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28 July, 2008
Some 4,000 union members of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neumático Argentina (SUTNA) launched a 48-hour strike on 25 July against three tyre manufacturing companies, Bridgestone-Firestone, Pirelli, and Argentine-based FATE. The union has been deadlocked since April in 2008 wage negotiations with the major rubber makers.
SUTNA had been conducting protests in the cities of the three factories in recent weeks. With tyre production growing in Argentina due to a boom in automotive production, the union is seeking a salary increase of 35%.
“After the employers refused our demands, workers through their asemblies at the factories decided to begin (job actions),” said SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko. He added that employers offered a two-phase increase of 28%; 13% at present and a noncumulative 15% in January 2009.
“This was not accepted by our members,” said Wasiejko, citing the fact that the increase would amount amount to only 1,800 pesos (US$600). He said labour costs in the Argentine tyre industry are only 4-to-6% of all production costs.
Japanese-based Bridgestone-Firestone and Pirelli of Italy each employ 1,400 workers in factories near Buenos Aires, while FATE emplys 1,200 at a plant in San Fernando.
Argentina’s tyre industry will experience a major change this year with Continental of Germany now entering the retail market. Continental’s supply agreement with FATE ends at the end of this year, and the company has established a subsidiary in Argentina in order to import tyres from a factory in Brazil, as well as from Europe.
Tyre production in the South American country, however, has increased nearly 20% over the first four months of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007.