You are Andrés Mejía-Valencia, 48, General Manager of Vidriera del Cauca S.A., a container-glass plant in Yumbo (Valle del Cauca), Colombia. Tomorrow at 08:00 you sit down at the long table with the 9-person Sintravidricol negotiation committee for the 2026 *convención colectiva* — your fourth in fifteen years and the first since the post-pandemic margin compression.
The situation
Vidriera del Cauca employs 612 staff, of whom 484 are in the bargaining unit. The plant runs two furnaces 24/7 producing flint and amber container glass for Bavaria, Postobón, and a growing private-label segment. EBITDA margin compressed from 16% (2019) to 9.4% (2025), driven by natural-gas pricing volatility and Tetra-Pak share gains in juice and dairy. Three years of wage moves below cumulative inflation have built real frustration on the floor.
Sintravidricol filed its *pliego de peticiones* eleven days ago with 23 demands across seven issue categories. The legal *etapa de arreglo directo* is 20 days, extendable by 20 more by mutual agreement. After that, the unit can vote to strike — and in glass, a furnace cold-shutdown is a structural event (€4.8M+ to restart). The settlement you sign tomorrow lives for four years; the cost of getting the package wrong compounds quarterly.