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Members of the Nestlé San
Francisco Workers' Union (SITRANESTLESF)
denounce a new attack
against union leaders by the
transnational corporation's
management.
Sirel spoke with Elvis Duarte, general secretary of
SITRANESTLESF, to learn more
about the situation.
-What's happening right now
at the Nestlé plant in San
Francisco de Macorís?
-It's a very difficult
situation, both for workers
in general and for trade
union leaders in particular.
It all started with the last
negotiation for the
Collective Bargaining
Agreement, which left
pending the signing of the
special agreements not
included in the larger
bargaining agreement. One of
these special agreements has
to do with social security
contributions and holidays,
and management had
undertaken to sign these
agreements in a special
meeting to be held one or
two months after the signing
of the Collective Bargaining
Agreement.
But Nestlé went back
on its word and began
unilaterally implementing a
social security
contributions policy,
without discussing or
negotiating it with the
union, so we were forced to
take this issue up with the
Labor Ministry.
Several meetings were held
with the participation of
representatives of the
company, the Ministry and
SITRANESTLESF, in which
even the national Vice
President took part, but in
the end no agreement was
reached in this matter.
In this context, the current
manager of Nestlé for
the Dominican Republic,
Karl Brobek, has been
coming down really hard on
senior union leaders, in
what we believe is a tactic
to divert attention away
from the special agreements,
and a ploy by management to
prevent us from having the
meeting we had scheduled
with Nestlé president
for the Caribbean
region, Mr. Claude
Mambury.
On Oct. 18, the company sent
the union a document with a
clearly intimidating
message. The communication
mentioned an incident that
had occurred on Saturday,
Oct. 9. The manager reported
an insubordination by two
union leaders, but what
actually happened was that
the manager began insulting
the two workers as soon as
he set foot in the factory,
thus setting off the
workers' reaction.
This “misconduct” on the
part of the union leaders
was used as an excuse to
suspend the scheduled
meeting.
-So the main problem was
caused by this member of the
company's middle management
staff…
-Yes. Ever since his arrival
a little over two years ago,
this manager, who was
previously in Pakistan,
began attacking the workers,
arguing that we had too many
benefits. He's particularly
hostile with union leaders,
explicitly provoking them
whenever he gets the chance.
This attitude on the part of
the company is baffling,
because aside from the
pending issues I mentioned,
we have no conflicts. But
management has stepped up
security in the plant,
hiring more private security
guards, in addition to an
increasing number of
policemen deployed
throughout the plant,
challenging the workers.
-What actions is the union
taking to counter this
situation?
-We've scheduled a meeting
with our advisors, including
Fernando de las Rosas
and Rafael “Pepe” Abreu,
to determine how we should
address Nestlé's
confrontational attitude. It
should be noted that the
union has always been
willing to sit down and
dialogue with management,
because as workers, we are
aware of the importance of
keeping the plant in San
Francisco and preserving our
jobs.
Also, San Francisco's social
and labor organizations have
convened a general assembly
for next Sunday, Oct. 24, to
discuss rumors that
Nestlé could be shutting
down the factory here.
We've heard that the
transnational corporation
plans to relocate our
plant's production to its
units in Panama and
Guatemala, and turn
the country into a
distribution center for the
Caribbean region.
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