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With
the collective bargaining process of sugar-alcohol mill workers of the state of
São Paulo under way, Sirel spoke
with Antonio Gonçálves Filho, president of the Union of Food Industry Workers (STIA-Araraquara)
for a full report on the negotiations.
-How are negotiations
progressing?
-Our industry has
state-level negotiations and right now it’s São Paulo’s turn. We’ve been
negotiating for three workdays without getting anywhere close to an agreement.
-What is the Union
asking for?
-Our demands are based
on the fact that we’ve had a 4.88 percent inflation over the last period and the
5 percent that management has offered us so far is inadequate.
-How are you backing
the negotiations process?
-We’re holding
assemblies in all the mills, and at every assembly the workers have declared a
state of alert (a pre-strike). Just yesterday we participated in an assembly at
the Raízen Group mill here in Araraquara.
We have been mobilizing
across the state and are willing to go on strike to defend our demands.
We’re not going to
accept a 5 percent raise.
-What would a normal
salary in this region be?
-The minimum salary is
about 320 dollars, which is outrageous.
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On Monday,
June 18, the union governing committees of all the mills in the
state will hold a meeting in the city of São Paulo to decide if we
hold a simultaneous strike in all the mills. |
-How much are you
demanding?
-We’re asking for a
10-percent raise. To obtain this demand, in addition to what we’re already
doing, on Monday, June 18, all the unions in all the mills across the state will
meet with the Governing Committee of the Federation of Food Industry Workers of
São Paulo (FETIASP) to decide if we stop work at all the mills
simultaneously or if we adopt a different tactic.
We’re talking about 37
unions representing 45,000 workers in industrial plants alone, because the
sector also includes rural laborers and truck drivers who have their own unions.
-What are the average
raises that are being granted in other states?
-Most agreements are
closing with three points of real increase, which means that if we have
4.88-percent inflation, workers are getting an 8-percent increase.
-How does the situation
of workers in this sector compare with that of workers in the rest of Brazil?
-We have the worst
salaries, the worst working conditions and the least benefits.
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