If Conaprole is sold “we will surely have some difficulty, but the union will not cease to exist, and those who will be harmed will be especially the small and medium producers”he assured The Observer Luis Goichea, member of the Conaprole Employees Association (AOEC), who maintained that the union does not share the proposal.
In the context of a conflict between industry workers and the Chamber of Companies, which has already lasted six months, the possibility of selling the cooperative in the face of the difficulties that the producers have faced has been put on the table.
Some dairy farmers believe that the company should not be sold, others that it could be the last option. “This is not the first time that this idea has been put on the table when there is a complex situation,” Goichea said.
Enrique Méndez, a member of the Federation of Dairy Industry Workers (FTIL), which brings together the sector’s unions, agreed. “Every time there is a conflictive situation and a salary negotiation, that proposal automatically appears, which we do not share”held.
From the FTIL they believe that “it is strange that it is understood that (selling Conaprole) can be something favorable”he added.
Camilo Dos Santos
The workers mobilized this Thursday due to the conflict in the industry.
Support to national companies
Goichea explained that the workers are against the “denationalization of a dairy company”. On the one hand because believe that cooperative and national systems “have been efficient”and on the other, because the multinational companies “the only ones that could acquire Conaprole”, present difficulties mainly for small and medium producers, since, according to what he said, “they intend to pay differentially for milk and are selective”, therefore that in many cases do not receive milk.
“Those affected in the first place will be the small producers. We know, and we have examples of companies for which the business has not served them, they have closed and left, such as Netren, Parmalat and Lactalis Grupo Gloria, that the day they understood that the business was not profitable they closed and left the producers along the way without the possibility of remitting, ”he explained.
Small and large producers
From the AOEC they do not believe that selling Conaprole is the correct way to solve the conflict in the industry. Goichea assured that the intention is to create a contradiction between the struggle of the workers for their rights and that of the producers for a better value for milk.
The idea of selling the company “is part of an anger”he remarked, adding that there should be different responses to situations of inequality between workers, small and medium producers and large. In line with this idea, he mentioned, “saving 15% of energy at the level of the entire sector improves the condition of the elderly and does not solve the problem for children.”
“State investment should be differential, something that has not happened until now. All the measures that are taken end up benefiting the large producers, who are enriched, while the small and medium ones disappear”, he pointed out.
