The new administration of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), informed the workers of that union, the decision to dismiss twelve of them, and to keep the offices working with the remaining eight. The layoffs take effect from November 30.
After the capture of Michael Healy and Álvaro Vargas, president and vice president of Cosep respectively, it corresponded to the president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Energy (CEN), César Zamora, to assume the presidency of the entity, while the president of the Nicaraguan Association of the Textile and Clothing Industry (Anitec) Scott Vaughn became vice president, in accordance with the organization’s bylaws.
From anonymity, two sources from that business leadership confirmed the dismissals to CONFIDENTIAL, alleging that for more than a year an unsustainable deficit had accumulated between the organization’s expenses and income. One worker limited himself to saying that they had been informed of the decision to reduce 60% of the workforce, but without clarifying whether they were on the list of those laid off, or of those who remained.
For his part, the director of one of the cameras associated with Cosep, also confirmed the news, detailing that “I know that costs must be cut, but I have no more detail than that.”
As a trade union organization, Cosep covers part of its operating expenses with the membership fees paid by the associated chambers, a scheme that has been affected by the economic crisis in which the country has lived since 2018, aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, as of March 2020.
The president of a chamber associated with Cosep, admitted the possibility that the problem is in the financing scheme, recalling that “many chambers have suffered drops in their income, according to economic activities. For example, Canatur is in a very bad economic situation, for the drop in your activity, and there are others with flow problems ”.
One of his colleagues, who also asked to be able to comment from anonymity, assured that, although he can guarantee that the chamber he presides over, “is up to date with its payments, I don’t know how the other chambers are. The problem is that the Executive Committee does not share many details of the internal finances, and although they should share them, that has been a constant discussion ”.
The growth in the number of partners during the 13 years of the administration of José Adán Aguerri, who delivered the presidency with 27 members, allowed incurring in other fields, in some cases, with additional financing.
Among them, the ‘Nicaraguan Economic Activities Monitoring‘carried out in conjunction with Funides, or the holding of the’ Women, Trade Union and Development ‘Forum; the ‘Business University Alliance’ and the Project ‘Business Strengthening for Productive Transformation in Nicaragua AL-Invest European Union’.
CONFIDENTIAL He requested a formal statement from the press department of Cosep, in addition to calling its interim president, César Zamora, but there were no answers until the time of publishing this note.
