Argentina oilseed workers union calls for 24-hour strike over bonus payments

The top oilseed crushers union of Argentina, a leading global food supplier, has called for a 24-hour strike beginning Thursday over coronavirus bonus payments, a union leader said on Wednesday.

Argentina oilseed crushers union SOEA has demanded a monthly bonus, retroactive to April, for work its members carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the country was shuttered and under quarantine during those months, and the union says the risks they undertook deserve additional pay.

“Tomorrow we will start (the strike) with the first shift, in each of the companies,” said Daniel Succi, union secretary of SOEA.

SOEA, which represents workers of grain processing firms in the towns of San Lorenzo, Puerto General San Martín and Timbúes, in northern Rosario – a region that supplies 80% of the country’s agro-industrial exports, carried out a similar strike in October.

Argentina is the world’s top exporter of the feed as well as a major soybean, wheat and corn supplier.

Reuters

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