Brazil: Petrochemical Multinational Refuses Negotiation

Brussels, 16 January 2012 (ITUC OnLine): The International Trade Union Confederation has joined with its Brazilian affiliated organisations, the CUT, Força Sindical, UGT and CNPL, in expressing grave concern at the anti-union practices of the petrochemical firm VALE Fertilizantes in Araucaria.

Over the last two years, SINDIQUÍMIA, the petrochemical industry trade union in the state of Paraná, and its members have been confronted with the abuse of political and economic power by Brazil's biggest petrochemical multinational.

A new Collective Labour Agreement was concluded in March 2011, signed by a number of workers forced to accept its terms under pressure from the company. According to the reports received by the ITUC, Vale Fertilizantes had embarked on a campaign of intimidation during the bargaining process. The situation became even worse during the negotiations in 2011, as the company displayed total disregard for the workers' agenda and presented its own proposal, in which longstanding clauses of the collective agreement were removed along with hard-fought gains in terms of health and safety. The workers rejected the proposal and no agreement has been reached to date.

"It is totally unacceptable that Vale Fertilizantes has decided to implement its proposal and is refusing to negotiate with the workers," insisted ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. "The company must sit down to talk with the workers and bring an end to its campaign of reprisals and intimidation."
In a letter http://www.ituc-csi.org/brasil-mayor-multinacional.html to President Dilma Roussef, the ITUC has called on the Brazilian authorities, and the Labour Ministry in particular, to take every action necessary to ensure that the company engage in talks with the union with a view to resolving the workers' situation, in full compliance with the Conventions of the ILO.

The ITUC represents 175 million workers in 153 countries and territories and has 308 national affiliates.
Website: http://www.ituc-csi.org and http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI

ENDS