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About 164 workers occupied, this Thursday, April 25, MontevideoGas, a piped natural gas distributor in Montevideo, Uruguay, controlled by Petrobras.
On Wednesday, April 24, the Autonomous Union of Workers and Employees of the Gas Company (Uaoegas), approved in an assembly the occupation of the unit by employees, called “worker control”. The occupation began this Thursday, the 25th, at 6am, and the workers said they would not leave the site. Of the 164 company employees, 140 are union members and participate in the occupation. Represented by the union's steering committee, the employees opted for the so-called workers' control (control obrero, in Spanish), which means occupation and that the employees would assume the management of the subsidiary.
When occupying the company, the workers allege that public gas supply services are deteriorating. According to a document released by the union, there has been a loss of “more than 7 users since [Petrobras] took over the distribution of piped gas”.
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According to the union's note, the Petrobras refuses to find a way out for the rehiring of 20 employees who are in the so-called “paro insurance”, which is the local benefit for unemployed workers . Uaoegas is also demanding the company's immediate withdrawal from the country's natural gas distribution service.
The actions were taken by a cost reduction policy of the Brazilian state-owned company. Employees ask that Petrobras leave the country and that control of the company pass into the hands of the union.
The Uruguayan court prohibited the Union of Gas Workers (Unión Autónoma de Obreros y Empleados de la Compañía de Gas) from occupying the headquarters of MontevideoGas, a subsidiary of Petrobras in Uruguay. The sentence, issued by Judge Hugo Rundie, guarantees the entry and exit of company employees to serve customers and suppliers and prohibits worker control.
In the sentence, the judge said that workers’ control violates the right to property and that the initiative is “manifestly illegitimate and flagrantly violates constitutional rights and freedoms” and that taking over the headquarters “would be attacking the genuine and true management of the company, directly ignoring the right to property”.
For trade unionist Alejandro Acosta, the company's property rights cannot overrule other rights. “First of all, it is a state-owned company, the gas company, granted for 30 years, so it is a public service concession that should not be governed by private law, as if it were any other company. Secondly, there is also the right to work, which has been affected”.
Petrobras reported in a note earlier this month that the Brazilian company continues to fulfill all obligations and maintain the gas distribution service “with the highest standards of quality and safety in the industry”.
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