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Chile salmon giant faces strike
(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Santiago, Feb 11 (EFE).- About 1,000 workers on Monday began an open-ended strike after they failed to reach an accord on salaries and working conditions with one of Chile's major salmon conglomerates.
"We're 1,000 workers who are mobilized. We want to talk about a substantive change in the offer," said Ricardo Casas, the president of the Fishing Industries Workers Federation, in remarks published Monday in the evening newspaper La Segunda.
Employees of Aguas Claras and Aqua Chile, both belonging to the Antarfish conglomerate, began the work stoppage in demand of the "legitimate aspiration" for increased pay "on the same level that the firm's profits increased thanks to the effort" put forth on the job by the workers, the union said in a communique.
The Aguas Claras workers are asking for a monthly salary of $730, a 30 percent production bonus and health benefits, while the firm's most recent offer was a smaller pay hike and a one-time bonus of $500.
"They offered us a pay hike of 83 cents per day," Casas said.
The negotiations between the workers and the firm have been marked by confrontations with police coming as a result of the takeovers of four salmon-raising centers and a dock by the workers at the Calbuco and Puerto Montt plants, both located some 1,050 kilometers (650 miles) south of Santiago.
The police arrested several workers who were burning tires at the sites, but after they took down their names they released them.
Meanwhile, Aguas Claras decided on Monday to close the Calbuco plant "given that the minimum security for the rest of the workers and the company's assets do not exist," said manager Augustin Ugalde.
"This closure will last until the conflict ends, although we don't rule out that the measure may be (permanent)," Ugalde added.
Chile is the second largest producer of salmon in the world, after Norway, and between January and October 2007, the South American country's exports grew by 10 percent in value and 8 percent in volume, compared to the same period the previous year.
Salmon represents about 25 percent of Chile's food exports, and it is a sector that employs some 53,000 people. EFE
pg/bp
Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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