Agroamerica undertook a project to strengthen the dialogue between Union and Management

Guatemala, August 2009. Agroamerica, together with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and CentraRSE, leading organizations in Corporate Social Responsibility, undertook the project “Creating a Process of Constructive Dialogue between union workers and management” to strengthen communication among union, non-union workers, and management; thus achieving an effective interaction answering to the needs of all.

The methodology consisted of a series of workshops under the theme: “The value of investing in strengthening relations”; these were able to identify topics in common to generate improvements in the union-employer relationship that will have a positive effect on work conditions, competitiveness, and in the access to different markets.
Human Resources Manager of Agroamérica indicated: “Achieving multi-sectoral dialogue between senior management and employees is a challenge for any company, contributing to the improvement of the working environment and good relations between employers and employees that will also foster the competitiveness of the company. Among the benefits expected are: to create formal long-term relationships, improve communications, and create a greater trust between farm workers and management, to create an attitude of interworking, increase productivity of the farm, and above all to improve work environment”.

Most participants of this project believed that it would be of great benefit because it would help them work as a team, find new and better ways to work, more ideas, and innovation to increase sales and decrease losses, and it would also serve as a motivation to strive to create a suitable and pleasant work environment.