MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan orange producers said to be retaining cheap Argentine labor

“So far we have not found where this phenomenon is occurring,” Uruguayan Labor Minister Mieres said

Agricultural producers in the Salto area have been reported to hire Argentine labor from Concordia just across the border and pay them three times less than they would local workers, Uruguay's National Union of Salaried, Rural, and Related Workers (Unión Nacional de Asalariados, Trabajadores Rurales y Afines - Unatra) denounced.

“About 40 people cross the Salto Grande bridge, and 200 meters from the border a bus is waiting for them to take them to the farms and make them work in the black,” Unatra leader Juan Carlos Albano was quoted by Montevideo's El País as saying.

These people are brought through the Salto Grande border crossing by businessmen of the citrus sector to work in their respective establishments, it was explained.

“They cross some 40 people as pedestrians over the Salto Grande bridge, but when they are about 200 meters from the border, on the Uruguayan side, a bus is waiting for them to take them to the different farms and make them work in the black and in very precarious conditions,” Albano went on. These people “are brought as cheap labor, who are paid what they want, how they want and above all without any law,” the unionist added.

He also pointed out that while Uruguayan harvesters are paid UY$ 24 (US$ 0.63) per bag of oranges harvested, Argentines get only UY$ 8 (US$ 0.21). Each worker “makes about 60 bags per day on average, depending on the variety of orange,” Albano also said.

The Argentine Embassy in Montevideo has contacted Albano to know more about this situation while Uruguayan Labor Minister Pablo Mieres said that “so far we have not found where this phenomenon is occurring.”