Yesterday, a group of workers from the packaging area of the Citrícola Salteña SA company (Caputto) prevented 13 containers from leaving to the port of Montevideo with fruit that was to be exported to Spain, Italy, northern Europe, and the United States.
The general manager, Jorge Caputto, said the company had planned to communicate to the union yesterday the date and conditions in which it would pay their bonuses, whose term expired on Friday.
In the morning the workers went to the plant and carried out their fruit packing activities normally, but in the middle of the morning a group of workers blocked one of the gates of the plant. As a result, the trucks that were ready to load the export fruit were unable to do so. Harvesting activities were also affected in farms employing about 700 people. The workers couldn't take out the different inputs needed to do the work in the farms, the entrepreneur said.
Each container is valued between US $ 20 thousand and US $ 30 thousand, according to the market of destination and the varieties of the fruits being shipped. This merchandise can no longer be placed abroad and must be destined to the domestic market. The company reported the situation to the police and worked up minutes of what happened. Caputto said there will be no dialogue until the workers review the measure.
In turn, the trade union leader, Veronica Gomez, said that the company must pay the workers their bonuses, license fees from last year, and that they still hadn't given them a date for the payment of the fortnightly salary that didn't get paid last Friday. According to the company, they are up to date on payments and are only owing the workers a bonus.
An assembly held yesterday afternoon voted unanimously to continue blocking the gate. As a result the company communicated the stoppage of tasks in the packing plant until further notice. About 300 people work in this sector.
Citrícola Salteña faces a complex financial situation. At present it maintains debts for about US $ 29.5 million with the financial system, according to the Central Bank of Credit Risks (BCU).
The main creditor is Banco República (BROU) with US $ 26.8 million, of which the bank has already "punished by default" US $ 14.6 million. The company also has overdue receivables with Heritage Bank for $ 2.13 million. These two institutions have qualified the company as category 5 (irrecoverable debtors).
Last year, the company issued an issuance of US $ 11 million for a 10-year term and in guarantee of payment included productive lands valued at US $ 15.7 million at auction and US $ 21 million at market value, as well as solidarity bonds of all the companies of the group. In that sense, Caputto said that the company was up to date on the payment of interest on the issuance and that it was still in negotiations with the BROU for the debt it holds.
In 2016 the company lost about US $ 14 million, a new low for the company. In that period the company suffered economic repercussions because the strong rains seriously affected their exports to the United States, which represents the best prices of the harvest. There was also a significant volume of fruit that could not be marketed because of quality issues.
"We had a difficult year and this year we have been working normally within the costs faced by exporters in Uruguay. There is no market or price crisis," said the businessman. Citrícola Salteña is the main citrus producer and exporter in Uruguay.
Source: elobservador.com.uy