Hear
SANTA FE.- The three years of permanent conflict and, mainly, the last 8 months of direct measures that put the dairy SanCor Cooperativas Unidas Limitada (CUL), based in Sunchales, on the brink of closure, are coming to an end. Last night, in an assembly, the Association of Dairy Workers of the Argentine Republic (Atilra) resolved to rescind its attitude and abide by business decisions aimed at the recovery of production, presence in the market and sustainability. of jobs. It turned out that a proposal from the company had been put under consideration.
Although the position of the union led by Héctor “Etín” Ponce (67 years old) for 22 years must be ratified next week in a hearing at the Ministry of Labor of the Nation, the result of the assembly held last night in that city of west of Santa Fe, confirms what has been suggested in recent weeks: that Atilra was left without internal support and without room to continue with its posture of almost permanent conflict. In the last presidential campaign, Ponce played for former candidate Sergio Massa.
Three years ago, Atilra had begun the path of confrontation with the cooperative, spurred by a public-private project that was being outlined to acquire the company, once the leader of the Argentine dairy market. But the position became radicalized in October of last year when speech turned to action. There were blockades at plants that had to cease production or outsource milk so as not to lose their associates.
All of this also had to be evaluated although at last night’s assembly the discussions were those announced in the convening statement, accepting a proposal from the cooperative whose details have not yet been made public. It was learned that Atilra will not continue paying extra to employees who shared decisions related to the protest.
Although it was not a subject of evaluation, some representatives of the sector recalled that the judicial prosecution of six delegates from different plants worries the leadership and that would also have been an element that the small union table discussed to nullify the fight plan. It must be remembered that many of Atilra’s decisions began when the idea of a trust with private capital appeared, which could never be realized, and the need to resolve the relationship with the company to preserve sources of work. In this framework, at the time a project of capitalist partners emerged (José Urtubey, from Celulosa Argentina; Marcelo Figueiras from Laboratorio Richmond, producer of the Sputnik V vaccine in the country; and Gustavo Scaglione from Grupo Televisión Litoral). They, it was said from the union sector, were going to rescue the cooperative in western Santa Fe.
Yesterday it was repeated in different areas that last night’s decision “was about to fall” since there was speculation that the conflict is exhausted. For the 1,500 workers, the cessation of the conflict brings peace of mind.
SanCor has divested part of its line of fresh products, which remained in the hands of Productos Refrigerados SA (Arsa), closed plants and when producers reacted, it began to “live with what it has.” The industrial performance of 6 million liters per day was left behind; now they barely touch 600,000. Taking over of facilities, assemblies, interrupted productions and many other decisions that were intended to smooth out the recovery affected the company.
According to dairy market experts, SanCor will be able to reactivate efforts to add capital that will enable it to increase production and sustain itself. All this at a time when the Argentine dairy industry continues to walk down a path full of obstacles.
