By IANS
Caracas : Venezuela’s Coca-Cola Femsa , the leading bottling unit of Latin America, has announced that it has reached a truce with the former employees who had been blockading part of its installations since Feb 5 demanding reinstatement.
“Operations will return to normal soon following the truce, which was the only way to solve the crisis,” Rodrigo Anzola, the legal chief of the company, said Friday at a press conference here, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Saturday.
Anzola said the company’s production this month reduced by 10 percent or about 1.7 million cases because of the blockades by the ex-employees.
He also said there was a “loss of trust and credibility.” However, he expressed hope that in the next four or five days, the company will be able to supply all the points of sale in the country.
The truce, promoted by Venezuela’s National Assembly, plans to establish a joint technical committee to gather information about the company’s debt to former employees of the firm that used to have the Coca-Cola franchise.
The conflict goes back to 2003 when Hit, a company owned by Venezuelan mogul Oswaldo Cisneros, lost the franchise to Mexico-based Coca-Cola Femsa.
Coca-Cola Femsa of Venezuela employs roughly 8,000 people at its four bottling plants and 32 distribution centres.