| UNIONS PROTEST CHILE SALMON INDUSTRY LAYOFFS |
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| Written by Benjamin Witte | |
| Wednesday, 15 October 2008 | |
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Labor leaders took to the streets of Puerto Montt (Region X) Wednesday to protest an ongoing wave of salmon industry layoffs. So far, according to event organizers, more than 4,000 have lost their jobs due to a current industry slowdown that shows no signs of ending soon. Led by representatives from the National Confederation of Salmon Industry Workers (CONATRASAL), approximately 100 protestors marched from the city’s central square to the regional governor’s office, where among other things they demanded government subsidies for laid off workers and their families.“Once again it’s the workers having to pay the price,” CONATRASAL declared. “The situation was predictable and was made worse by poor management. The industry has been incapable of coordinating and taking basic measures to guarantee environmental and health controls.” After growing by an average annual rate of 20 percent earlier in the decade, Chile’s US$2.2 billion farmed salmon industry has come to a standstill of late, due in large part to ongoing problems with a disease called Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA). A highly contagious virus, ISA can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans. First detected in Chilean waters in mid 2007, the disease has since spread throughout the country’s salmon farming southern regions, prompting numerous fish farm and processing plant closures. SalmonChile, the industry’s private producers association, estimates that some 2,000 workers have been laid off. Labor unions put the figure much higher. “Supposedly 4,000 direct jobs have been lost. But we think it’s more like 6,000. And, if you count both direct and indirect jobs, we’re talking about maybe 10,000 layoffs. In the coming months, that’ll increase,” CONATRASAL Executive Secretary Rosa Bahamonde told the Patagonia Times. The Chilean government says it’s aware of the problem and is doing everything possible to improve the situation. This past April it convened a special emergency Salmon Task Force to address the ISA crisis. The group, which is led by the Ministry of the Economy, has since come up with numerous recommendations to improve sanitary conditions and control the spreading disease (PT, July 22, Aug. 27). The Task Force is also calling for a major budget increase for Chile’s National Fishing Service. None of that, however, amounts to direct help for laid off workers and their families, say labor leaders. “We want subsidies for the workers – scholarships, training opportunities, funds that help workers. I understand that the government has given the companies US$250 million. But what about the workers? Right now there’s nothing for them,” said Bahamonde. Complicating matters even more are predictions by SalmonChile that production could drop by as much as 20 percent in 2009 – possibly to as low as 275,000 tons (PT, Oct. 13). In 2007, Chile – the world’s second leading farmed salmon exporter – produced nearly 400,000 tons of salmon and reported export earnings of US$2.247 billion. “It seems unlikely the situation will improve considering the industry’s ISA problems. But anther aspect is that companies looking to mechanize their salmon farms have used (ISA) as an excuse to fire people,” said Bahamonde. “There aren’t other jobs available because everything is linked one way or another to the salmon industry,” she added. “Within the region, there aren’t really any other options.” By Benjamin Witte ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 October 2008 ) |
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