Training workshop for collective bargaining in Dominican Republic Frito Lay- Interview with Alexander Mosque

The National Union of Workers of Frito Lay Dominicana (SINTRALAYDO) with support from the REL-UITA held a workshop on January for trade union training on collective bargaining. Sirel spoke with Alexander Mosque, secretary general of the Union, who described the content of the activity.

 – What was the workshop about?

 -The activity was conducted on the premises of the Independent Union of Workers BEPENSA – Coca Cola (SATRABECO), who generously offered their hospitality. It was directed to union leaders from Frito Lay* and above all developed techniques and tools for collective bargaining, a situation in which we confront with the companies in defending the interests of workers.
The workshop was organized by our Union, with support from the Rel-IUF and the support and active participation of partners Bernabel Matos and Fernando de la Rosa.

The activity was essential since our Executive Committee was renewed and we have people with relatively little experience. Now, after this workshop, I think we will go much better prepared for the upcoming negotiations with the company.

 – How many people participated?

The training is planned for all of our representatives, who are 18 persons, but because it was a weekday, the company was hard to agree on union leave. Finally we got only half of the permits, and as we had organized everything and claimed that the content of the workshop had an impact on the upcoming negotiations, we decided to do all forms of assistance prioritizing who had been appointed by the Assembly to serve on the Commission negotiator.

Because we consider it of great value, we decided to organize a new workshop with the same content for the other part of the leadership who could not attend the first training.

 – What in your opinion were the main points developed?

 -The analysis of the collective bargaining process, the techniques can be used under different circumstances and times of negotiation, how to build a trading strategy are discussed and we even talked about what kind of a position and attitude that a union leader should have in this situation.

The attendance participated the training with enthusiasm and they were very open to learn more from comrades De la Rosa and Matos, who have extensive experience in trade union movement. The concepts were handled with great clarity and simplicity.

In our opinion it has been a very successful workshop, and we intend to increase these activities to train ourselves and update the tools of unions. We think that training of our people is one of our essential tasks for our union to have a pool of activists and union leaders, and as a result our organization has a long life.

Read the full article on the REL-UITA website (in Spanish)

* Frito Lay has a production plant in Santo Domingo and seven distribution centres in major towns in the country employing a total of 1,200 workers.