Brazil – Germany | MEATPACKING | HEALTH

Global struggle to dignify work in meatpacking plants

National strike in German meatpacking plants

Gerardo Iglesias

Last April 7, in a meeting of European and Brazilian labor organizations that represent meat industry workers, Peter Schmidt, of the German Food, Beverages and Catering Union (Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten, NGG), declared: “Trade union actions against workforce casualization in meatpacking plants in Brazil and Germany are part of the same struggle.

If workers in Brazil succeed in stopping the joint efforts of companies and the government to undermine health and safety conditions in the meatpacking industry, they will be furthering the struggle in Germany, and vice versa,” he concluded.

In Germany, negotiations for better wages and working conditions in the meat sector were suspended, giving way to a strike that is being staged in all of the country’s plants, mobilizing the sector’s 160,000 workers.

Taking up the words of fellow unionist Schmitd and making them ours, we support the strike and the struggle of the NGG, which is also the best way to strengthen Brazilian unions in their struggle for decent work in the meatpacking industry.