As a first street response to the government-sponsored labor reform, the Association of State Workers (ATE), one of the two unions operating in the public sector, will launch a strike this Tuesday and mobilize at the National Congress. The protest will mainly consist of rejecting the official initiative, demanding the reopening of joint ventures with an emergency wage adjustment and opposing the new 10% cut at the plant planned for the end of the year.
“This is a pro-market labor reform and the only goal that the government has is the discipline of the workforce. It is not true that they want to improve competitiveness and productivity or grow the economy. This will not happen by abolishing rights,” said Rodolfo Aguiar, national director of ATE.
One of the most important points of the labor reform draft was that he was able to obtain information about it THE NATION, The key points that emerge are the flexibility of “working conditions and modalities”; the possibility of agreeing to part-time contracts; Agree on salaries in pesos or other foreign currencies, but also in exchange for food and spices, and set them based on productivity. In addition, the initiative includes the creation of a Hour bank and the implementation of a Severance pay fund instead of compensation, but only in cases mutually agreed between the parties. It also envisages a reduction in compensation calculations as items such as vacation and bonuses are excluded from the final calculation.
“If we analyze recent history, the period of greatest job creation and worker registration was from 2002 to 2011/12, when there was double pay. And even with double pay, workers were still registered. This proves that the only way to overcome the crisis that the world of work is experiencing today is to upgrade collective agreements,” argued Aguiar.
The ATE protest begins on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. and in the city of Buenos Aires, the National Congress will be the epicenter of the lawsuit. The mobilization would coincide with the official announcement of the call for extraordinary meetings to discuss the labor reform project between December 10 and 31. ATE prides itself on having the power to influence the normal operations of hospitals and the 830 communities in which it operates. However, its importance was weakened after the breach of the CTA in 2011, an internal dispute that continues despite the fact that there has been progress towards reunification.
The protocol of mobilizations will be put to the test on Tuesday when, in addition to the state-run ATE, various groups will meet in the Piquetera unit, where Polo Obrero and the Union of National Economy Workers (Utep) govern under the leadership of Alejandro Gramajo.
In parallel with the state strike, the pickets plan to carry out surprise cuts at various points and activate popular pots. The day is being held within the framework of the unity of all social organizations and is part of a battle plan to put an end to what they call a “systematic plan of planned misery” pushed forward by the national government, according to a statement from Utep.
“There is no labor reform in the world that has solved the emergence of work with rights alone. When the government tells us that it wants to advance labor reform to end informality, it is selling us a piece of cake. And we Argentines do not want to eat cats, as happened in 2001, which ended with starving people looting the supermarkets,” said Gramajo, head of Utep, a group that began informally attending the CGT leadership meetings. The Peronist union, which has had contacts with the opposition to try to stop the reform in Congress, does not plan to launch a battle plan for the time being.
Proponents of the protest claim that the Complementary Social Salary (SSC) for workers in the national economy has been frozen at $78,000 since Milei took office. In addition, it was decoupled from the automatic update that governed the living wage and mobile minimum wage, which in itself is “extremely destitute” ($328,400, according to the government’s most recent unilateral update).
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