The conflict of interest facing tire manufacturer Bridgestone with its workers continues to worsen and announces a scenario similar to the one that broke out in 2022, with long-term force measures and supply problems for the entire automotive sector.
Now, the Ministry of Labor of the Nation adopted a measure that put the Union in a state of alert and mobilization, with the possibility of calling for forceful measures immediately: convened a hearing for this Monday, January 20, in which it will analyze a request from the multinational to reimplement the Crisis Preventive Procedure.
This emergency regime, which Bridgestone already used in 2024, gives the company a legal framework to apply an adjustment plan to its production and employment levels.
“Bridgestone Argentina, completely inappropriately, requests an extension of the fraudulent Preventive Crisis Procedure already closed, announces its intention to carry out 290 new layoffs and the breaking of the Collective Labor Agreement irrationally increasing production rates and implementing a salary reduction by eliminating all types of additional benefits,” Sutna said in a statement.
“We demand be dismissed this absurd extension request, we announce that will be responded harshly collectively any attempt at dismissal, and that no reduction of rights will be accepted,” he stressed.
Company spokespersons consulted by Scope Regarding this attempt to reopen the PPC, they referred their position to the official statement released recently: “Bridgestone Argentina has requested the expansion of the Crisis Preventive Procedure (PPC) presented at the time to the Ministry of Human Capital, communicating the goal of reducing production to meet expected demand by 2025ensuring compliance with our current commercial agreements. “We are determined to minimize the impact this decision will have on our employees, customers and the community.”
Furthermore, the company based this request on a situation that has as a precedent the extensive union conflict of 2022, which deteriorated the export base of its business and that still has repercussions on its operation: “The business and the market are challenging and the outlook for 2025 looks even more difficultwhich forces us to be realistic about the current situation of the company and evaluate the possible steps that can be taken to optimize the structure and reprioritize key projects.”
In that sense, he added that “after extensive planning to ensure the long-term vitality of the company, Bridgestone has evaluated how to best implement cost reduction measures, including staff reductions in its corporate, sales and manufacturing operations throughout America.”
Bridgestone concentrates on the local market and resigns exports
Bridgestone manufactures tires at its plant in Llavallol, province of Buenos Aires, where 700 people work and has four production lines (cars, trucks, agriculture and off road). From there comes the production that supplies the local market and also a portion that is exported.
As the company timely argued, all the export agreements it had signed to supply destinations such as Brazil and the United States They fell in the last two years due to non-compliance forced by union conflicts. And now it faces 2025 without export agreements in place. That’s why, decided to focus only on the local replacement market and the automotive industry.
Bridgestone is, along with Fate, one of the largest tire manufacturers in Argentina. In October of last year, both companies asked the Ministry of Labor to implement the Crisis Preventive Procedure, which was granted and allowed Bridgestone reduce its workforce by 450 people.
At that time, Bridgestone argued: “Since the extensive union conflict of 2022, we suffered a loss of corporate confidence that generated the transfer of export volume from Argentina to other plants in the region. As a consequence, today we are exporting only 10% of what we projected.”
According to figures provided by the company, at the beginning of 2022 it added new export agreements for more than 1.2 million tires per year. But he could not meet the promised amounts and the agreements fell apart. And he blamed the union conflict that lasted 5 months for this non-compliance. Furthermore, he assured that he was never able to recover his pre-conflict productivity, since he went from manufacturing more than 12,500 tires a day to just over 10,000.
Now, with the configuration of the new scenario for 2025, the multinational asks get the PPC umbrella back to adapt operations at its Llavallol factory and adjust its employee complement.
From the guild reject the argument of the company on the impact of the 2022 conflict and They do not rule out returning to strikes depending on what is decided at the hearing next Monday at the Ministry of Labor.
This scenario too reopened a gap in the union front. Although for different reasons, Pedro Wasiejko, former head of the Single Union of Tire Workers and current Secretary General of the Federation of Energy, Industry, Services and Related Workers, charged against the current leadership of the union, led by leader Alejandro Crespo. , due to the extensive conflict of 2022, in addition to criticizing the Government.
Wasiejko summarized the history of the sector: “The Bridgestone plant was installed in Llavallol in 1932. It was then followed by Goodyear, Pirelli and later FATE, developing a powerful tire sector in our country until 1999, as a result of neoliberal policies that Menem and Cavallo implemented, Goodyear stopped producing in Argentina and 1,700 jobs were lost. Then there were conflicts with the other companies and it was so that in 2001, to avoid the closure of Bridgestone and after a very prolonged struggle, from the union that at that time I had to lead, we managed to negotiate a lower salary in exchange for keeping jobsbut also in exchange for incorporate profit sharing clause of the workers who throughout these years were able to get paid on seven occasions.”
“Today we are once again experiencing the consequences of the neoliberal policies that, like Menem, Milei implements with the aggravating factor of having a leadership in the union that does not defend the interests of the workers either.””, he remarked.
Source: Ambito
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