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At 35, Carlos
Molinares, a native of Colón, province of Entre Ríos, has been working for over
10 years in the poultry industry. Not long after he began working in 1996, he
was elected general secretary of his plant’s union. Today he also occupies the
position of organization secretary in the Labor Federation
of the Meat and Meat Byproducts Industry
Workers. Sirel interviewed
Molinares to learn about the problems and challenges faced by the Federation and
by Argentina’s meat sector.
-What are
working conditions like in Argentina’s poultry plants?
-We have some
of the same problems as those denounced by IUF affiliates in Brazil.
Although I don’t think the work pace is as fast in Argentina, we still
have problems with repetitive tasks, the high speed of some machinery and
several difficulties in safety in the slaughter area and byproducts sector,
where workers face a lot of hazards.
-What’s the
percentage of women workers in poultry plants?
-Twenty percent
of the industry’s workers are women.
-Although there
is a marked presence of Brazilian companies in the sector, the bulk of the
country’s poultry plants is still owned by Argentinean companies…
-Yes. In
contrast to what happens with red meat production, poultry plants are for the
most part owned by Argentinean families that have worked traditionally in the
industry. These families started from below, but today they are very
influential.
-Is the
industry growing here too?
-The industry
has grown steadily over the past few years. The Business Chamber projects a 10
percent annual increase for the years 2010 and 2011. The Federation, however,
believes that the poultry industry will grow at a much faster pace than what
producers are projecting.
-Your
Federation doesn’t just group poultry industry workers, it also represents
workers in other meat industries. What is the situation like there?
-In the case of
read meats, the situation is different. There are also problems and difficulties
in working conditions, but, for example, its workers benefit from a special
social security regime that enables men to retire at 55 and women at 50.
We want to
expand that benefit to the poultry sector, but we know it won’t be easy.
-And Brazilian
transnational corporations are buying up everything here…
-We’re very
alarmed over that that.
JBS
and the Marfrig Group
are already here. They’re taking stock of our industry and going out for
more. We’re alarmed because they operate differently…
-How so?
-For them,
trade unions don’t exist; they deal directly with the workers, ignoring trade
unions…
-How many
members does the Federation have?
-Right now, we
have over 60,000 members.
-Besides the
advance of Brazilian transnational corporations, are you also concerned over the
expansion of soybean crops?
-Just as it
displaced other crops, soybean production is also displacing many cattle
producers, pushing them up north. This is a proven fact.
-How was your
experience at the International Conference of Meat Industry Workers organized by
the IUF in London last year?
-It was a great
experience because it allowed me to see that we have much the same problems here
and in Brazil as workers in the industry in other parts of the world do.
The poultry industry is not regulated anywhere, and we consider that there are
greater risks and worse working conditions in the poultry industry than in the
red meat industry, as a result of great technological advances that speed up
processes to the detriment of workers’ health.
-What do you
think of the idea of forming a coordinating body that groups meat industry
workers from all the Mercosur countries?
-I think it’s
an important initiative, and it will mean bringing to the Mercosur region
a resolution adopted at the London Conference. If the labor unions that
represent workers from these transnational corporations don’t coordinate their
actions, the struggle will be all that much harder. I think it’s important to
join efforts to regulate an activity in which the owners are all the same
companies, where we have the same employers.
-The Federation
forms part of the Confederation of Labor Associations of the Food Industry (CASIA)…
-After a
process of restructure, the Federation reclaimed spaces that had previously been
abandoned. We are currently following guidelines set by our general secretary,
José Alberto Fantini,
which entail participating actively in CASIA and the IUF,
and for which we have the support of
Norberto Latorre,
at UTHGRA.
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