Culminating an intense negotiation process, which included a national work stoppage, the Argentine Association of Dairy Industry Workers (ATILRA) signed a new wage agreement that will be in force until April 2011.

Argentina's dairy workers, organized under ATILRA and led by its general secretary Héctor Ponce, have signed a wage agreement that establishes a 40 percent increase in base salaries for all workers in the dairy industry.

At an assembly meeting convened in the city of Sunchales, province of Santa Fe, ATILRA's rank-and-file members approved the outcome of a difficult negotiation. The agreed solution gives workers a non-wage compensation of 878 US dollars that will be paid by employers in eight installments distributed monthly through March 2011.

The agreement also includes a 40 percent increase in base wages, which will be incorporated gradually from January to April 2011.

The agreement still needs to be confirmed in a general nationwide consultation that is already underway with all the member unions, but widespread approval is expected.

ATILRA had set the following goals for this negotiation:

• Guarantee the right of the dairy sector's workers to earn a decent and adequate salary that matches their current needs.

• Recover and maintain purchasing power for salaries of workers covered by Collective Agreement No. 2/88, which applies to dairy activities.

• Secure the right of workers to participate in a more just and equitable distribution of the benefits obtained by the industry in general.

• Further enhance the quality of life of workers, both directly through wage raises, and indirectly by improving the income structure of the services provided by the organization - the union itself, the welfare union fund, and the health care fund.

• Lastly, through an improvement in their salaries, the union hopes to engage dairy workers as major and acknowledged participants in the various activities of the dairy industry.