulties they face have to do with lack of investment in technology and the inability to access the soft loans available to large companies, a circumstance he attributed to their low profit margin.

 

Villano's presentation was followed by a different perspective from Ricardo Garnero, a veterinary member of the Milk Producers Association of the Province of Santa Fe (MEPROLSAFE), who spoke from the point of view of the dairy farmers who supply milk to processing companies. Garnero referred to issues that are key for the sector, such as the mechanism for setting prices, from which producers are excluded, as prices are established unilaterally by the processing companies, who he accused of oligopolistic practices.

 

He said that over the last two decades one thousand dairy farms have disappeared each year, bringing the number down to 10,557 production units. “How much longer will this trend continue? How many of us will be spared?” he asked.

 

He then pointed out that the country has a serious problem in terms of land holding and use, as at present 42 percent of all milk production comes from rented farms, and rents are charged according to the estimated tons of soybean that a rented estate would produce. This generates a huge distortion in costs, as rent represents 18 percent of the market clearing price for milk.

 

Lastly, in one of the highlights of the day, Garnero called for the establishment of fairness mechanisms in the sector through the adoption of specific legislation that will introduce sustainable criteria for income distribution in the dairy industry.

 

The next speaker was the general secretary of the Argentine Association of Dairy Industry Workers (ATILRA), Hugo Ponce, who gave an overview of the history of this trade union since its inception. After showing a video on the subject, he noted that while ATILRA's relations with the sector's companies are currently very positive, this was not always the case and is the result of a process of several years, which included moments of great confrontation.

 

He called for workers and companies to work towards finding a common ground based on respect for labor rights, negotiation and collective bargaining.

 

He urged participants to carefully and creatively examine the future of the sector, as it is essential to implement a strategy that involves a global coordination of activities among dairy trade unions from around the world.

 

IUF general secretary Ron Oswald focused his presentation on the international campaigns conducted to combat antiunion actions by transnational corporations in the food and hotel industries, as well as other campaigns in countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, the Philippines and Indonesia. In several of these cases, the global campaigns proved to be a useful tool for trade unions.

 

He also pointed out that some companies, such as Pepsico and Kraft, have refused to acknowledge the IUF as a valid counterpart.

 

In other companies, such as Coca-Cola, visible progress has been made towards building a global alliance of the company's workers. Oswald suggested that this is a strategy that could be adopted by the trade unions of companies such as Arcor, Kraft, Danone, Nestlé, Unilever, InBev, SABMiller and others, in the coming years.

 

The presentations then gave way to a general debate in which several delegates reported on the current situation of their unions, most of them representing workers in transnational corporations such as Nestlé, providing numerous examples. In Nestlé's case, the IUF is presently conducting a strong international campaign, for which it has coined the term “Nespressure” to describe this company's cynical attitude.

 

Today is the last day of the Buenos Aires Conference, but activities will continue in the city of Sunchales, province of Santa Fe.