Maritime Workers Union (SOMU) and the Argentine Fisheries Subsecretariat and the Argentine Chamber of Fishing Vessel and Freezer Vessel Owners (CAPECA), have signed agreement that will companies to resume shipments of fish products from Patagonia to the European market.
The SOMU general secretary, Omar Suárez, the Undersecretary of Fisheries, Norberto Yauhar, and two managers from CAPECA, Guillermo Jacob and Enrique Díaz, agreed on Friday to rescind the strike which kept frozen fish exports in Patagonia for 10 days. According to SOMU press release the staff on board the ships and trawlers should now get “better pay.”
The Fisheries Secretariat will gather all of the parties in a meeting which will be held this Wednesday, to advance the final settlement. Suárez said he hoped that the rest of the sector and entrepreneurial fleets involved in the industry will “imitate this action” and reach a wage agreement.
Tiempo Sur, general secretary of SOMU, said that firstly they ask wage increase of around 25 percent, and secondly, they want a collective bargaining agreement which is applicable to the times that they live in, and thirdly, they are going to require that the judge asks them to bring the balances for the past 10 years, the wage books that the boats must have, to argue against their claim of why they lose so much money.
The union also said last week that they did not prevent the departure of cargo. They want to express that they are not exerting any direct action, no trade organization has ever attempted and never will attempt to stop Argentine exports. On the contrary, they are safeguarding the rights of Argentine workers in the fishing industry which are being violated by the business sector.
