CGT accuses government of lying about labor reform: ‘We increased it’

Cristian Jerónimo, co-head of the CGT, assured that Stützenegger had committed righteous killing, suggesting “that the legislation would be retroactive.”

12/13/2025 – 8:42 p.m

Tensions between the national government and the union leadership escalated dramatically as a result of executive-sponsored labor reform. The controversy escalated after the Minister for State Transformation and Deregulation, Federico Fallenegger, suggested the new legislation could be retroactive, contradicting other officials who had tried to downplay the scope of the project. This comment provoked a quick and sharp reaction from the General Confederation of Labor, which accused the government of lying about the true intentions of the measure.

Cristian Jeronimo, One of the union’s triumvirs declared that the minister had committed an “honesty killing” that had revealed the true extent of the reform. “He simply had a sincere murder and his unconscious betrayed him. We had brought it up and they said no, it was for the new workers. Every law applies to everyone,” Jerónimo said in radio statements. The union leader warned that the governing party was “lying” and that the initiative contained “very sensitive points for the world of work” that the union center had already anticipated.

Controversy between the government and the CGT: retroactivity or new contracts?

The focus of the political and legal dispute is the question of whether the changes to the dismissal, severance and collective bargaining system affect all existing employment relationships or whether they only apply to contracts concluded after the law was passed. Retroactivity is a delicate concept in relation to acquired rights and has raised all concerns in the trade union sector.

Jerónimo described the initiative as “regressive” and reiterated the CGT’s historic position: it is about a “removal of individual and collective rights”. The triumvir recalled that although the headquarters initially took part in the May Council, the advisory body created by the government to debate the reform, it withdrew as soon as “illogical things” that threatened the interests of workers were raised.

Trade union criticism focused not only on the content of the reform, but also on the forms. The union leader stressed that the labor movement is ready to debate the modernization of the world of work and the necessary tools to promote formal employment, but rejected the methodology used by the executive.

“We are ready to have this discussion, but not through coercion. When things are proposed through coercion, they go wrong,” Jerónimo concluded, pointing to the distance that now separates the union center from the negotiating table with the government. Fallenegger’s revelation thus becomes a central argument for the CGT, which sees confirmation of its suspicions about a project that aims to change the status quo of the Argentine world of work.