Frustration mounts in employer-worker relations
Last week one of the salmon processing plants involved in the conflict between an assembly of workers’ unions and the company Aguas Claras S.A. was literally taken under siege by workers and worker supporters, after receiving a refusal from of the company to negotiate in a collective manner with the three unions in question. Special police forces were called in to protect the plant, and tension and violence spread beyond the plant property to the reaches of the community of Calbuco. (See 24.01.08, “Labour unions lose month long negotiation battle”). The counterattack of a growing mass of protesters in the streets in favour of the workers backfired when the Regional Directive of Labour decided to not cede to the worker unions’ pressure for a collective negotiation strategy with their employer. The unions however are refusing to back down, and as of yesterday announced another plan of protest against the company.
