Brasil

 

With Geraldo Gonçálves Pires

Parmalat and its indecent proposal

 

As workers await a second round of negotiations, Sirel spoke with Geraldo Gonçálves Pires, president of the Union of Dairy, Sugar and Coffee Industry Workers of São Paulo, and representative of the Federation of Food Industry Workers of São Paulo in these negotiations

 

 

 

-In what stage are the negotiations with the company?

-On May 21, during the first round of negotiations, Parmalat made an indecent proposal for wage adjustment. It proposed a 2.5 percent raise that does not even cover the period’s inflation, which was 3.44 percent. The labor movement, for its part, requests a base of 500 reais (some 170 dollars) plus the sum of the period’s NCPI* and GDP** (7 percent approximately).

 

We return to the negotiating table next June 1st. Meanwhile, the National Commission of Parmalat Workers will meet at the Jundiaí Food Industry Union, and on that day we will paralyze the Jundiaí unit, which is the largest in Brazil, with the aim of influencing the proposal that will be presented by management.

 

-What other demands are the workers making?

-We’re also calling for an end to outsourcing, more so after the company outsourced sales activities. They fired 400 active workers and hired 300 outsourced ones. Another of our demands is participation in the profit-income relation; we’re asking that the company present a target plan to be discussed jointly with the workers.

 

-What are your expectations for this national negotiation?

-I’m hoping for a good agreement for Parmalat workers, and if that’s not possible, I want our fellow workers to be sure that we will paralyze all of the company’s units in Brazil.

 

In Montevideo, Amalia Antúnez

© Rel-UITA

May 30, 2007

 

 

 

*   National Consumer Price Index
** Gross Domestic Product

 

 

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