Chilean wellboat workers end 10-day strike
Union members employed by wellboat company Naviera Orca Chile have ended a 10-day strike over pay and conditions.
The Union of Officers of Crewmen of Naviera Orca Chile won some improvements but fell short of their main goals of a much-improved shift system and a wage rise to bring them on to the same pay level as the company’s most recent employees.
Naviera bosses and union officials were invited to mediation by the Labour Directorate on January 11.
Salary increase
“The first mediation was held on January 12, with the aim of reaching an agreement with the company, as long as we retracted the complaints before the authorities for possible anti-union and unfair practices, which we refused to do. We held mediation again on Thursday the 13th, managing to reach an agreement,” union president César Rojas told Fish Farming Expert’s Chilean sister site, Salmonexpert.
Rojas said a salary increase was agreed “even though it is not enough to equate the remuneration of those who recently joined the company, nor with the market salary. In addition, they increased our legal vacations by two days, we won a school bonus for the children of Naviera Orca workers, which goes in instalments, and the usual bonus for ending the conflict. The negative is that the work regimen was not analysed and we continue with a 22 days on, 11 days off work system”.
The union had wanted a 20 days on, 18 off system which it said it now standard in the wellboat industry.
Norwegian embassy
Although, in Rojas’s opinion, not much was gained, “what makes us happy is that we did not withdraw the complaints (of alleged unfair prac, which continue their course. We were not going to negotiate on them”.
The union leader asserted that it was necessary for the public to know what was happening within Naviera Orca. “We exposed this problem, even to the Norwegian embassy in Chile and hopefully an investigation will be carried out on their part, since part of Naviera Orca is owned by Norwegian capital. We only hope to continue working and that no partner is harmed,” he said.
In 2020, Salmon Business website reported that 44% of Naviera Orca was owned by Trigvasson Ltda, a company owned 50/50 by Odd Einar Sandøy, owner of Norwegian wellboat company Rostein, and Kjell Audnn Asen, a former Rostein chairman.
Naviera Orca operates three Norwegian-built wellboats in Chile, with a fourth, the Orca Yka, due for delivery from Norway’s Larsnes shipyard in March. It will be the company’s biggest and most sophisticated vessel and is contracted to work for Salmones Camanchaca.
