Panamá  |  TRADE UNIONS

 

 

 

 

 SABMiller holds workers against their

will to force them to accept dismissal

  

Having failed to convince workers to willingly accept dismissal, Cervecería Nacional, a Panamanian brewery owned by the transnational corporation SABMiller, closed the doors of its plants with its unionized workers inside and refused to let them out unless they signed their layoff acceptance notices. The union issued the following communication denouncing this serious human rights violation.

  

We inform all IUF affiliates and the international labor movement in general of the attempted union wipeout by Cervecería Nacional. The brewery, property of SABMiller, tried to fire all unionized workers, represented by the Industrial Union of Soft Drink, Beverage, Soda, Beer, Liquor and Similar Beverage Production and Distribution Workers (SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS).

 

In the afternoon of May 4, after closing negotiations with the government regarding a series of Labor Code violations, the company began calling workers unionized under SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS to inform them that they were being made redundant through a mutual agreement, and that they would have to sign a document on the spot without being advised by a union representative.

 

Workers nationwide refused to sign the document, as the so-called mutual agreement was in fact a technically concealed dismissal. 

The trade unions representing workers employed by this vicious company need to come together and sign a joint report to be presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denouncing the situation, backing it with testimonies from victims of the violations.

 

As it failed to achieve its goal, management instructed its security guards to prevent workers from leaving the premises. After finishing their shift, the workers were held against their will for several hours.

The National Police had to be called in to several workplaces, where workers reported that they were not allowed to leave until they signed a mutual agreement with the company that would put them out of work.

 

The workers were only allowed to go home after the police intervened.

 

This action by the transnational corporation SABMiller is a criminal offense as it entails depriving workers of their liberty. It also constitutes one of the most condemnable human rights violations.

 

For this reason we will file a complaint in the competent courts.

 

SABMiller is attempting to get rid of unionized workers because it has lowered wages for all of its distribution personnel. Aware that it will have to face a lawsuit for these wage cuts, the company has tried to fire current workers and hire new ones under the new wage conditions it has imposed.

 

On Tuesday, May 8, all Panamanian workers members of SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS who are employed by the SABMiller-owned Cervecería Nacional will suspend working activities and will not allow delivery trucks to leave the plant until the situation is solved on a national level.

 

We have denounced repeatedly that the transnational corporation SABMiller has an anti-worker attitude, systematically violating its workers’ human rights. So we call on all the trade unions representing workers employed by this vicious company to come together and sign a joint report to be presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denouncing the situation, backing it with testimonies from victims of the violations.

 

If we do not take joint action to denounce this serious situation, SABMiller will continue to implement its policy of labor savagery, violating the human rights of its workers and destroying human lives.

 

Lets put a stop to this barbarous labor culture of the transnational corporation SABMiller.

 

 

From Panamá, Alejandro John

SITRAFCOREBGASCELIS

May 7, 2012

 

Photo: Gerardo Iglesias

 

 

  UITA - Secretaría Regional Latinoamericana - Montevideo - Uruguay

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 / 201 - Tel. (598 2) 900 7473 -  902 1048 -  Fax 903 0905