Santiago: Cencosud Unions Rally Inside Costanera Center Over More Than 1,000 Layoffs

In Santiago, roughly a hundred employees from Cencosud’s companies, organized under the Cencosud Company Unions Coordinating Committee, staged a demonstration Thursday inside the Costanera Center mall—an emblem of the retail conglomerate—denouncing a wave of more than 1,000 layoffs over the past 10 days, hitting women and workers over 50 the hardest.

Union leaders accuse the company of systematically exploiting Article 161 of Chile’s Labor Code, the “needs of the company” clause that enables dismissals, even as the group expands across Latin America and the United States and reports multimillion‑dollar profits.

The protest brought together leaders and employees from Jumbo, Santa Isabel, Paris and Easy, along with representatives of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) such as David Acuña and Karen González, as well as leaders from the Garbage Collectors and Waste Treatment Union and the Starbucks Workers Union.

“This could happen to anyone. This is the start of many more layoffs. It sets a precedent we cannot allow,” warned former CUT president David Acuña, arguing that companies are eroding job quality and replacing staff with part‑time contracts or app‑based work that offers no rights or stability.

Retail unions said the pattern is clear: women and older employees are bearing the brunt, with automation cited as a pretext to cut labor costs.

“Cencosud invokes ‘company needs’ to fire workers; a large share are women—women make up about 80% of retail—and there’s no training to help staff adopt new technology. They are dismissing breadwinners, women, and those over 50. It’s abusive and discriminatory. Meanwhile, profits are soaring, so the layoffs are not justified,” said Fabiola Parra, a leader at Santa Isabel Supermarkets.

In the same vein, CUT’s Commerce Branch president Karen González said big companies would rather pay fines and severance than invest in retraining their workforce.

“They fire people and tell them they’re not capable of learning the new technologies coming in. Technology should ease the burden on the working class—help workers, not wipe them out,” she emphasized.

The president of the Starbucks Workers Union called for organized unity in the face of corporate pressure: “Together and organized is the only way to win this fight,” she said.

Finally, Sergio Fuentes, president of the Jumbo Federation, announced legal action and further mobilizations, calling the situation a true “labor massacre.”

“Today workers are scared and on edge, because at any moment the company could swing the axe again. Enough of this labor massacre against the people who made this company wealthy,” Fuentes said.

Unions said they will continue inspections, file complaints with the Labor Inspectorate, and pursue legal cases, vowing not to allow the routine misuse of Article 161 to normalize dismissals while Cencosud’s earnings keep rising.

We will continue to report. Keep reading:

Cencosud workers denounce mass layoffs despite the company’s multimillion‑dollar profits

El Ciudadano