Argentine: Truckers end strike against AmBev

The Argentine truckers union on Wednesday reached an agreement with Brazil's AmBev and lifted the strike it staged to protest the decision by the beverage giant's local subsidiary Quilmes to terminate its contracts with some distributors, EFE News Service reported April 11.

"The labor stability of the personnel was guaranteed," union leader Pablo Moyano said after a mediation meeting Tuesday night that was hosted by Brazilian Ambassador to Argentina Mauro Vieira.

Moyano said that the parties agreed to "assess through July 31, 2008, the two distributors with whom the firm wanted to end its commercial relationship," a move that would have implied the firing of workers.

"The accord also specifies that all decisions adopted by the firm in the future must be consulted on and debated with the union," he added.

Moyano said that, as a result of the agreement, the national open-ended strike affecting the distribution of Quilmes products was lifted "immediately." The firm is the leading beer distribution company in the local market.

The union leader, who on Tuesday headed a protest that blocked traffic in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires, thanked Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, along with his labor minister, Carlos Tomada, for their mediation efforts in the dispute.

Quilmes, which also produces soft drinks, mineral water and packaged juices in business alliances with firms like U.S. PepsiCo and Switzerland's Nestle, denied that there had been any proposal to lay off truckers as a result of cancelling contracts with beverage distributors.

Moyano said on Tuesday that the strike, which affected other brewers as well, was backed by the union of soft drink industry workers, and therefore it also harmed the distribution system of Coca-Cola and other companies.

"The strike is for an undetermined period of time, until an agreement is reached with Quilmes to guarantee jobs at all the country's distributors for three years," he said.

The union leader told reporters that he would attend talks organized by the Labor Ministry for Tuesday and would call on Quilmes to relinquish its plans to change the distribution contracts.

Quilmes, the leading beer maker in the Argentine market, "intends to reduce to eight the 24 distributors" it has in Greater Buenos Aires and undertake a similar reduction among the 200 in the rest of the country, he said.

Moyano, the son of the leader of Argentina's largest labor confederation, the CGT, said that if no agreement was reached the truckers would take their demonstration to the River Plate soccer club's Monumental stadium, where the "Quilmes Rock" festival - sponsored by the brewer - begins on Thursday.

Quilmes insisted all along that the termination of its agreement with the distributor Riganti would not result in any job losses.

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