GENEVA (ILO News) – The Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare of Mexico, Javier Lozano, presented at the 99th International Labour Conference in Geneva "a successful program" to modernize work in the sugar cane industry, and stressed the importance of an effective social dialogue to face the challenge of productivity.
The meeting was attended by senior employer and worker representatives from the Mexican sugar industry as well as the main representative of the Chilean fruit sector which also applies a methodology promoted by the ILO, known as SIMAPRO, focused on capacity building, social dialogue, increased productivity and decent work.
"We realized that it was possible to reach agreements within the framework of social dialogue with a focus on productivity," Lozano recalls, adding that currently the industry has qualities that other sectors would also like to share: labour peace, permanent social dialogue, and a contract law aimed at productivity and investment.
The Mexican Secretary of Labour highlighted the significant role played by the ILO’s SIMAPRO project, which has been implemented since 2008 with support from the Regular Budget Supplementary Account (RBSA) which is financed by the donor countries in the ILO.
"It was an industry in danger of disappearing," said Juan Cortina, President of the National Chamber of the Sugar and Alcohol Industries (CNIAA) at the meeting in Geneva, referring to the decision to initiate a process of modernization work, with social dialogue as a "cornerstone" of consensus-based and agreed change.
“The ILO has been part of this important change," the spokesperson of the Chamber says.
The General Secretary of the Workers’ Union of Sugar and Allied Industries of Mexico (STIASRM), Adrián Sánchez, emphasized that the modernization of labour relations meant to strive for "decent work in our industry" through "improving productivity and efficiency".
"We were a union used to conflict," Sanchez recalls the history of the industry. "Today our fight aims at improving workers’ wages and benefits based on the profits generated which will lead to better living standards," he says.
Besides Mexico, SIMAPRO was implemented in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and has just started its activities in Uruguay. The ILO says that the approach is flexible and can be applied in any sector of the economy in any country.
With SIMAPRO "we have a tool that has a direct impact on productivity, and thus positively affects the competitiveness of industries," concludes Jean Maninat, ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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