Parmalat Fires Union Leaders in Nicaragua-IUF Calls for Protests

Posted to the IUF website 13-Sep-2004

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Four years ago Nicaraguan employees at Parmalat had tried to form a union. The company summarily discharged 40 of them, creating such fear among the others that the union could not be established at that time.

Since the current Parmalat crisis began, the work force in Nicaragua has been reduced from 900 to 600. Faced with growing uncertainty, workers held an assembly on 4 September to create the "Armando Llanes Union of Parmalat Nicaragua Workers" and to elect union leaders.

On 6-7 September Parmalat Nicaragua fired two new union leaders and a union member, in clear violation of Nicaraguan law that prohibits the discharge of employees during the process of union organizing.

Vincenzo Borgogna, Parmalat's newly appointed managing director for Nicaragua, declared that "You can't form a union now because of the company's crisis." But Marcel Cabrera, general secretary of the IUF-affiliated Nicaraguan Federation of Food and Allied Workers, points out that such a crisis is precisely the moment when workers need a union to represent their interests. Besides the right to join a union is a fundamental human right and not a privilege that is to be granted or not granted by corporate management.

Act now!

The IUF through its regional secretariat for Latin America has organized a campaign to reinstate the Parmalat workers. Click here to send a protest message to Parmalat. Copies will automatically be sent to the IUF and to relevant trade union organizations.