The Blumar Salmon Plant in Talcahuano received this morning a visit from the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Mónica Zalaquett, who accompanied by the regional secretary, Marissa Barro, executives and workers, learned about the important role of women in the company as well as in the salmon processing plant where 60% of its workforce is female and the vast majority are heads of household.
The event included a tour of the processing plant and a conversation with testimonies from the women who are part of the plant and the company’s management. Mónica Zalaquett, Minister of Women and Gender Equality, works to promote the construction of more and better public policies to address the diverse realities of women. And in that task she travels the country perceiving the different realities up close. Today it was Blumar’s turn, where the minister commented: “I take away a great perception from my visit to the Blumar Salmon Plant in Talcahuano, I loved seeing the good work environment, hearing the testimonies, talking with the plant’s union president and sharing in the cafeteria”. She added that she was able to verify how Blumar provides different opportunities for women, who can grow in the organization and see how they have taken a very important step by appointing the first woman to its board of directors, “this shows that the company joins the challenge in terms of equality, where we guarantee equal opportunities and rights for men and women”. She also highlighted that she observed a good example of good practices implemented in the company. “Undoubtedly they are all improvable, and we can continue to advance. There are some ideas that we invite you to explore to generate better conditions for the company with an impact on society as a whole,” she said at the end of the tour.
For her part, Marissa Barro, regional secretary of the Biobío Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, highlighted the high number of women working in the Salmon plant, the majority heads of household. “In this pandemic, women have been the most affected, so providing economic autonomy through continuity of work, implementing the necessary safety measures to work with peace of mind has been fundamental. We believe that the company has made a great investment for safe work. But there is still more needed, so the invitation remains open to continue working on the strategic alliance between the public and private sectors to move forward for the women of Biobío”.
On behalf of the company, Natalia Alfaro, Sub Manager of Human Resources at Blumar Seafoods, headed the welcome delegation, who highlighted the ongoing dialogue during the plant tour. “We had a very good visit where we were able to show the reality of women workers in the industry, and how their role is represented in different areas of the company by accessing positions of relevance, as the latest example, where the company integrated for the first time a woman to its board of directors, Ms. Bernardita Noguera“.
On behalf of the workers, Paola Sanhueza, president of the Blumar Salmon Union, highlighted the visit of the authorities. “We were left with a very satisfactory feeling, I think it is important that the authorities know, tour and see firsthand how work is done in the processing plants where we add value to a product like salmon, we need to specialize the trade and in this sense we receive guidance from the minister on the path of training and qualification of processing plant operators,” she pointed out.
