-How did you feel when the plant closed down?

-It was devastating. A factory with over 200 workers that shuts down overnight, and in a country that is going through very difficult times… None of us has been able to get back into the labor market.

-How are the country’s difficulties manifested?

-The thing is that economically the country is doing bad, inflation is very high, and there’s an acute crisis. The little money people are able to scrounge together is not enough for them to eat decently. I’m sure that many of my fellow workers are already going hungry, because everything is so expensive… The government says the country is stable, but that’s not so, and you can see it when you go to the supermarket: a pack of low-quality meat costs 150 pesos (approximately 4.3 US dollars).

-Are the prices of food items very steep?

-The price of everything is exorbitant, medicines too. Being sick here is a luxury, because unfortunately there is no way to cover basic expenses. I myself have not recovered yet; I can hardly sleep; I’ve lost ten pounds… I don’t like to talk about this… It’s getting very difficult, for all of us… -Nereyda breaks off, choked by a lump in her throat that makes her voice break.

…it’s just that I don’t like to have to be airing these things out; I spent many, many years inside the plant and I felt like I was part of a family. We’d already been having a hard time with the new Human Resource manager, Ana Isabel, who had been gradually taking away our benefits, but now this… It’s the worst possible time to be throwing so many workers out on the street. Somehow, this company should’ve shown a bit more gratefulness towards the country, a country that made it possible for it to amass so much money. And it should’ve also shown some appreciation to its workers, who worked hard day after day to give their best to the job.

-How old are you?

-I’m 41 years old, but some of my fellow workers are 53 or older, so it’s very unlikely that they’ll be able to reinsert themselves in the labor market. Nestlé should’ve had some consideration with them. In its statements to the newspapers the company said that they had relocated 76 percent of the personnel, but that’s a total lie because they found new positions for management and administrative employees, but not for the workers. None of the unionized workers have been relocated, and that’s because they discriminate against us, because they don’t want unions. They also said that they were giving us six months of salary as compensation, but they actually only paid us three months. When they spoke with us they promised that they would maintain our health insurance for six months, but that was just another lie. I know because a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the doctor to see if I could be treated for these emotional problems I’m having, because I just can’t seem to find any peace, and there they told me that I had no coverage because Nestlé had stopped paying the insurance. It’s terrible.

-How long did you work at the Nestlé ice cream plant?

-I started working at the company when it was still Helados Polo, some 17 years ago. Six years ago it was sold to Nestlé and I continued working under the new owners. My position was “line control.”

-And what were the wages and working conditions like?

-The wages were not very good, because they were inadequate for the effort we put in. The last salary I earned was 13,600 pesos (some 390 US dollars), after the last raise.

-Were you a member of the union?

-I was the union’s Minutes Secretary. As soon as I joined I started to feel a lot of pressure, especially from one of the managers, Walter Brauque, who, whenever we presented a demand for some benefit that had been denied to a fellow worker, the next day he would either ignore us or harass us. That’s not the way a good manager should behave, because a manager has no right to mistreat workers under any circumstances. This manager came to the company with Ana Isabel of Human Resources, and they had been cutting back our benefits ever since they arrived. Several of the fired workers were denied compensation and we had to appeal several times to the Secretary of Labor.

The vacancies began to be handled according to the interests of these people, so that there were practically no promotions for the plant’s old personnel. They would bring in their relatives, who were less qualified than us. Ever since they arrived at the plant everything started to go wrong; even the toys that were distributed as gifts to the children on Three Wise Men’s Day, as established in the Collective Agreement, went down so much in quality that it was shameful. The entire attitude of this woman, Isabel, was appalling. There was even a case, right before the plant closed down, in which she denied a raise that was due in July to our fellow worker Eudalí Jiménez, because she said he earned too much. And this year none of the benefits established under the Collective Agreement were complied with, not even the benefits granted to schoolchildren.

-Were union members persecuted?

-There was a great deal of persecution. Many of our fellow workers were offered loans and promotions in exchange for leaving the union, and those who weren’t in the union yet were threatened with being laid off if they joined. We even had a case of a fellow worker who left the union, but her letter of resignation was drawn up in company letterhead. The grief we suffered there is indescribable. We struggled, but it was like fighting against an enormous monster that was always stronger than us, so we were unable to eradicate those practices.

-How do you feel now?

-I can’t describe it. You have to live through this to know what it’s like. All of my fellow workers feel very bad. Not only because the company was shut down, but also because of how badly we were treated on the day it was closed down. They wouldn’t let us in, there were security guards everywhere, they didn’t even let us through to use the bathrooms. To give us the news, they didn’t have the decency to appoint someone who knew what they were doing; they couldn’t be bothered. Somebody just came and told us: “As of today the company is dead; it no longer exists, not here, not anywhere else.” But, how can you explain that a company is about to close down but has for months been making their personnel work ten to twelve hours a day to accumulate production? They haven’t stopped selling their products.

-What health problems are you having?

-I can’t sleep, I’m eating practically nothing, and on top of that I feel really depressed; I cry all the time (again her voice breaks)… I feel terrible, because it wasn’t just a couple days that I had devoted to the job. That’s why I went to the doctor, so that he would give me some pills; but as you can see, it’s only been two months since the plant closed down and the company is no longer paying the insurance.

-Do you have any children?

-No. But I was pregnant a few years ago, and I slipped at work and lost the baby; ever since then I haven’t been able to get pregnant again.

-And did you report this fall you had during working hours?

-No. Maybe out of ignorance, and of fear of losing my job, I kept quiet. Because there we work with fat, and it ends up all over the factory, and the floor is slippery.

-Are you looking for a job?

-Every day. But when I go to the interviews, even though they don’t say it, I can tell that they think I’m too old for the positions they have open. Because in this country if you’re older than 35, nobody will hire you. The situation I’m in is very difficult.

-What would you like to say to Nestlé workers around the world?

-That they keep their eyes wide open; and I’d tell them to unite, struggle and be wary, because Nestlé paints a very pretty picture, saying we’re all part of a large family, but their actions show that we’re anything but a family. I’d like to tell them that it is very important to be united, because if all three Nestlé plants would’ve united here, maybe they wouldn’t have been able to get away with this. But, they saw how weak we were, and that emboldened them. I would tell them to fight, and above all not to trust Nestlé, because they make a lot of promises, but they treat their workers very badly.