The Chamber of Fisheries Industries of Uruguay (CIPU) and the Chamber of Fishing Shipowners of Uruguay (CAPU) They met this Tuesday at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) to be able to reach a salary agreement and improvement in production costs with the intention of starting the harvest in the midst of a strike that has been going on for six months.
Since January, the chambers presented their proposals to negotiate collective agreements and they still have not reached an agreement in the middle of the beginning of the harvest. “The situation is extremely complex, with 90% of the fleet and associated industrial plants not working for six months,” lamented the spokesperson for the business chambers. Carlos Olivera.
“We have communicated that the ships are about to leave, we have already lost a month and a half of the harvest and the big problems in the sector are outside the harvest period. This is a virtuous moment where the highest value species are caught in the shortest time, it is the moment in which we should be working and not lose a day,” commented the spokesperson.
In search of answers
Regarding the new meeting with the MTSS, Olivera assured that the position of the chambers is that “being in the harvest and with the measures that the Executive power“We could be working and reactivate the entire sector and continue like this for the time required until a new collective agreement is negotiated,” he added.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the fishing cameras He regretted that businessmen claim that outside of the harvest the sector is not profitable. “If the measures of the Executive Branch are maintained for a year, we could continue working outside the harvest,” said Olivera.
Union Complaints
Last week, fishing workers denounced an “absent State” while the sector continues without resuming activity, by decision of the companies, which have most of the vessels stopped. “At the moment we have not found a solution. “It was something informal with the idea of trying to reach out a little more to see if we can have some type of negotiation,” he said. Leonardo Musetti of the Single Union of Fishing Skippers a Underlined, after a meeting with the Minister of Work and Social Security (MTSS), Mario Ariztiand the director of Labor, Federico Daverede.
“What we want is to negotiate and get out as soon as possible. The issue is that the businessmen continue to say, more or less expressed a vision, that the State is not giving them anything and that in that situation they cannot work. We think that is not the case, that there is 25% of the fleet that is working,” said Musetti.
Among its demands, the single fishing union asks that the law be complied with, the permissions to vessels that have been stopped for more than 180 days and a tender is called to allocate those quotas to other companies.
“The maritime interguild is already making the corresponding complaints in the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP)here in the Ministry of Labor, in Dinara. The law is clear,” he stated. Facundo Mountain of the Naval Engineers Center.
“There is 25% of the fleet at sea, they have worked before April 30, they are working now, they have signed collective agreements with salary increase and recovery and therefore there is no clear justification as to why they are unemployed. Therefore, if it is not profitable for them to close, return the permits,” Montaña said.
In that sense, he stressed that it is “a business strike”, that the MTSS calls them to “informal meetings without answers” and that “the MGAP does not appear”, so they talk about “a absent state”.
He recalled that the workers are “without unemployment insurance, without Fonasa, without any type of coverage.” There are companies that have not been working for more than seven months.
Source: Ambito
