Labor and gender persecution in Frito-Lay Dominicana

Interview with Alexander Mosquea

Frito-Lay Dominicana is a PepsiCo subsidiary that operates in Santo Domingo producing snacks. It has a history of marked antiunionism and abuse against any workers who try to organize themselves. Last week, the Union of Frito-Lay Dominicana Workers (SINTRALAYDO) denounced a new antiunion attack by the transnational corporation. This time the labor abuse was compounded by gender abuse, as the target was a woman leader.

In dialogue with SIREL, Alexander Mosquea, general secretary of SINTRALAYDO, informed that it "was a minor argument that was blown out of proportion and turned into an incident that unleashed an attack against Ana Reynoso, one of the leaders of our union."

"The company used an argument between workers to humiliate this union leader in an effort to demoralize her, hurling a stream of personal insults against her."

"We took the case to our organization's Gender Committee because it is not just an act of general discrimination, it involves gender discrimination as well," Mosquea said.

Ana Reynoso has health problems that prevent her from performing tasks on her feet and she has to follow a special diet at meals. It was precisely at the company's cafeteria that the incident, which led to a complaint against this worker that cost her hours of work and an unpleasant moment at the Labor Prosecutor's Office, took place.

Reynoso told SIREL that when she requested a change of menu due to her strict diet, she was met with insults that incredibly enough turned into threats of reporting her to the human resources manager.

"Something that should've been resolved internally ended up before the Labor Prosecutor, because management persuaded the worker with whom I had the incident to file a complaint against me for 'notorious misconduct.' I lost several hours of work, which I'm not getting paid for, and had to go through a really unpleasant situation," the union leader said.

For Mosquea, the real issue behind this incident is an attack against the union, and it is part of a systematic campaign by Frito-Lay to discredit the organization and its leaders, which is why the union is publicly denouncing this situation.

"We have the support of Rel-UITA (IUF Latin America), which will be  reporting these abuses that unfortunately are normal in this company," she concluded.

Labor and gender abuse in Frito-Lay Dominicana
Frito-Lay Dominicana is a PepsiCo subsidiary that operates in Santo Domingo producing snacks. It has a history of marked antiunionism and abuses against any workers who try to organize themselves

From Montevideo, Amalia Antúnez
Rel-UITA
September 5, 2012