PTS Press release
Stop the attacks on the Kraft workers
09/09/2009
(7/09/09, 3:00pm, local time)
We condemn the American multinational company Kraft Foods for its attacks on the Terrabusi workers, who are the compulsory arbitration to gain the reinstatement of their sacked colleagues, among whom are rank-and-file delegates and the shop stewards’ committee. We also condemn the attitude towards the dispute of District Attorney Laura Capra from District Attorney’s Office No.1 in El Talar-Pacheco, and the Buenos Aires police for their repression of the workers.
We call on all social and political organisations to mobilise support for the hundreds of workers who are inside and outside the factory premises in Pacheco; for those who are marching at this very moment to the Ministry of Labour, which is allowing the company to evade its rulings; and for the many human rights organisations that are protesting outside the District Attorney’s office, demanding the withdrawal of the police from the factory.
Kraft, whose majority shareholder is the billionaire investor Warren Buffett, wants to sack the men and women who were demanding health and safety measures to prevent the spread of swine flu when the pandemic was at its peak. Its goal is to get rid of the shop stewards’ committee and the rank-and-file delegates, in order to liquidate all resistance to its plans for the flexibilisation of labour and wholesale dismissals, which it is doing in other countries. For this reason, the struggle of the Terrabusi workers is the struggle of workers throughout Argentina.
The union that represents workers in the food industry, STIA, led by Rodolfo Daer, has refused to call an all-sector strike, as has been demanded by workers’ representatives and many shop stewards’ committees in other factories. The CGT national trade union confederation has condemned the dismissals, with the approval of its general secretary, Hugo Moyano, but has not called a single protest or solidarity action. We demand that these unions, as well as the CTA national trade union confederation, immediately organise actions to enable the Terrabusi workers to win their struggle.
For the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas
