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16 October, 2006
The dispute in Argentina between ICEM affiliate Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Neumático Argentino (SUTNA) and the Fábrica Neumáticos de Avanzada (NA), a competition tyre making company in Córdoba, is going from bad to worse. Over the last few weeks, trade unionists have been harassed and intimidated, including many of the dismissed workers at the tyre plant, their family members, SUTNA union representatives, and the union’s attorney.
The house of Ignacio Ferrer, a lawyer working for SUTNA, was turned upside down during a break-in by unknown aggressors. A clear sign that the burglary was only meant to intimidate, is the fact that nothing was taken.
Further aggravation came when the provincial police refused to take action, arguing that they could do nothing since nothing was taken. Failure by the police to do something seems to be endemic in Córdoba as none of the other intimidation complaints have been investigated by the police either.
Union representatives, as well as union members, have been threatened on at least five different occasions, mainly through bullying by unknown individuals. Similar things happened to their family members.
The Union’s Assistant secretary, Rubén Silva, for example, was approached by the company’s security people while he was talking to the strikers in front of the plant. He was told by a company security guard that the man “would break all his bones so that he could never **** again.” Another tactic used against the same man is to drive around in cars without license plates in the area where he lives, asking neighbours where his house is.
NA refuses to participate in mandatory reconciliation efforts, thereby turning down any possibility for a dialogue. As part of that, the company’s security personnel refused entry to an officer from the Department of Justice, accompanied by, among other people, the union’s lawyer and two police officers. They were refused entry in spite of the fact that they had a warrant issued by a court. The group later managed to get in by jumping a gate.
The conflict started in early August when NA, in a clear violation of trade union rights, started to dismiss staff members for becoming SUTNA members. Things escalated when the company became openly hostile to SUTNA’s industrial actions, which occurred in support of the 25 sacked SUTNA members. The dispute follows the signing, for the first time in 31 years, of a national agreement for the Argentinean rubber sector with the employers’ association.