BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s main oilseed union SOEA has threatened a national strike in soybean processing plants over a salary dispute at exports conglomerate Vicentin, a union leader said on Wednesday.
SOEA secretary Martin Morales told Reuters that Vicentin must pay February wages and that the potential work stoppage would also involve other unions.
The company, based in Santa Fe province, was once the country’s largest marketer of processed soybeans, which for years have been Argentina’s most valuable export.
While Vicentine has paused its own operations, other firms pay it rent out its facilities. In the past, Vicentine has disclosed that its three plants had a combined daily crushing capacity of 21,000 metric tons along with a storage capacity of more than 1.2 million tons, including source materials and byproducts, according to the company’s website data.
Since 2020, it has been mired in bankruptcy proceedings after announcing a year earlier a stop to payments worth more than $1 billion.
According to a SOEA statement on Tuesday, after union leaders met with Vicentin executives, the company said it might not be able to pay worker salaries.
Morales added that after a Santa Fe court ruling from last week finding an agreement between Vicentin and its lenders unconstitutional, no new deals were signed for the rental of its facilities past February.
(Reporting by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Chris Reese and David Alire Garcia)
