[Feel free to reporst anywhere, as long as you identify me as the source]
It seems to me that Kraft cookies made in Argentina will include
rubber bullets and tear gas
Police infantry fired rubber bullets and tear gas to workers who took
the plant in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and also to a group of
protesters whom were camping outside the facilities. Two workers and a
one cop were injured.
Kraft founds bought local cookie-making firm Terrabusi a decade ago,
and employs about 3,000 people at the plant. The products made here
are exported throughout Latin America to Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela,
Brazil, Peru and other countries.
The police had a judicial order to re-take the factory and they
complied with it, Pinkerton-style. It brought memories of the worst
days of the late 1970s military dictatorship where the police and
armed forces fought unions and acted defending the corporate interests
whenever there was a labour conflict.
Until yesterday's incidents, the protestors did roadblocks and the
plant hasn't worked for the last 30 days, seriously hampering the
firm's ability to deliver its products to the retail chain for the
upcoming yuletide holidays.
The conflict started with the firing of 160 workers whom, several
months ago and amid the H1N1 flu outbreak, where demanding the company
something as simple as having alcohol-based hand rubs available.
The pinkerton-like mindset of Kraft execs is mind-blowing. They let
the conflic escalate by refusing to cave in to the workers demands or
reincorporate the fired workers, lost a whole month's productivity
with the plant's activity grinded to a halt, and earned an awful lot
of bad PR in the process. Way to go, Kraft!
If I were a US exec, I'd fire the whole management team in Argentina...
The police pigs attitude on the other hand, is something I'm not surprised of...
fcassia@gmail.com
