Uruguayan tannery workers have reduced in number by 67% in ten years
03/11/2017
They told the politicians that the leather sector employed around 10,000 people in Uruguay ten years ago but that, today, the country’s six remaining tanneries employ only one-third of this number. They also revealed that some of the remaining jobs could also be under threat; five of the six have already reduced their output, with people taking turns to stay off work and claim financial assistance from the state during periods of inactivity.
Union officials put the blame for the industry’s woes on the increase in Uruguayan hides that leave the country as wet-salted or wet blue material. “The industry is not living in the past,” they told the committee. “We have skilled workers and we have state-of-the-art technology. The problem is that raw material is leaving Uruguay practically without any processing.”
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