The bankruptcy proceedings for the Chinese company’s refrigerator Sundiro Holding, in Uruguay, Lorsionalit is imminent and from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) and the Federation of Meat and Related Industry Workers (FOICA)have already begun to take the necessary measures to protect Uruguayan workers.
The refrigeration industry of Uruguay is going through a complex moment due to the fall of the chinese demand and the low volume of work that companies have and the Chinese group company is one of the most affected. In this way, given the imminent bankruptcy due to a debt that exceeds 10 million dollars, the measures will affect a total of 700 workers, in addition to livestock shippers and other suppliers.
Faced with this, the Ministry of Labor established that the workers will have until the end of this year the collection of the unemployment insurance benefit that had been extended since last year when the company Lorsinal He fished for the last time in the month of May. However, once the benefit ends, the workers will be dismissed.
Thus, the future of the company looks quite dark. “We see it as very difficult for the company to be able to face the debts due to the negative signals they have been giving for almost a year,” said the president of the Federation of Meat and Related Industry Workers (FOICA), Martin Cardozo, to Radio Carve.
a lost battle
Faced with reality, the president of FOICA He assured that the unions are already recommending that workers begin to address the demands of layoffs and the company’s debts to them, such as days worked not yet collected or days of leave.
“The union’s conception is always to maintain jobs, but at the cost of what? These plants have already suffered two salary reductions, staff restructuring, and the company has not given signs that it wants to keep the plants active,” Cardozo lamented.
A delicate moment for the industry
The president of FOICA had previously explained that the refrigeration industry is going through a very delicate situation, because there are too many companies for the low volume of work it has Uruguay at the moment.
In that sense, he pointed out that there are currently “three or four meat processing plants” that work uniformly throughout the year, while the rest have periods of little activity, in which they have to resort to unemployment insurance.
As an example, he pointed out the situation of the Salteño refrigerator Daymán Meat, of Brazilian capital, which decided in May to interrupt its activity “for an indefinite period”, due to the difficulty in obtaining animals for slaughter. Consequently, he sent the workers to unemployment insurance for four months, with the intention of resuming activity when “the harvest improves.”
However, Cardozo pointed out that it is a very complex situation because the company has debts with workers, for 2023 licenses, bonuses and days worked. In addition, they do not give signals, they do not attend to the workers’ representatives and they say that they do not have funds to reactivate the plant.
For this reason, next week the business chambers will be called to a tripartite meeting in the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Source: Ambito
