The secretary general of Centro de Empleados de Comercio de Río Grande y Tolhuin, Daniel Rivarola, confirmed five terminations without cause at the La Anónima supermarket chain. Four layoffs occurred at Río Grande and one at Tolhuin. The news deepened concern about merchant employment in a context of decreased consumption and lower industrial activity.
Rivarola explained that on Monday rumors circulated without confirmed information and that the union became effectively aware of the layoffs after Tuesday noon. When consulting local managements, he received as a response that the communication had arrived by email with little notice. The branch managers said they did not know if there would be more layoffs.
The explanation conveyed to the union was that the company is undergoing a restructuring motivated by the general drop in sales. The leader stated that a staff adjustment was a possibility after previous reductions, but admitted that there is no clarity about the extent of the process. Union delegates began talking with the affected workers to evaluate joint actions.
The head of the union warned that the fear of losing their job limits the capacity to make claims within the establishments. Even so, he stated that the organization will try to resist the layoffs and seek alternatives to reverse them. In the commercial sector of Río Grande and Tolhuin, more than 82 layoffs have already accumulated during the year, according to the survey presented by Rivarola.
The leader linked the drop in sales to the shutdown of part of the Fuegian industry. He mentioned 300 factory workers who are awaiting a labor decision and warned that a loss of those jobs would remove another 300 salaries from the commercial circuit. According to his analysis, each eliminated industrial job reduces consumption and transfers the impact to supermarkets, shops, and local services.
Rivarola called for a change in national economic policy to reactivate production and employment, and questioned the advance of imports over the national industry. Those conclusions correspond to the union position. The confirmed data are five dismissals and the restructuring explanation communicated by management; no names were disclosed, nor a complete reduction plan or a public response from the company's national leadership.
