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Police raid homes of salmon industry union heads
A pair of Region X labor leaders fear they are being implicated in an arson attack committed earlier this year against SalmonChile’s regional office in Puerto Montt. SalmonChile is a trade association representing the major companies involved in Chile’s US$2.4 billion farmed salmon and trout industry.
Last Thursday, police raided the homes of Ricardo Casas, president of the Federation of Fishing Industry Workers (FETRAINPES), and Jaime Bustamante, a member of the National Workers Union (CUT). The officers seized computers, pen drives and other data-storage devices, the union heads reported.
Casas is convinced the police are trying to link him and other union leaders to the SalmonChile fire, which occurred May 4, less than two weeks after the trade association announced plans to relocate its center of operations from Santiago to Puerto Montt (PT, May 4). An anarchist group calling itself “Comando Autónomo Tres de Mayo” (May Third Independent Command) claimed responsibility for the fire (PT, May 5). The FETRAINPES head insists neither he nor Bustamante had anything to do with the matter.
The police raids were ordered by area prosecutor Sergio Coronado, who announced last month that he has identified the alleged arsonists by “name, surname and address.” Coronado fingered one of the suspects as a union leader. Police have yet to make any arrests.
The raids came just one week after the FETRAINPES president and other Region X labor leaders traveled to Santiago to raise awareness about the ongoing salmon industry slump, which has left thousands out of work (PT, Aug. 4). The situation is critical, insist the union heads, who say government efforts to help the unemployed have been superficial and poorly implemented.
“According to (a recently aired TVN) special report, there are about 20,000 unemployed salmon workers. But the government measures are only supposed to help 5,000,” CUT representative Jose Ortiz told the Patagonia Times during the visit. “That means 15,000 unemployed people are condemned to having no income at all. All they can do is move back to the countryside. Or go out and steal. I don’t know. They’ve got to live on something.”
While in Santiago, the labor leaders also lobbied strongly against the so-called Sandoval Law, a series of proposed modifications to Chile’s General Fisheries and Aquaculture Law that critics say could usher in a “privatization” of Chile’s coastal waters (PT, June 16). SalmonChile and other backers of the bill say it will help spur an industry recovery by improving government oversight and encouraging wary lenders to loosen their purse strings. The law is currently being reviewed by the Senate.
“It’s highly suspicious that just day before Congress discusses a law to privatize the sea, and at a time when thousands of workers are organizing to demand work in Region X, the authorities decide to go after two of the principal labor leaders in the Puerto Montt salmon industry,” said FETRAINPES.
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