The successful end of the mobilization of the workers of Cervecería Hondureña (SABMiller), organized in the Union of Beverage and Related Industry Workers (STIBYS), not only generated a great euphoria over the results obtained with the signing of the new Collective Agreement, ratified by the Delegates Congress last Sunday 13, it also demonstrated the importance of the political and union training efforts carried out by STIBYS during these long months of struggle. With the aim of examining the struggle and these issues more closely, SIREL interviewed Carlos Reyes, president of STIBYS.

 

 

The mobilization that has just ended in Honduras is, without a doubt, the result of a very long process that the union has very skillfully been forging, trying to involve the workers and raise awareness about the importance of organizing. But it doesn’t end with the signing of the new Agreement. The union will now set out to examine what instruments are available to monitor, step by step, the company’s implementation of the agreement.

-The workers are celebrating a very significant result achieved under this struggle, which seemed to be leading up inevitably to a general strike for an indefinite period of time. How was the agreement attained?

-When the conciliation stage had practically failed, having discussed the 64 clauses of the Collective Agreement that we had been reviewing for the past 16 months, we finally came to the issue of wages. Of these clauses, 46 had been brought up by us because the company was in blatant violation of them, while the remaining 18 were being reviewed by the company itself with the aim of making them less favorable to the workers or in order to legalize all the labor flexibilization and casualization processes it had been implementing. In the clause concerning wages there were also several problems regarding regulatory and operational issues of the company, which were causing a great deal of difficulties.

It had gotten to the point that the workers could not bear the situation anymore. For example, at Cervecería we have trucks that deliver to warehouses and retail stores, but the company decided to implement a system of categories, whereby additional workers were hired in this area and paid lower wages than those earned by regular employees. In addition they worked under casual employment schemes, were forced to cover a greater number of areas, and earned commissions that were a third of those paid to other salespersons and assistants. The aim was to gradually eliminate the workers that were already unionized and to continue implementing outsourcing schemes and using temporary workers to increase casualization.

Anticipating the company’s moves, the Delegates Congress decided to postpone the filing of the strike notice until after Christmas, and this created a lot of problems for the company, as it had organized its activities storing a large amount of products outside its facilities.

This enabled us to strengthen our ranks and work out the details of the protest with the plant workers. At the end, the company found itself with no way out.

-What do you think were the elements that enabled you to force the company to yield?

-We did not accept the arrangements proposed by the company during the Conciliation stage and we concentrated our efforts towards calling a strike that would be legal. The workers remained firm in their stance, and we also worked to raise awareness among clients and customers, getting them to understand the motives for the strike. In addition, a national and international campaign was launched with the support and solidarity of numerous organizations, among them the IUF. We were also backed unconditionally by various sectors of Honduran society in a boycott against Cervecería products. All of this put us in a very favorable position, which ultimately led to this outcome.

We must add that we were able to close the negotiation before the company activated its plan to introduce the product from abroad, so that it could later distribute it to clients with the company’s own trucks. It would have been a very difficult strike, with a great deal of confrontations and risks, because the company was aiming to destroy us as a labor union. However, they didn’t succeed and we were able to secure with great dignity this Collective Agreement, where one of the most important achievements was our having regained everything we had lost through the company’s refusal to comply in the past. Most importantly in this sense, we succeeded in eliminating outsourcing and subcontracting schemes, and the exhausting workdays of up to 12 or 14 hours for the workers hired under the system of categories.

-Besides the gains reflected in the Agreement signed, what is the significance of this struggle?

-Despite the fact that many workers were new arrivals and knew very little about the union, we were able to involve them in the struggle. During all that time in which the negotiations were at a standstill, we were able to grow in terms of increasing awareness among the workers, so that in the end only very few workers signed against the strike, in spite of the company’s efforts. The night we signed the agreement there were many workers gathered outside company facilities, ready for whatever would follow.

-This means that, in addition to what the union gained from the company, you also made progress with the workers in terms of making them more aware of their rights…

-The more the company continued to deny their rights and dragged out the process of negotiation, the more the workers increased their awareness of the need to fight, and this is for us perhaps the most important achievement. This process has been a great learning experience in class struggle, and suffering fist-hand the pressure from management has taught workers much more than they could ever learn in any seminar or workshop.

-You could say then that the company’s dilatory tactics backfired …

-They used those tactics with the aim of wearing us down, but we were able to react wisely and take advantage of the situation to turn it into a learning process for the workers. We distributed weekly newsletters explaining each and every one of the clauses, and adding theoretical and historical elements about our struggle.

-In a labor union, how important are the efforts to politically educate workers?

-Our union has always stood out in this sense, with very high levels of political education and with a great involvement of rank and file workers in all our national mobilizations against privatizations and the neoliberal model. We have held several events on these issues and we continue to carry out activities with the purpose of raising political awareness among workers, so that the object of our struggles won’t be solely wages. That is why we are also part of the Popular Coalition of San Pedro Sula (Bloque Popular de San Pedro Sula) and the National Coordination for Popular Resistance (Coordinadora Nacional de Resistencia Popular). Wages are one of the issues most widely used by the company to discredit the union, by attempting to convince workers that wages should be their sole interest and goal. This does not mean that wages are not important, but first come regulatory issues, substantial elements and the defense of the union. We need to regain a balance in the relationship between the company and the union, which had been upset by the impunity under which this transnational corporation operates, in spite of violating the Collective Agreement. That is why our slogan was: “In defense of the union, in defense of collective contracting and for the improvement of our living and working conditions.” Even we learned from this struggle, because everyone gains something from these experiences.

-In sum, what does this experience leave you with?

-It has taught us a great deal in terms of dealing with Collective Bargaining Agreement issues while the Agreement is in effect, that is, in terms of determining the type of mechanisms that we must use to get the company to comply with all the clauses, and what means of pressuring we have available to achieve that goal. To that end, next week we will start working hard on examining and systematizing these mechanisms.