High tension in Argentina: Curtume CBR close down for a month

High tension in Argentina. Curtume CBR tannery announced a temporary closure. Activities will supposedly start again in August. In the meantime, the top managers of the company have reassured workers about the salary pay in July. Yet employees, 850 in total, are concerned a great deal about their own future.

High tension in Argentina

Curtume CBR closed down yesterday, Wednesday 1^st July 2020. They are due to reopen at the beginning of August. Over the closure period, workers will supposedly get a lower salary, which amounts to 80% of normal wages. Nonetheless, statements released by the top managers of the company do not sound fully reassuring to employees. While talking to Radio Fenix, Federico Zalazar, general secretary of the tanners’ trade union (SECALAR), claimed that he does not know “how long the company will be able to pay wages during the production stop”. “There are no orders underway, for the time being; besides that, the ones we were about to handle went up in smoke – continued the trade union representative –. Yet we expect the overall situation to pick up in August”.

Fearing bankruptcy

Furthermore, Zalazar emphasized that trade union and workers have undertaken “a few measures to guarantee the payment of the wage arrears should the company go bankrupt”. The trade union representative himself made clear that Curtume CBR situation does not apparently pose any elements potentially leading to such a heavy crisis. However, they prefer to prevent the problem: “Since something similar happened in the past, on other occasions, we decided to undertake a few measures to guarantee the payment of compensation should the company go bankrupt”. Allegedly, as reported by the Argentinian radio’s portal, they are planning, as a possible solution, to create smaller work teams.

At a standstill

Due to CRV outbreak, most hides, which were ready for shipping, could not pass through the customs: that was quite a problem for the company of course. For the records, the company currently exports 98% of its manufacturing, 60% of which off to China. In March, apparently, they stopped 30 containers: they therefore did not get any money for those goods.

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