With Hélène Deborde

“The best news I’m taking back to Doux workers in France is the possibility of joint actions”

	I’m very pleased this committee was formed, but it will really come into existence when we put it to practical and concrete use through our actions

Hélène Deborde, European international relations officer at France’s General Agro-Food Federation (FGA), participated in the International Doux Workers Workshop recently held in Porto Alegre, Brazil and before going back to France she made the following assessment of the activity.

-What would you highlight as the most important outcome of this workshop?

-The mutual will of workers to cooperate with each other. I think it is stimulating to confirm that such will exists, and that is a desire shared by us all; and also that it is not limited to just one issue, but can be extended to a broader, more long-term project.

-What has the activity been useful for?

-It has served to create ties. We now realize that we can make projects happen. I think we need to move forward with this project, because it will be what drives the relations we started forging at this workshop.

-Were you surprised by what you heard about Doux in Brazil?

-I already had some information, but hearing the reports directly and having a greater insight on how trade unions are structured here -not just in Doux- helped me understand the context much better.

Hearing the powerful testimonies of working conditions at Doux also strengthens the desire to work to overcome such problems.

-What is the most important thing you are taking back with you to Doux workers in France?

-Perhaps the fact that workers and trade unionists at Doux Brazil are willing to support the actions of their peers in France and that there can be reciprocity in this sense. The certainty that information exchanges will continue, but also that workers will seek to support each other in their actions. That’s the first news I’m going to convey to them.

-What do you expect from the International Committee of DOUX Workers?

-I expect joint actions. I’m very pleased this committee was formed, but it will really come into existence when we put it to practical and concrete use through our actions. We will then have a great opportunity to expand our coordinated actions to other agriculture and food related issues, because there are many French companies that are operating in Brazil and many Brazilian ones operating in France.

The IUF and FGA have a lot of common areas of action, and I’m thinking, for example, in the meat industry, but also in the sugar industry. Achieving a permanent cooperation with common areas of action would be ideal.