Fiesp: Skaf signs note with Josué for peace – 01/26/2023 – Market

The president of Fiesp (Federation of Industries of São Paulo), Josué Gomes, and his predecessor, Paulo Skaf, sign a joint note that promises to be the entity’s “peace treaty”.

Closed this Thursday (26), the agreement should end months of a public fight, which included requests for assembly, voting for the removal of the current leader, interim possession of a deputy and even extrajudicial notification.

“We concluded that it is up to us to set an example of overcoming differences”, say Skaf and Josué in the document to which the Sheet had access.

In the note, the two claim to have reflected together on the situation of the industry and the federation, and that they decided to use “all our energy, leadership and articulation capacity” to strengthen the entity and, from there, the process of reindustrialization of Brazil .

The document was created this Thursday during the course of the day and released by Fiesp at the end of the afternoon.

Josué Gomes had made the first signs for pacification at the beginning of the week, when he met with unions and guaranteed that the entities would have more space in the composition of the superior councils and departments.

At the meeting scheduled to discuss the creation of a governance improvement committee, the president of Fiesp would also have said, according to directors present at the meeting, that he would seek out those who voted for his deposition in order to try to reach a conciliation.

On the same day, opposition leaders heard by the Sheet they already spoke of this possibility, but pointed out that the nod would have to come from Josué. The nod came.

A point of tension in the relationship between the current president and the unions is the composition of departments and senior councils. In the evaluation of directors, Josué Gomes’ management gave a lot of space to people outside the industry, making it difficult for unions to access Fiesp.

The complaint did not just come from the opposition. Even among leaders opposed to attempts to remove Josué Gomes, the setting up of these internal instances was the target of criticism. At the Monday meeting, Josué assured that this would be corrected and that the presence of nominees by the unions would increase.

Also at that Monday meeting, there was a suggestion that Josué and Skaf meet. The former president of Fiesp is pointed out as a supporter of the rebellion against the current administration. His allies in the leadership defend him and say that he was sought after by the dissatisfied when the relationship with the current president had already gone downhill.

The internal struggle at Fiesp experienced its most tense moments on the 16th, when an assembly voted to remove Josué Gomes from the presidency of the entity, and on the 20th, when Elias Miguel Haddad, the oldest among the 21 vice-presidents of Fiesp, aged 95, informed unions and officials that he took office on an interim basis.

That day, Josué Gomes spoke for the first time on the subject, classifying the assembly that voted for his dismissal as clandestine. “Such an isolated, disproportionate, irresponsible attitude”, he wrote, “ends up causing economic, legal and labor risks in our entity.”

The assembly in which 47 union representatives voted to remove Josué Gomes was held under unusual conditions. On the same day, the 16th, the president of Fiesp led an extraordinary plenary meeting called by him to respond to 12 questions asked by the board of representatives of the entity in an official letter sent last year.

Between requests to speak and complaints, the assembly lasted almost five hours. In the end, Josué Gomes put to a vote whether his arguments had been considered satisfactory. Most said no, the meeting ended and shortly after 7 pm, Josué left the building on Avenida Paulista. Gradually, another 30 leaders also left.

A second assembly was started and, in it, 47 directors voted for the dismissal of the current president, 2 abstained and 1 voted against, totaling 50 votes. When the assembly began, 86 union representatives were in the 15th floor meeting room.

Read the joint note in full:

“Sao Paulo, January 26, 2023

In recent weeks Fiesp has gone through moments of internal and public discussions, which represented one of the great challenges in the history of more than 90 years of our entity. Faced with this, we were together reflecting on our Federation, the situation of the Industry and its insertion in the context of intense transformations, not only in Brazil, but throughout the world.

We conclude that it is up to us to set an example of overcoming disagreements.

Thus, we decided to use all our energy, leadership and articulation capacity to strengthen our entity and to boost, from it, the process of reindustrialization of our country, fundamental for the socioeconomic advance and the realization of the noblest aspirations of our population. .

This involves a broader and more comprehensive management by Fiesp. We believe that the participation of all affiliated unions, through their leaders, is fundamental for the good functioning of the entity. It is also essential that the recognition of those sectors formed by small and medium-sized companies, fundamental employers, be continuous and representative.

We will work together aiming at the continuous improvement of the functioning of our entity and seeking to achieve our purpose of promoting the sustainable development of our Industry and our Country.

We call on everyone to abandon any differences and join us on this journey, with the certainty that we are doing the best for Fiesp and for Brazil.”