“We are victims of an unprecedented attack”: the request for help from the owner of the blocked dairy

More than three weeks after the first blocks suffered by the company Lácteos Vidal, the situation seems to be far from being resolved and, according to its owner, it is getting worse. Under pressure from the Association of Dairy Workers of the Argentine Republic (Atilra), which calls for the recategorization of four employees, according to Alejandra Bada, there are now surprise inspections by the Ministry of Labor.

“We are not yet able to work normally, at the Capital plant they squeezed people so they wouldn’t come, they come every morning with drums, they cover the entire sidewalk and We cannot work in peace, they are preventing customers from coming to buy“, assured Bada talking with Rural Clarino.

He then explained that in the factory in the city of Moctezuma, in the western part of Buenos Aires, there are no more blocks like the ones that Atilra originally had and that there is “a group of employees who have overcome their fear and go to work even though they continue to be persecuted and threatened, but there are others who are not ”.

“This is not a strike, it was an illegitimate blockade, an arbitrary and disproportionate measure. The related complaints have been presented for the vandalism we have suffered, but the justice system has not yet acted “, warned Bada.

Then he said that if they continue in this way they will not be able to keep the source of the work, especially in Moctezuma. “The company and also the people are held hostage by this situation. They have set up tents on the communal land with popular pots, barbecues, various drinks … The company is in a difficult situation, Suddenly we received three inspections from the Ministry of Labor in less than a weekof which we are victims an unprecedented attackhoping that Justice and the competent authorities will act on this and help us get back to production “, he said.

Conflict

The point of conflict that led to the blockade of the factory in July is the demand of the Atilra union for the recategorization of fourteen employees, of which only two cases have been admitted as possible by the Ministry of Labor. One of them has already been promoted and the other has been questioned by the company.

“During 18, 19 and 20 July it was the hardest block, I was inside the factory: inside the factory they set up tents, they did not allow entry to the workers they wanted, there were vans with covered plates, many unknown people They cut car tires, stoned the house of manager Juan Paye who lives in front of the plant with his 12-year-old daughter inside, played music, drank alcohol, spoke to me five centimeters from my face, he was a masked picket strike, “said Mariana Heim, the dairy company’s lawyer.

On 20 July the compulsory conciliation was enacted and the activities in the factory were resumed with a “crisis” operation since, foreseeing new complications with the union, production was not completely reactivated.

But on Thursday 11 August, with the expiry of the provision, Atilra again blocked the institute despite the continuation of the dialogue and without the Ministry resolving or showing the evidence provided by the parties. And so far the problem hasn’t been solved.