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4 July, 2013At a meeting of the Mercosur Pulp & Paper project, held in Chile on 21-22 June, workers in the timber, paper and cellulose sector in Chile took an important step towards trade union unity by creating a new confederation, the Confederación de Trabajadores de la Madera, Papel, Celulosa y afines de Chile.
This new confederation is a merger of three federations – FACELPA, FIRST and FENASIFAC – with 1,800 members out of a total of 120,000 workers in the sector. It is the result of a process of unity that began two years ago. Delegates at the meeting in the town of Angol in Chile on 21-22 June, which was part of the Mercosur Paper and Cellulose project, considered it to be a historic event. Delegates representing unions in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and the PRO trade union in Finland and the IndustriALL Regional Secretary also attended.
Anatoly Surin, director of the pulp and paper sector commented:
The creation of a new Chilean confederation means that this major project by MERCOSUR countries with the participation of unions in the paper and cellulose sector has been very successful. And this is a success for everybody, not only for the Chilean trade union movement. We achieved our goal and the funds contributed by donors were not spent in vain.
The Political Agreement and Commitment signed by the three presidents of the respective federations marks an important development for trade unionism in Chile, as emphasized by the CUT’s regional representative, Sergio Gática.
The opening day was attended by the Mayor of Angol and a congressional deputy, who both expressed their approval of this historic event and congratulated the organisers of the meeting. They said that it is a step forward that will certainly bring benefits for workers, the region, the country and companies in the sector, despite the difficulties and obstacles facing unions in Chile.
On 24 June, a delegation of union leaders from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay representing the network of CMPC company employees, accompanied by a representative of the Finnish union PRO and Industriall’s Project Coordinator, met CMPC executives at the company's headquarters in Santiago de Chile. The delegation formally delivered a proposal for an International Framework Agreement, drafted by workers in the CMPC network.
CMPC representatives rejected the proposal, arguing that the company will continue to maintain a dialogue based on “trust and the spoken word” and that there is therefore no need for such an agreement. However, the unions will continue the dialogue given that the company executive said “the doors will always be open”.
Jorge Almeida, IndustriALL Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, who attended the meeting, highlighted how the trade union unity achieved signifies a step forward for the trade union movement in the paper, timber and cellulose sector. He added that, in the current context of the trade union movement in Chile, the unions should build on this achievement to work towards creating a single trade union organisation to represent all the country's industrial sectors.