Pronutricos and Proarepa: Protest for Workers' Control

Since July this year, workers at the Pronutricos-Proarepa food group factory have been engaged in mobilisation, demanding a state investigation of the company following a series of "irregularities".

In June, Pro-group management broke with a negotiated agreement which standardised worker salaries and began paying some employees higher wages than others. The situation was then compounded 6 weeks later when management unilaterally decided to subject workers to a wage decrease and dismissed three workers on the "Socialist Management Board" without reason.

Workers described the altercation regarding salaries as the "straw that broke the camel's back", reporting that tensions had been building for months. Employees at the factory state that there is a lack of financial transparency at the company, neglect of technical equipment on the part of management and that the factory is running well below its maximum capacity.

The Proarepa factory, capable of producing 12,000 tonnes of corn flour a month, is currently only producing around 4,000 tonnes, claim the workers.

"The struggle here isn't just to do with salary, it's about the workers being the ones to make decisions and effectively control the company, we want worker control" said one of the workers.

Workers at the factory continue to mobilise and have demanded that the government conduct an "immediate inspection" of the factory and disband the management board, which has shown itself to be 'ineffective, disrespectful to the workers" and "uncommitted to the revolutionary process and advancing towards workers control".

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Published on Aug 27th 2011 at 9.44pm