Chinquihue belonged to Norwegian company Marine Harvest and was located in Puerto Montt. The company’s production was lowered due to serious sanitary situation affecting Chilean salmon fish farming industry and that led to the drastic decision of closing down the facility that axed the job of 600 workers.
The company has done several discussions with union leaders and regional authorities on the closure of the plant and the possible relocation of workers in an effort to minimize the impact of the decision. According to Marine Harvest labour unions affected by the situation refused to take part in the initiative last week. The company wanted to talk with union for the benefit of the plant’s workers, and preferred to stall production and consequently increase processing costs.
As the situation endangered job stability for other Marine Harvest workers so the company has decided to close down the plant and not prolong an unnecessary conflict. Vilma Caviars, director of Human Resources at Marine Harvest, announced that the company is ready to pay special above average compensations to the workers. She added that it is very painful to uproot a significant number of people that have worked with the company for 20 years and who are excellent employees.
Caviars told that due to ISA virus the salmon farm was closed down and the labour reinsertion with mussel farming companies has been undertaken. She added that for this some 26 plants had been contacted with a potential of 650 job positions.
