Complaints held by SOMU members in the town of Rawson.

Union strike leads to supply shortage in Chubut’s fishing plants

ARGENTINA
Friday, November 09, 2018, 22:00 (GMT + 9)

The port of Rawson continues paralyzed due to the sailors’ stoppage. Negotiations between the fleet and the SOMU and the SiCoNaRA continue. The plants are out of supply and there is a shortage of temporary workers.

►Photo: Map of Rawson

The sailors enlisted in the SOMU once more organised demonstration through the streets of the capital of Chubut. They stopped in front of the headquarters of the Fisheries Secretariat and later handed out pamphlets along the road to publicize their position on the conflict that continues worsening after months of negotiations.

The new leadership of the sailors' union rejects the offer of 45 per cent increase, which also included a review clause based on the inflation index. Meanwhile, the company Conarpesa made an offer to raise wages by 60 per cent, and it was also rejected by the labour sector.

Photo: CONARPESA ►

The Secretariat of Labour of the Nation may intervene in the next hours to avoid salary updates that would be higher than any other similar activity, since the national government would not allow, in political terms, a precedent to be set, ending in other branches of production asking for those values. At the national level, all approved agreements do not exceed 45 or 48 per cent.

From the business sector they reject the union's intention to bring the shrimp box to USD 1.40, since that would represent an increase to current values ​​of 126 per cent.

The total stoppage of the port of Rawson at the end of the shrimp season in national waters and when the expectations were to see the resource status within the 12 miles of jurisdiction of Chubut, has already begun to have its first side effects.

Processing plant and piers belonging to CONARPESA (Photo: stock File)

The plants are out of supply and in some cases began to carry out the reprocessing of frozen blocks, but this task is carried out with the permanent personnel, since most of the processing plants began to disassociate their temporary workers because there is no raw material. There are no tasks to perform.

While the negotiations among the parties are ongoing, the conflict continues and the plants have chosen to get rid, at least at present, of the temporary employees.

On the other hand, the non-exit of the vessels to fish also has an immediate impact on the work of the stowage, since there is no raw material to land, they are without work until the conflict is unwound.

► Photo: Yellow coastal vessels moored due to the SOMU conflict.(Photo: stock File)

From the SOMU, it has been explained that what they claim is a salary update, given that "as it is public knowledge the shrimp is all exported and charged in dollars."

However, the shrimp season in provincial waters delays its start and the delay of this conflict begins to impact other sectors of the fishing industry in Chubut.

Source: Revista Puerto (Spanish)

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