Around 200 workers from the Mexican beverage manufacturing and distribution company Arca Continental, Coca-Cola's second largest bottler in Latin America, have gone on strike in Matamoros, Tamaulipas , demanding a 20% wage increase and a MXN$32,000 annual bonus that is being granted in manufacturing industries as a result of other strikes in the state.
The employees, who are members of the Laborers and Industrial Workers Union led by Juan Villafuerte , claimed that they hadn’t been given a defined daily work schedule and were thus forced to leave late at night without receiving overtime pay .
The factory workers are paid MXN$280 a day , whereas drivers are paid MXN$300 .
The employees demanded that the workers union informed them on the clauses of their collective labor agreement, which will be reviewed on September .
500 workers in the company were being affected by a weekly salary reduction
. The company claimed that the money saved would go to the workers union.
“We want to know exactly what they’re doing with the money. Why should we have to give up our salary? We want Juan Villafuerte or someone from the union to come and support us, because we will not go to work for the time being ,” they commented.
Filiberto López Adame
, secretary general of the Reynosa Bottlers Union , suggested that the workers from Matamoros should take a closer look at the terms of their collective contract or else, they could lose their jobs.
“I’ve seen that they are asking for a salary increase and a bonus. In order to make such demands, they have to agree upon it by contract,” he stated.
He commented that the workers in Matamoros were complaining about their work schedule, but it is in fact contemplated in national law and thus perfectly legal.
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