News

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Arbete, has published an article on the anti-union practices of the SCA Familia, a Colombian company which is 50% owned by SCA.

A group of employees at Productos Familia in Colombia set up a union in February 2014. The company then started anti-union activities of harassment and threats to intimidate workers from joining the union. In May 2014, negotiations on a collective agreement started and the union presented its demands. The company avoided signing a collective agreement and introduced extra benefits for workers who are not members of the union. This is known in Colombia as a "pacto collectivo" and is a blatant attempt to encourage workers to leave the union.

Productos Familia is 50% owned by the Swedish company SCA which has a global union framework agreement on workers' rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively. “SCA has so far not wanted to interfere in the events in Colombia, says the GS General Secretary Tommy Andersson, who is also the President of UNI Graphical and Packaging. We have met SCA and talked about the information that has come, but they say they need concrete evidence to act. But we must listen to our members and how they perceive things. We want to go there together with SCA to be on the spot in order to sort out what is going on and resolve the issue”.

According to Tommy Andersson at the GS union “SCA cannot shy away from its responsibility by referring to national laws. SCA has a real responsibility and the possibility to influence the situation if they want to.” Erland Lindkvist, head of the IF Metall's international unit, met members of the union at Productos Familia last year and says “they told us about indirect and direct threats to union members, people are afraid of losing their jobs and will not stand up and testify in public. One must go there to find out what is happening and be able to reach a solution. We expect better from Swedish companies”.