Union-busting at Goodyear Peru

Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de Goodyear de Peru, June 3, 2009

27 workers at the Goodyear Peru plant in Callao continue to fight for reinstatement after they were dismissed from the company in December 2008, in what appears to be a case of blatant union busting and discrimination against union activists and some of the company’s most senior workers.

Of the 27 workers who lost their jobs, ten were founding members of the union, the Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de Goodyear de Peru, four were union officers, and the majority counted more than 20 years of service to the company. Although most of the dismissed workers were fired outright, ten of them were forced to sign “voluntary” resignation letters. The workers were fired just as the union was beginning talks with the company on issues including freedom of association and collection bargaining and workers’ right to be protected from arbitrary dismissals.

“The Minister of Labor (Jehude Simon) told us to accept Goodyear’s layoff package because it was a good deal. But I have worked at the plant for 20 years and still have children to raise,” said one of the dismissed workers. “We can’t sit back and let Goodyear get away with using harassment and pressure to eliminate decent union jobs.”

Even though production at the plant has held steady, since firing the 25 workers, Goodyear Peru has reduced shifts at the plant from three to two per day. To keep things running, the company is relying on young, untrained workers on short-term contracts, and paying them only a third of what union members earned for the same work. The majority of employees are now on short-term contracts and are too insecure to stand up for their rights at work for fear that the company won’t renew their contracts.

The union has raised formal complaints about the dismissals to local and national authorities, but Goodyear Peru has not chosen to reinstate the fired workers in meetings with the local authorities and has so far refused to meet with the national authorities. The union is appealing to the Supreme Court, and calling on its brothers and sisters in Goodyear unions around the world to support them.