Argentina | TRADE UNIONS | TOBACCO

With Juan Martini

Great discontent among tobacco workers

The Argentine branch of British American Tobacco (BAT) persists in its violation of the collective bargaining agreement and outsources tasks previously performed by unionized workers.
Juan Martini | Photo: Nelson Godoy
Juan Martini, president of the Federation of Tobacco Workers of the Republic of Argentina (FTTRA), an IUF affiliate, reported that the British American Tobacco manager in Argentina has been taking actions that are clearly in violation of long-standing agreements.

As FTTRA sources explained to La Rel, there have been conciliation meetings with the Labor Ministry of the Province of Buenos Aires, but so far they have failed to yield any positive results.

“The company began outsourcing activities, laying off workers at the plant located in the town of Martínez who were assigned to cigarette dispatching tasks,” Martini said.

These tasks, which were previously performed by workers who were members of the tobacco union, are now assigned to transportation workers, a situation that raises even more suspicions as to management’s intentions.

“We want BAT’s parent company to be aware of what is happening in Argentina. We find it hard to believe that a company of its size and importance would put such an ill-prepared person in charge of running its operations in the country,” the leader stressed.

“It’s for things like this that we can count on the IUF, our International Federation. We know the IUF will make this situation known. Maybe that way the manager at BAT Argentina will have to answer to the parent company,” he concluded.