“I understand that it is an acquired right, but I want to buy that right.” The phrase is shocking. The one who speaks is the “Tsar of the Chicken”, Joaquín de Grazia, owner of Granja Tres Arroyos (GTA).
“Here we said no, that we are not going to resign rights: neither salary cut or layoffs.” Those who speak are the workers of the La China de GTA plant, in Concepción del Uruguay.
That is the conflict that shocks the city several weeks ago. Concepción does not remember such an intense fight in a long time. Total strikes, solidarity measures in other refrigerators, marches in the main square, an acampe organized by “Las Leonas” that rises in front of a giant plant.
The workers who denounce the Patronal Lockout of the Farm will return tonight to concentrate on the central square to make an open assembly to the population pic.twitter.com/cgUQ3Tl2xu
– The newspaper (@IZYDIARIOS) February 21, 2025
They are already making history. And they feel it. “We tired. This time we said enough.” To the unbearable rhythms that break their bodies, to the wages they barely reach to maintain their families, this blackmail adds to squeeze them more. “You have to warn De Grazia that slavery ended,” they say.
And you have to warn him because it seems that the employer does not know. He acknowledges that he has no crisis but wants to buy rights because he says that “competition pays lower salaries.” De Grazia managed to impose the cut of salary items on almost all GTA plants affiliated with the Food Federation. But in Concepción, his “mother” plant could not.
In the media lies and talks about salaries of 2 million per month to the entrants. The “gurises”, as they say here, laugh with anger and show the receipts: 520 thousand, 560, 537, the fortnight. Half. “I wish he won two sticks.” They are 23 or 24 years old and the body punished. “In La Noria we are two and we would have to be 7”. The medical department’s stories look like a horror movie.
It is not that GTA was paradise but “entrepreneurs want to win more and more, it is what they did with the base law, here they want to make us a business reform.”
Is that the “crisis preventive” includes changes in salary but also in the organization of work: more flexibility.
Despite the Lockout, some trucks enter and come out. “Look, there goes ‘the crisis’ …” throws one and wakes up a smile.
So much garbage was feeding a anger that grew in recent weeks. And it was not “an idea of two or three” or “of the union” as the company says. It is a force that came out from below, from each sector, which discussed the “crisis preventive” in assemblies and said “No!” By lracked hand, again and again.
Because the assembly has become an institution. “It is the only way that everyone can say what they think, if there are other proposals, and decide by majority. And there we all go with it.” These weeks there were simultaneous assemblies inside and outside the plant, to vote the most important issues.
How we have been counting, decisive moments are coming. This Monday 24 there will be an audience in Buenos Aires, where the delegates and the local union will travel. In the Assembly on Friday night there was a lot of participation. They spoke not only of the union and delegates but also many workers. One of them summed up what the majority think: “We were already clear, Gurises: we do not accept the salary cut, we also do not sign the preventive or want dismissals. They have it clear. If they have another proposal that bring it.”
After other interventions, they voted for a raised hand. They also voted to make another assembly when the conciliation hearing ends, to know what happened and how to follow. But if from Grazia Rosquea with her expensive lawyers, things are prepared in another way.
“We have to make a march this Sunday to get to the audience showing the entire unit and support we have,” said Maxi Salazar, one of the base delegates. “But everyone has to come!” shout from forward. “You have to send messages, that families come, call the society that accompanies us” say from the makeshift scenario. Others go up to give their ideas and the proposal that votes unanimously is being put together. There is an ovation to women and families surrounding the assembly. His presence is also a message: nobody does not loosen here.
The gurises say goodbye and distribute tasks. On Saturday they will rest “because you have to keep fighting.” The kitchen and talks start between those who have to stay in the camp.
Key days are coming. It is important to support everything this fight. It is a witness case. While the Milei government adjusts and “disseminates” a scam, while the CGT does nothing, the Entrerriano governor and the Uruguayan mayor are erased, on the other side there is enormous strength and solidarity that must be fed. Because Tres Arroyos adds to the examples that show that it can be resisted if it fights hard and we organize ourselves from below. From the daily left and the groups of the PTS in many guilds we will continue to spread this fight.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
