How Much Longer, Coca-Cola?

Industria de Café INCASA, Coca Cola’s bottling company in Guatemala, continues to ignore the agreement signed with SITINCA* in January 2006, thus violating the official commitment made last October by IUF and Coca-Cola Company representatives in support of that agreement

 

The story is long and the theme is becoming monotonous, as time goes by and no progress is made in the negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement between the union’s workers and the company Industria de Café INCASA, whose attitude in the negotiation has been one of passiveness aimed at drawing out the process to exhaustion and gaining time to break the Union, either through coercive measures or with bribes.

Consulted by Sirel, Augusto Salazar, secretary of Education and Training at the Union of Workers of Industria de Café S.A. and of Coca Cola Retalhuleu, gave his opinion on the situation currently faced by the workers in Guatemala.

-How is the situation now at Café INCASA?

-Our bosses are of the “heavy hand” kind, like those of the 1980’s, whose tactics are characterized by repression and the violation of workers’ rights. At present, the company’s disciplinary penalties are focusing on the Retalhuleu plant and the Escuintla agency, with workers receiving reprimands by letter. These measures are part of the strategy deployed by management to erode the strength of the labor movement. For example, last October 25, after summoning the Coca Cola Retalhuleu bottler, we entered the plant despite resistance from the company. We were able to overcome that resistance based on certain articles of the collective bargaining agreement; however, management has gone so far as to suspend several fellow workers in writing, merely for raising their hands to greet us. They claim that workers can’t greet any union leader that comes into the plant, or anybody else for that matter, not even the President of the Republic himself, who is the country’s maximum authority. This reveals the company’s arrogant repressive stance, which tends to get worse, and which prevents us from seeing a glimmer of change in this situation.

-What action is the union taking against this attitude?

-In the first place, last November 26, we held a general meeting at Retalhuleu, with the participation of all the workers that represent the labor movement at INCASA. It was a success that demonstrates the unity we’ve been working for together with the Union of Workers of Embotelladora Central Sociedad Anónima (STECSA and FESTRAS**). This was the starting point, the beginning of a new approach in the actions that will be carried out from now on. Workers from Café INCASA, from both Retalhuleu and Escuintla, participated in the meeting and supported all the decisions taken, as did the recently organized Huehuetenango workers, who have been the target of the worst persecution.

Important decisions were taken at the meeting, such as, for example, the issuing of a summons to the company demanding they stop the repression. In addition, FESTRAS and STECSA are developing a joint action plan. A few days ago we held a series of meetings through which we consolidated the unity of our organizations, because while we work for different franchises, our product is the same: Coca-Cola.

Specifically, the action plan includes mobilizing workers in sites near the company and exposing this company’s practices in the media of the Retalhuleu area, so that everyone knows how the company exploits and represses its employees. We will also continue to denounce to The Coca Cola Company the situation suffered in these companies, and we will form a front against the repression that we, organized workers, are victims of, in particular at Industrias de Café INCASA.

Along with the nonstop repression by this bottler’s authorities in Retalhuleu and -why not say it- with the consent of the Guatemalan government, the “solidarista movement,” which was created as a counterweight strategy to diminish trade union actions, is sponsored and promoted. Those who join the solidaristas are granted greater benefits than those stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement and by law. This “solidarismo” tactic has been used extensively by the company, both in the past and in the current conflict. We want to emphasize the fact that every time a worker joins the union or the union takes some action or makes some progress in the negotiations, the company goes after the workers with repression or bribes.

-Wouldn’t it be less costly for the company to honor the agreements, instead of maintaining this solidarista movement?

-Of course it would be cheaper for them, but once they eliminate the union it will be much easier to get rid of this type of solidarista groups, which are commanded by some high officials from the company, even if they are presented as labor organizations. The only aim of investing in solidarismo is to put an end to the labor movement.

-Have you moved forward in the negotiation of the collective agreement?

-No progress has been made in the negotiations. Although the company is not reluctant to negotiate, its attitude is very passive. What they’re trying to do is drag out the time it takes to reach a solution, and that creates an agonizing situation for the working class, because we need the wage increase to relieve the economic situation we’re suffering now.

-Would you like else to add anything else?

-We want to let our fellow workers know that we continue in a state of alert and we’re undertaking actions, although these actions must sometimes be kept very secret, as there are infiltrators and the company is often ahead of us in every action we take. This is what happened at the concentration we held in front of the Retalhuleu plant, where police forces, which have historically sided with the economically powerful, showed up immediately. This time not to repress, but to intimidate.

Apoyo

In Montevideo, Amalia Antúnez Rel-UITA November 30, 2006

* Union of Coffee Industry and Coca-Cola Beverage Workers

** Trade Union Federation of Food, Agroindustry and Related Industry Workers of Guatemala