The Association of Workers and Employees of Conaprole (AOEC) and Conaprole finally reached an agreement after accepting the proposal of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS)so the cooperative will advance with the stock replenishment and supply regularization of dairy products in the shelves of Uruguay.
After several weeks of heated conflict that put the milk supply and the viability of the raw material at risk, the workers and the Conaprole board of directors agreed to resume activity at the milk plant. villa rodriguez —the reason for and scenario of the conflict— for a period of 30 days while the negotiation deepens to reach a final solution.
According to the director of the dairy cooperative, Alejandro Perez Viazzi, the measure will be taken for a month, in principle, “to recompose stock and bring production up to date”. As he explained to El País, the distribution of work will be in two and a half shifts plus washing, some 18 effective hours of production, with a standard of 27 workers and the packaging machine that started the disputes in operation and producing Ultra Pasteurized Milk from yesterday.
Meanwhile, on June 6, the company will provide information on the conflict and on the situation of the cooperative.
Conaprole’s losses
Last week, the president of Conaprole, Gabriel Fernandez Secco, established that, as a result of the conflict, 1.5 million liters of long-life milk were lost. In addition, he assured that the dairy farms had to throw away between 4,000 and 5,000 liters of milk.
On the other hand, the possible effects on exports It is the measure that worries Conaprole the most, the company in charge of placing Uruguayan dairy products abroad. Above all because the moment of this sector in international trade is good.
In this sense, Dairy industry exports grew by 17% so far in 2023with whole milk powder and cheeses driving the improvement with increases of 31% and 24% in April, respectively, according to the latest report from the National Milk Institute (Inale).
In terms of income, this meant 52.3 million dollars for whole powdered milk shipments during the past month —a cumulative 195.4 million dollars in the year—; and $9.2 million for cheese exports in April —a cumulative $41.6 million.
The union conflict began after Conaprole invested in the Villa Rodríguez plant and incorporated new packaging machines, with the capacity to 15,000 liters per hour of long life milk. This led to The company will propose a rescheduling of shifts and the forms of work, something that the union opposed, as they considered that the changes were made without prior negotiation.
Source: Ambito
