Guatemala

With Lázaro Serrano, of STECSA (Coca Cola)

We’re in a State of Alert

The Workers’ Union of Embotelladora Central SA (STECSA) of Guatemala is in a state of alert against the company’s policy of deliberately losing market share with the aim of setting off an internal crisis. Its Organization and Statistics Secretary, Lázaro Serrano, recalls the heroic history of STECSA and gives a brief outline of the current situation.

 

-STECSA has a long background of struggle. Can you summarize that struggle for us?

-Our Workers’ Union of Embotelladora Central Sociedad Anónima (STECSA) has suffered numerous attacks from the various managements that have been in charge of Coca Cola over the last 30 years, in particular during the management of the American John Trotter the union saw times of repression and terror. That is why our union has nine martyrs, seven of them murdered and two disappeared in a mass kidnapping perpetrated in 1980 at the headquarters of the National Workers’ Federation (CNT), where our fellow union members were at that moment.

Then the company changed management, and Roberto Méndez, Mexican, and Anthony Zash, from Puerto Rico, took over. At that time, there was a similar situation to the one we’re going through now: there was no interest in defending the market share, there was a shortage of products, there was no support either for advertising and maintenance of machinery and delivery trucks, which led to consumers being somewhat neglected. An attempt was made to justify an illegal shutdown of the plant in the results of that fraudulent and voluntarily negative policy, and Méndez and Zash abandoned the company’s facilities.

 

At that point, we saw that we needed to occupy the factory while we tried to find a solution. After more than a year of occupation and dealings, during which we were victims of threats and acts of terrorism, we were finally able to reopen the plant, thanks to the international solidarity expressed through an international boycott against Coca Cola organized by IUF, and also due to resoluteness of our people.

 

The Coca Cola franchise was granted to a nationally-owned local group headed by Carlos Porras. With these people we worked for 13 years without any major problems. They sold their representation to the PANAMCO group, whose first measure was to tell us that we had to renounce to eight articles of the Collective Labor Agreement, which meant giving up everything we had won and achieved throughout years of hard existence and struggle as an organization. This triggered a strong resistance from the workers, which allowed us to keep our Agreement intact.

PANAMCO -and with it the Embotelladora Central SA plant- was later absorbed by the Mexican-owned FEMSA. Almost immediately after this new management took over we reached a situation of impending strike, which was averted when management realized that our union’s strong membership was not due to pressures but rather to a history of and a will to struggle. The union’s Executive Committee and Advisory Council has always been open to negotiations, but always with a view to finding what is fair for all parties, not in terms of winners and losers.

 

-What is the situation today?

-After being able to solve the essential part of our collective bargaining, through negotiations, we are now faced with what see as a very serious problem. We have reported to the Coca Cola Company, the parent company in the United States, that Embotelladora Central’s territory is being invaded by two other franchises that operate in Guatemala, and that this invasion is accompanied by a price war. After many years and despite being headed by completely different individuals, the company’s management has once again abandoned the market, removing the refrigerating equipment that customers were using. These refrigerators are repainted and used to sell Tecate beer, which is not distributed by Embotelladora Central.

 

-What do you think is the company’s intention?

-We think the intention is to prepare the ground so that, in the not so distant future, they can say that the company is not profitable, and then they might propose cutbacks in personnel, or they might say that because their accounts are in red we can’t bargain the new Labor Agreement due to begin in September. This could affect more than 8 thousand people that live off this plant, if we count the families of the 1,350 employees, of which 1,142 are members of the union.

 

-They want to break up the union?

-This management knows our history, and maybe it comes prepared to confront us in order to prove it can destroy any union, perhaps it wants to use us to teach the other unions a lesson. This is what emerges from the attitudes management has had, as it shows no intention of harmonizing positions, of moving forward. Far from it.

 

-How have you reacted?

-The first measure we adopted, then, was to inform all our sister organizations -labor, student and popular- of the situation and ask them to denounce what was happening to the Coca Cola Company and FEMSA’s management, so that they can reflect on whether it is advisable for the parties involved to get into such a conflict, because as workers and as a union we are willing to do everything in our power to defend our jobs and the existence of our organization, which has cost us so much blood and struggle. Through IUF, we also want our sister organizations throughout the world to be aware of this situation and be prepared to support us, not only by sending letters, but also in any other way the struggle may call for.

Carlos Amorín

© Rel-UITA

June 27, 2006

Carlos Amorín

 

 

 

 

Volver a Portada

 

  UITA - Secretaría Regional Latinoamericana - Montevideo - Uruguay

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 / 201 - Tel. (598 2) 900 7473 -  902 1048 -  Fax 903 0905