On Tuesday 23 January the mandatory conciliation between the Association of Dairy Workers of the Argentine Republic (Atilra) and the dairy cooperative SanCor and there was no agreement between the parties. For this reason, in the final hours of last Friday, the union decided to initiate new forceful measures, this time, a paralysis of activity in the company’s five factories during six hours a day per shift.
The union sent messages to the workers communicating the “withholding of employment debt for non-payment of wages” from 8pm on January 26, stressing that each of them could decide whether or not to join the strike. They also offered to double the $100,000 “aid” that Atilra granted twice, to November and December 2023. to employees who adhere to the measure: “There is no block, far from it”, they said.
However, as SanCor reports, over the weekend an entry impediment document has been drawn up in the plant SunchalesThat is to say that there was a blockade there and therefore the workers who wanted to carry out their tasks could not do so. “It is estimated that some 3,000 liters of chocolate milk seized as a result of the interruption of operations since it was in the production process. Nor could the production of the due milk powder be started lack of boiler services, basically steam and air,” they explained from the cooperative. In the Balnearia plant, however, work continued according to the planned plan, and both there and in Devoto and La Carlota the milk arrived normally.
Today, Monday, in La Carlota almost all the employees carried out their work normally, except four of them who went on strike. Both in that plant and in the Balnearia plant, work continued according to the established times. Meanwhile, in Devoto, where activity is low due to the time of year, “the milk has been received and pasteurized and there are supervisors who divide the cream and produce the white cheese”, reported the SanCor. The production of sliced and paste cheese continued, packaging and dividing it in the usual way, but it had not been possible to gather the staff necessary for the production of processed cheeses.
The conflict has a long history. It all started in 2017 with a salary debt from SanCor. Atilra then agreed with the company on a regularization plan to continue carrying out the tasks, but in October last year he decided to start industrial action, a series of meetings that prevented activity in the factories, limiting the arrival of milk from the farms. milk producers and the delivery of products to retail stores and, consequently, generating income for the company.
That led SanCor to close the San Guillermo plant and throw away 100,000 gallons of milk that couldn’t be processed in October. The company assured that it lost more than 4.5 billion pesos due to the interruption of activities carried out by Atilra for 65 days.
On December 22, the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, issued the mandatory conciliation between the parties. SanCor presented a new proposal to regularize the debt through weekly payments to the labor authorities, which it implemented based on its commitment to employees who continue to work. According to what was calculated then, if the activities had not been paralyzed, they would have been able to pay off the debt in 45 days.
Once the mandatory conciliation and its extension expired, last Wednesday the Secretary of Labor proposed that the parties follow a voluntary conciliation which was accepted by the company and rejected by the union. Atilra does not want to resume activities until all the debt has been paid. But if production stops, the cooperative does not generate revenue to pay the corresponding taxes. And in this way a vicious circle is triggered in which both workers and employers lose.
Behind this infinite conflict there is something else. SanCor has been experiencing economic and financial problems for several years. Atilra bet that a group of entrepreneurs, through a trust, would take over the struggling cooperative, but the project failed after two years of negotiations. In 2023, the state rejected the trust due to inconsistencies regarding its constituent funds and other technical issues. From there, the guild’s strength measures increased.
Today SanCor executives met to analyze the steps to follow. The disagreement continues and we will have to see what the parties will resolve and how the Ministry of Labor will act to find a solution that allows the conflict to be resolved.
Source: Clarin
