In view of the global
concentration of the dairy sector in an increasingly smaller number of
transnational corporations, two of the most important trade union
organizations representing workers from dairy industries worldwide have
agreed to pool their capacities and resources.
Established in 1967, the
Latin American Regional Secretariat was IUF’s first regional office. It was
thus rightly decided that the problems and challenges faced by the Latin
American member organizations would be discussed and solved in different
democratic instances, and that a Secretariat headquartered in the region
would be in charge of the day-to-day organizational, coordination and
solidarity work. We evoke this episode with the intention of highlighting
the fact that our regional office was born as a direct result of a
decentralization policy that was applied at the time by IUF’s General
Secretariat.
True to such an idea, since
its inception the Regional Secretariat has promoted a series of measures and
created a number of spaces with the aim of democratizing its actions,
furthering collective and coordinated responses to the various problems
faced by the labor movement.
In this context, the Tenth
Latin American Regional Conference (Buenos Aires, October 21-25, 1991) gave
a new impulse to the process of decentralization. It was this sovereign
forum that approved the proposal for the creation of Professional
Departments in each industry sector or thematic area: agriculture, health,
etc., where we repositioned more people REFLECTING and ACTING throughout the
region.
In 1999, the IUF member
organizations that were part of the Coordinating Body of Southern Cone Dairy
Industry Workers (COTILCOS) met in Montevideo and created the Department of
Men and Women Workers of the Dairy Industry. This body has been coordinated
from the start by the Association of Dairy Industry Workers of the Republic
of Argentina (ATILRA).
The work performed by the
Department in its six years of existence has been remarkable. Among its
efforts, we highlight the following: the Parmalat Workers Conference
(Mar del Plata, June 25-26, 2003), where coordination and the subsequent
studies conducted enabled the unions to be better positioned to face the
global Parmalat crash in 2004; and the Seventh Latin American
Conference of Nestlé Workers (Buenos Aires, November 13-14, 2003),
where it was decided that a region-wide study on Repetitive Strain Injuries
(RSI) would be carried out, giving Brazil the opportunity to launch a
research that would end with the publication of the book “The Silent
Massacre” (Invisible Illness at the Nestlé Plant in Araras), by
journalist Carlos Amorín.
Besides these activities, the
Department carries out support and cooperation actions in every
international solidarity campaign implemented by Rel-UITA.
Facing New Challenges
On November 21 and 22, the
“Strategy Workshop of Dairy Workers” was held in Buenos Aires, with the
participation of ATILRA, the Confederation of Food Company and Private Area
Workers of Chile (CONTALAPCH), and the New Zealand Dairy Workers Union (NZDWU).
The event closed with the resolution to sign a cooperation agreement between
ATILRA and NZDWU. This agreement opens a new modality, which further
enhances the coordination of efforts, empowering IUF’s international actions
from the local sphere.
Consulted about the scope of
the agreement, Héctor Ponce, General Secretary of ATILRA, said: “This
initiative of our Regional Secretariat represents a major commitment through
which ATILRA, acting on behalf of the Dairy Department of Rel-UITA, and
NZDWU, will unite goals and consolidate strategies to defend the interests
of workers. Fonterra, an emblematic New Zealand cooperative, is operating in
the region and in Argentina. That is why, among other important issues, the
agreement stipulates a formal process in Latin America to monitor compliance
with the Framework Agreement signed in 2002 by IUF, Fonterra and
NZDWU, witnessed by the government of New Zealand and of ILO.”
It should be noted that
Argentina and New Zealand are part of the Global Dairy Alliance, along with
Australia, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Established in 2002, the Alliance
groups 1.5 million producers and represents an annual production of 60,000
million liters. In 2002, these six countries accounted for 55 percent of
international dairy commerce.
Due to the fact that it has
exceptional climate conditions for dairy activities and advanced technology,
New Zealand has a volume of production per hectare substantially greater
than that of Argentina, but its possibilities of increasing production are
limited by the shortage of suitable land for dairying.(1) This is why the
New Zealand company Fonterra, which ranks first in the global dairy
market, has established a strategic partnership with the Argentinean
SanCor (that country’s largest dairy exporter, with a daily processing
capacity of 5,500,000 liters of milk in 17 industrial plants), and it is
also speculated that it is planning to build a plant in the MERCOSUR region.
“This area of Latin America
has been chosen by the leading transnational corporations because Argentina,
Brazil and Uruguay offer excellent opportunities in terms of expansion of
production. Moreover, our region is expected to have a significant rise in
dairy product consumption,” Héctor Ponce remarked.
That is why, today, more than
ever, we reaffirm the validity of the strategic lines of the Regional
Secretariat, both in internal operational aspects, as it enables greater
autonomy and therefore enhances democracy, and in its vision of thinking and
acting locally and globally.
Gerardo Iglesias
© Rel-UITA
December 30, 2005
(1)
Sectoral Report on Milk and Dairy Products (February 2000).
