Summary of Victor Hugo Puchi’s worst week
The conflict started when three workers unions employed by AquaChile’s affiliate companies tried to lobby for a collective negotiation process. Their objective was to achieve an equal salary and worker benefit standard between the three unions; but the company refused to accept such a negotiation strategy, on the basis that union negotiations of this type are illegal. This is the very grey area of the story, where the truth remains to be told from lawyers on either side, or the Ministry of Labour. Regardless of whether the union’s initial petition was legally legitimate or not, what was illegal was the violence that took hold in the following weeks. Escalating episodes of violence was seen from both the protestors and the special police forces that were called in to “establish order.” Last Monday the main affiliate company involved, Aguas Claras, locked horns with the union leaders by refusing to tolerate any more protests that were putting company property at risk, and called for a lock-out of the processing plant. Union supporters retaliated by invading AquaChile’s headquarters, punching Victor Hugo Puchi’s brother Mario (co-director of the company), and taking entire farm sites under siege. The company retaliated by calling in special police forces, of which clubbed, water gunned, and/or detained numerous protestors. Victor Hugo Puchi remained silent throughout all of these episodes, until his opinion was expressed in all of Sunday’s main newspapers. The headline, Puchi’s statement, “I am not willing to listen to union leader aggression,” followed by this feeling of betrayal on behalf of his workers. When asked if he feels poorly treated by the press in throughout the conflict, Puchi states, “Every time there’s a conflict the company ends up as guilty one, that what it gives is not sufficient. It is horribly unfair to face such criticism, while the one who uses violence suffers no serious condemnation from the authorities. This asymmetry, where the companies are treated as second class citizens, hurts, and makes Chile look bad.” Thus, while both the union leaders and company leaders feel victimized, not much can be hoped for their ability to resolve their dispute.
