In a new blow to employment and national production, Conaprole announced the definitive closure of the Distribution Center in Rivera (former Plant 14), a decision that leaves dozens of families without work and directly affects the dairy chain in the north of the country. The cooperative, a pillar of the Uruguayan economy and owned by thousands of dairy producers, took this extreme measure after nine months of strikes, work-to-rule actions, and sustained measures of force by the AOEC union (Asociación de Obreros y Empleados de Conaprole).
According to the company's official statement, the "sustained union conflict" completely prevented the consolidation of a viable operation in the distribution center, generating serious economic consequences that are no longer sustainable.
The decision is not arbitrary: back in August 2025 the Assembly of the 29 most important producers unanimously backed the closure of the original plant in the face of economic unfeasibility and union intransigence. The company even tried to save jobs by converting the facility into a distribution center (at the government's request), but the union did not give in a single inch.
What did these "representatives" of the workers do exactly during these nine months? Repeated strikes in key sectors, work-to-rule actions that paralyzed logistics and distribution, systematic refusals to consider any of the proposals submitted (including four from the Ministry of Labor), and a permanent confrontational attitude that extended the conflict beyond Rivera to other strategic areas of the cooperative.
The result: shortages of more than 30 products on the market, multimillion-dollar losses for producers, distributors, and consumers, and a dairy value chain that is bleeding in the middle of the peak season.
