You heard it on No Te Duermas.
Jorge Toledo, delegate of SUTNA, spoke with the hosts of the program about the conflict with tire workers at the Bridgestone plant in Llavallol and the entire union’s struggle.
Beyond a conflict at a specific company, Toledo stated that “the conflict is throughout the entire union, with different situations.”
“In my case, since I have been given the responsibility to represent all my colleagues at the Bridgestone factory here in Llavallol, we are in a very tough, unstable, and unpleasant situation,” he began in the interview.
He described the situation as “what is happening across the country is not right, but the behavior of this employer is ‘shameful,’ to avoid using other terms.”
“Currently, we have over 400 layoffs”
“At the moment, we have over 400 layoffs, and this is part of a totally unacceptable situation. This employer has created a false crisis within the national situation we are experiencing,” Toledo explained.
“The company presents tremendous anomalies in its financial statements”
Continuing with the analysis of the company’s financial situation, Toledo added: “Obviously, we are Argentinians and aware of the delicate situation we are living through, but this employer has requested a preventive crisis proceeding when they have totally positive financial statements.”
“Except for the 2023 financial statement of Bridgestone, which presents very gross anomalies, with a financial maneuver they carried out within this period,” he detailed.
In this regard, the union leader considered that “not only did they carry it out to fail to comply with one of the agreements, which is the workers’ share of company profits, but they are also using it to disrupt a situation that is not clear why they made this decision.”
“This employer requested to regularize their situation with 450 layoffs”
“We have that number of layoffs in a plant with nearly 1,200 workers. The company’s false crisis request to the Ministry of Labor states that they would regularize their situation by laying off 452 workers, removing bonuses, awards, supplements, and extending multitasking to all corners of the factory,” Toledo warned emphatically.
He also blamed the national administration: “Meanwhile, what the Milei government is doing through the Ministry of Labor is legalizing the illegality presented by this employer.”
“The company says it needs to remove the workers’ profit-sharing clause from the labor agreement”
“At the last point, the company states that they need to remove the clause about workers’ share of profits from the labor agreement. They say that if this point is eliminated, they will have the possibility to be more profitable than they are,” he elaborated.
From this point, he pointed out: “A document that starts by saying it’s in crisis and does not present the balances to prove it ends by saying ‘I need to be more profitable than I am,’ in other words, telling the workers ‘I’m already making money, I need to make more.’”
“Our task as a union is to represent the interests of the workers”
Toledo then reviewed the profit-sharing aspect: “It is publicly known that in 2021 we recovered this profit-sharing, and it is very important for every worker at the plant. And this happened because we organized ourselves and started to demand it properly.”
He also recalled: “Since the creation of this clause in 2001 until 2021, with previous leaders who did not represent our workers’ interests, during that period Bridgestone never presented a single financial statement.”
“For years, profit-sharing was not paid because they presented statements saying ‘we had no profits,’” he pointed out, emphasizing his criticism of the previous union management.
In conclusion, he emphasized: “It was a point used to enforce a 40 percent salary cut in 2001, and there was never any compensation. Since we took over the union leadership, the colleagues have received it for two consecutive years.”
With the experts in the field, we calculated that if the company had not carried out this financial maneuver in 2023, the colleagues should have received four and a half million pesos each in profit-sharing,” he indicated.
“The workers are realizing what we had already warned”
Finally, Toledo stressed: “In light of all this, we have 452 layoffs. And we have a chaotic situation. The same colleagues who are still working at the plant are starting to realize what we have been warning. The pressures and precariousness they want to impose have begun.”
“In response, from SUTNA, we have been very clear with all the workers. Since we recovered the union in 2016, in every management we have pursued that every profit must be shared among the workers,” he concluded.
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