The Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) urged employers and the Federation of Workers in the Meat and Related Industries (FOICA) who, for months, have been holding conflicting positions and strikes in meat packing plants in the country.

The undersecretary of the MTSS, Daniel Pérez, said that the ministry asked employers and workers to give in on their positions regarding the wage claim being extended within the framework of an unsuccessful Salary Council for the sector. “We have not yet found solutions in this conflict, and a good part of it has to do with the fact that there is a large gap between the two parties,” he added. “We have been negotiating for six months, there have been more than 20 formal meetings, countless informal conversations or meetings that we have had with the parties separately,” he said.

Regarding the matter, FOICA continues to demand that dialogue be resumed to negotiate a new collective agreement, an issue left on the back burner after the government decided to settle the conflict and determine the salary increase through a decree. “If there is negotiation, we will lift the measures quickly,” said the president of the union, Martín Cardozo, to Radio Monte Carlo, and stressed that they maintained the strikes because there was no contact.

According to Cardozo, there are different proposals and visions within FOICA: “There are positions of a long-term conflict and other unions that want to maintain the current measures,” he explained.

Next Tuesday a national plenary will define how to continue the struggle between more than 20 unions in the meat industry.

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