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     Uruguay 

 

With Mariano Ebert, of ALPEC

 Fear and slaughtering

at Marfrig

 

As cattle slaughter continues to drop, pushed down by several factors,* meatpacking companies refuse to absorb the resulting costs, transferring them instead to their workers. Sirel spoke with Mariano Ebert, president of the Labor Association of Workers of Establecimiento Colonia (ALPEC), who described the situation at this Marfrig Group plant located in the Uruguayan department of Colonia.

 

-Can you tell us about the events leading up to the current situation?

-In June of this year, following six months of negotiation, we signed a very positive agreement with the company, through which we secured significant wage increases for sections of the plant where workers were earning very low wages. This was a great satisfaction for us. But only a week later, they sent us all on forced leave because, according to company executives, cattle started to run short. 

 

-Things didn’t end there though…

-At first they only ordered us to take half of our annual leave, but then they extended it to the entire leave plus four months on the unemployment insurance program, which we’re still on.

We were later told that the company was “restructuring,” and this essentially entailed the firing of 160 people in a total of 900 employees.

 

The company also announced that it would be suspending the transportation service provided to the workers. This will affect a significant number of workers who live some 40 to 50 kilometers away from the plant, and who, from now on, will have to pay for transportation, thus suffering a direct reduction of their income.

 

There’s no transportation service in Marfrig’s other plants because they’re located in larger cities and the workers live within city limits. But things are different here; people live in small towns in the surrounding area. Nearly 200 of our fellow workers could lose their jobs because if they have to depend on public transportation they’ll be unable to make it on time for the different shifts they are required to work, as some shifts start at hours in which public transportation is not running.

 

-The company is also attempting to limit other rights.

-We were told that the daycare center provided here for the workers’ children, paid for by the company, will be suspended. This would also entail another loss of income for the workers.

If that weren’t bad enough, just today we were informed that the company’s eliminated what we called “the meat market,” that is, the right to buy meat directly from the meatpacking plant at preferential prices, and would also be closing the well-stocked pharmacy we had. The meat they used to sell us is now being sent to a meat market in the city, and we’ll only be given a 10 percent discount on the price it is sold to the general public. This harms the families of the workers directly, as it impacts the quality of their diet, because most cuts will costs us an average of 80 percent more than they do now.

 

In addition, they’re telling us that not all of the workers will be reinstated, that some will remain on unemployment, but they’re not giving us any details as to how many, who, etc. The situation is critical. 

 

-Why is the company acting this way?

-They argue that cattle for slaughter is scarce, that the plant has a slaughter capacity of 1,000 heads of cattle per day and it will only reach 700. But it’s an abuse, because when there’s enough cattle they hire people from all over the place without thinking twice, but when work is slow, even if it’s only a temporary slump, they put people out on the street. So they’re taking advantage of the situation to try to take away gains we’ve achieved years ago. They’re pressuring us so that we’ll quit in large numbers, because many of us will see a complete change in working conditions.

 

-What are you planning to do now?

-Being on unemployment puts us in a pretty vulnerable position. We’re going to convene an Assembly to examine the situation together and discuss possible actions. It seems pretty obvious that there’s been a deliberate strategy to undermine the union. For weeks we’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors, such as that the company would be sold, that the plant was being relocated, that it was shutting down, etc. So people are very worried, fearing they might lose their jobs.

 

It’s sad, but it’s as if nobody cares. We only had one congressmen come by once, and the city’s mayor hasn’t bothered to see us. Shop owners panicked, and immediately after they met with the company’s management, we were denied credit in small local shops. Marfrig’s exerts enormous pressure over a population that is dependant on it. It’s almost like a feudal situation.

 

-What’s the city of Tarariras like?

-Tarariras has a population of 8,000, which means half it’s people are linked to the plant.

 

Marfrig has a total of four plants in the country, and accounts for almost 40 percent of all the cattle slaughtered in Uruguay. We’re coming against a very powerful company. At first it suspended activities in this plant, but continued operating the other three plants. Now it’s suspended activities in a second plant, but it’s not losing out on any profit. It’s operating at full capacity in the other two plants. We asked them to provide workers with a minimum basket of goods -not even a basic goods basket, just a minimum one-, so they can get through these four months of unemployment. The basket we asked for would cost approximately 90 US dollars per worker, which would be deducted from future wages. But they told us they couldn’t give it to us because they’re already spending too much money as it is keeping the plant idle. It’s pretty clear to us that they’re trying to undermine our union because it’s strong.

I must say that we’re going through a huge crisis. We’re not going to give up, but we’ve been hit pretty badly.

 

 

From Montevideo, Carlos Amorín

Rel-UITA

October 15, 2010

 

 

 

 

* The region suffered a prolonged drought last year, which affected calving; but the main reason for the drop in slaughter is that, in a context of high international prices, many cattle owners are holding on to their animals, taking advantage of the current green pastures to fatten them as much as possible and increase profits.

 

 

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