On Tuesday, February 15, ANCAP reported that “as a result of a union decision that puts the integrity of the Minas plant at risk”, the entity’s Board of Directors was forced to “suspend production until safe operating conditions are restored” .
In a statement, the energy entity stated that “it is a priority of the ANCAP Board of Directors to preserve the infrastructure and avoid damage to the facilities of the industrial plant.”
For their part, the ANCAP workers say they have been “resisting the privatization of the state cement industry.”
They indicate that the decision of the government and the majority of the Board of Directors of ANCAP disregards the decision of the Uruguayan people to keep ANCAP state and public, expressed in the referendums of 1992 and 2003.
In the FANCAP and SUNCA communiqué it is stated that the decision to stop the furnace in Minas, like the decision to stop the La Teja refinery on December 7, “was made by ANCAP, not by the workers.”
They also indicate that “regardless of the kiln shutdown, it is not true that all the activities of the plant stopped, since the production and shipment of cement continue to function normally.”
Rights conquered
“The decision to work eight hours is not a measure, it is a right conquered by the working class and enshrined in national regulations more than 100 years ago,” says the union.
Despite not having a collective agreement, “the union provided union guards at all times to guarantee the safety of the plant and the physical integrity of the teams and people.”
FANCAP recalls that it made a proposal to “avoid the shutdown of the furnace, which had the approval of the Mining leadership and the management of Portland and again (as on December 6) the one who said it was not the president of ANCAP”.
“ANCAP’s justification that in order to maintain the minimum safety conditions at the plant, workers have to leave their lives working (10, 12 and 14 hours without resting almost any day in the year) is very serious,” questions the union.
They consider that the union’s decision not to work overtime hardly puts the fulfillment of commercial obligations at risk when the warehouses are full.
FANCAP denounces “a systematic practice of attack and discredit by the majority of ANCAP’s Board of Directors and some representatives of the government, workers, trade union leaders and trade unions in general, to discredit those who raise their voices, fight and confront its objective of dismantling the entity”.
“Defending work and our sovereignty is not an exaggeration, the government should manifest itself publicly and commit to maintaining the more than 300 outsourced jobs that will be lost if the intention of associating with private companies continues,” warns the union of the entity .
In addition, he adds that exaggeration is “not taking into account, how the development of the internal market of the departments is affected, if this number of jobs is lost.”
