In August 2015, Eduardo Díaz Reguera, the legal representative of the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de Calzado Sandak (SUTCS) and the union’s leaders and members have denounced the arbitrary arrest of the union’s general secretary, Gustavo Labastida Andriano. The union has been fighting for three years for the reopening of Sandak Shoe, a subsidiary of Bata International.
In 2012, the company told the workers that the plant was closing, but that the workers could continue to make shoes in their own homes, but without a union and without social security (health insurance). The workers refused.
Faced with the plant closing, the workers went on strike in 2012, but the Labor Board refused to recognize the union and its leadership and declared their strike illegal. Many workers accepted their severance pay, but 97 continued to fight. The union maintained a permanent picket at the closed plant for three years.
Díaz was arrested on 17th of August, accused of pillaging the Sandak-Bata plant, and his bail was set at 44 million pesos, or 120.4 years of his annual wage.