Calvo Conservas faces complaints

with ILO and COFIDES

Confirming our suspicions, unions report that a member of the law firm owned by the Salvadorian Minister of Labor is representing the Calvo group

During the 96^th Annual Conference of the ILO, held recently in Geneva (Switzerland), three Salvadorian organizations, the General Union of Fishing and Related Industry Workers (SGTIPAC), which represents CALVO workers, the Trade Union Federation of Salvadorian Food, Beverage, Hotel, Restaurant and Agro-Industry Workers (FESTSSABHRA), and the Labor Confederation of Salvadorian Workers (CSTS), filed a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association against the government of El Salvador for allowing the anti-union activities of the Spanish company CALVO. The complaint highlights the dismissal of union leaders and one founding member, all protected by union privileges; the attempt to fire other leaders through court actions; anti-union intimidation involving management, supervisors and armed guards; and propositions by CALVO management and supervisors to workers to form an employer-controlled union. The complaint also reveals that the Spanish company is legally represented by a member of a law firm owned by José Roberto Espinal, El Salvador’s current Labor Minister, who was also Vice President of the ILO and presently chairs the Council of Central American Ministers of Labor. Rel-UITA, IUF’s Latin American Regional Office, is backing this complaint.

In June 2006, after firing 600 workers, the CALVO Group threatened to close down its operations in El Salvador if the country did not ratify the ILO’s fundamental conventions, including Conventions 87, 98, and 135 regarding freedom of association. This is required by Europe’s Generalized System of Preferences plus (GSP+), which enables certain countries to export tariff-free to the European Union (EU), a privilege enjoyed by CALVO’s tuna exports from El Salvador to Europe. However, CALVO’s reaction to the attempt to form a union at its Punta Gorda (La Unión) plant was not what would be expected from a company that lobbied strongly for the ratification of these ILO regulations.

Rel-UITA has been supporting the efforts of the Salvadorian organizations involved, and has recently published in its website an extensive report called “The Novel of CALVO Conservas”.

Cheap euros, but disregard for labor obligations

The Compañía Española de Financiación del Desarrollo (COFIDES) is a mixed company that finances projects carried out by Spanish companies that wish to “go transnational,” through “feasible private ventures conducted in any developing or emerging country in which Spain has some kind of interest.” This was the company that helped CALVO set up its plant in El Salvador through a 52 million euro loan. The loan, however, was granted with certain conditions. For example, COFIDES stipulates that “the human rights of all its collaborators shall be respected, in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principles established under the Global Compact signed by COFIDES.” (Under Article 23, the UN Declaration states that: Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.)

It is for this reason that, together with the complaint filed with the ILO, the Salvadorian trade unions have also presented a request to COFIDES’ Board of Directors, calling for an investigation against the CALVO Group in El Salvador to determine if the violations to the freedom of association that are being committed there constitute an infringement of COFIDES’ Code of Ethics and, if so, asking the Board to inform what measures it will take to correct the situation. Rel-UITA is also backing this request.

Basic demands

The Salvadorian trade union’s demands are basic. They demand that their leaders and founding members, who were unjustly dismissed, be reinstated, and that the company put an end to the antiunion campaign it is waging with the aim of preventing SGTIPAC from growing, thus blocking the way for collective bargaining. What in other parts of the world is accepted practice for CALVO threatens to become an international conflict in El Salvador. In this country, CALVO’s managers and supervisors are recruited from the Salvadorian business community and are trained to suppress the slightest sign of labor activity. Both government and corporate management have, in fact, demonstrated throughout the years that they are convinced that by “de-unionizing” society they will attract foreign investment. The former Minister of Economy Miguel Lacayo (2000-2004) has said in several occasions that the low rate of unionization was one of the “attractions” that the country had to offer foreign investors. But the results are far from living up to these expectations, as El Salvador is still the country that attracts the least foreign investment in Central America.

Everything seems to indicate that CALVO pressured the Salvadorian government into ratifying the ILO’s fundamental agreements, and that in doing so the Spanish company was merely trade-motivated, seeking to obtain zero-tariff treatment for its exports to Europe, and having no social interest whatsoever in such ratifications. It must have agreed with the authorities that the provisions of these conventions would exist in name only in its plant.  Now CALVO faces a real dilemma: will it apply in El Salvador a labor and collective bargaining policy similar to the one it applies in Brazil and Spain? Or will it join the club of Salvadorian corporate management characterized by anti-union fundamentalism?

The truth is that the Calvos have apparently outwitted themselves this time and are now in a jam. If they continue with their current policy they will have to face international censure, with all its implications, from bodies such as the ILO and COFIDES, as well as from the workers organized under the IUF. And all of this censure will alert consumers, with the ensuing adverse consequences for the brand. The other road they could take would be to ignore the agreement we believe the company made with the Salvadorian government and oligarchy, which due to their mafia ways will not easily forgive the violation of the agreement.

From Montevideo, Enildo Iglesias © Rel-UITA With information from CEAL and own sources June 18, 2007