Argentina – New Zealand

Dairy Workers, Unite!

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).

 

  

  

  UITA - Secretaría Regional Latinoamericana - Montevideo - Uruguay

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 / 201 - Tel. (598 2) 900 7473 -  902 1048 -  Fax 903 0905