Unions ruin everything: Conaprole closes its distribution center in Rivera because of nine months of delirious union conflict

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.

This case is the perfect example of how unions, when they act with ideological rigidity and without a sense of reality, end up destroying what they claim to defend: jobs. Instead of negotiating responsibly, they choose blackmail and extortion, taking the company, the producers, and their own colleagues hostage.

Who wins with this? Nobody. The workers in Rivera lose their source of income, the dairy farmers in the interior see how the placement of their milk becomes even more complicated, and the country loses competitiveness in a sector that is already dragging structural problems.

The union leadership replied with the typical accusations of "blackmail" and "hostages," but the facts speak for themselves: nine months of measures of force are not a defense of rights, they are economic sabotage. Meanwhile, the cooperative —which generates decent employment for thousands throughout the country— is forced to make painful decisions in order to survive.

It is time to say it without euphemisms: **unions, when they turn into ideological mafias and reject any reasonable agreement, ruin everything**. They destroy companies, generate unemployment, and deepen poverty in already vulnerable regions such as the north.

Uruguay needs responsible dialogue, not delusional strikes that only benefit those who live off permanent conflict.

Conaprole is not the first victim and will not be the last if this destructive logic is not stopped. The truly harmed are the honest workers and the producers who put their backs into it every day. Enough of communist unionism in Uruguay: either there is real negotiation or the responsibility is assumed for closing doors and leaving families on the street.