Marine Harvest Chile tries to explain to workers

Kate Casey

Since the announcement of thousands of job cuts in the salmon industry due to the problem of ISA, public demonstrations on behalf of the salmon industry’s workforce is causing an intensive level of negative public hype that has reached the doors of the Presidency in Santiago. According to El Diario Financiero Marine Harvest Chile’s general manager met recently with the Undersecretary of Labour Mauricio Jelvez to help clarify the witches brew of misinformation about the ISA issue. “I know without a doubt that the virus was not brought in by a company,” states Petersen in response to the rumour that ISA was brought to Chile on behalf of a particular company. “ISA was not imported. It has been in recognized in Chile since the late nineties, without generating any noticeable mortality. But it is a virus that mutates, over time. It is important to become accustomed to living with the disease, and learn to successfully deal with it as have other countries such as Norway and Scotland.” In response to the growing concern of unemployment Torben added, “We want to create opportunities and possibilities for our employees that have to leave the company. We are looking at all of the possibilities that exist to relocate workers.”