The workers are in the middle of an industrial dispute and the members have voted against their Management Committee: Is this the end of the road for the Esperanza Rice Cooperative?
“A broken cooperative has no future”, Santiago Martinez, President of FECOAM (Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives in the Murcia region) told listeners to Radio Calasparra today.
“Independent of the result of yesterday´s vote the Rice Cooperative stands divided,” he says, “This situation should never have been allowed to happen.”
For weeks workers at the Cooperative have been demonstrating against the decision to sack, “without explanation”, the former boss of the Cooperative and demand the reinstatement of extraordinary payments promised by the Consejo Rector (Head of the Management Committee).
Yesterday at a special assembly called to discuss the dispute members voted against the management of the current Consejo Rector by 59 votes to 50 with six abstentions.
The Union representatives of the workforce claims that, as a result of the vote, the sacked worker must be reinstated and the President, Antonio Albarracin, should resign with elections to be held at a new assembly. The Union also claims “irregularities” including the creation of a post of Vice Treasurer and demand an external audit.
Meanwhile Albarracin has refused to resign claiming he is “proud” of his work at the cooperative and accusing the workers and their representatives of “dirty tricks.”
Speaking on Radio Calasparra Santiago Martinez demanded “support with authority not criticism” for the Management of the Cooperative.
“If the members believe someone has done something wrong there are elections every four years. It cannot be that in a little less than a year legitimate decisions are overturned after being adopted for the good of the Cooperative.”
He went on to say the “general interests” of the Cooperative must prevail over those of individuals.
“My advice is for members is always, at every moment, to support their Management Committee.”
He went on to lament the loss of cooperatives in Calasparra in the last decades where only Agra, Cremofruit and the rice cooperative had survived.
It was a shame to lose these opportunities, he said, in a fight for power, for seats, for bad management or for neglect.
“Different reasons are hidden behind the sunset of some of the historic cooperatives in Calasparra,” he warned.
