Coca-Cola, Guatemala: STECSA signs new collective agreement

Posted to the IUF website 28-Jun-2007

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On 12 June, IUF Guatemalean affiliate STECSA and Embotelladora Central (EMBOCEN) - owned by Coca-Cola bottler FEMSA - signed a new collective agreement for 2007-2008 after months of tough negotiation. In the new agreement STECSA, secured a 6.5% wage increase for 2007 and 6.5% for 2008, along with a commitment by the company not to cut benefits previously acquired in earlier CBAs. Lazaro Serrano, STECSA's organization secretary, told IUF Latin America that despite the positive outcome of the negotiations, two key issues which potentially undermine the union's gains at EMBOCEN are still unresolved. These are EMBOCEN's failure to invest in production machinery, distribution fleet and marketing of its own products and the continued invasion of EMBOCEN's market by neighbouring Coke local bottlers DIMPA and ABASA.