To understand the Lustramax conflict, there are five central points that summarize the situation and the background of the fight that the workers are fighting:
1. Layoffs “due to a crisis” that does not exist
The conflict at Lustramax, a wholesale distributor of cleaning products located in the Tortuguitas Industrial Park, began in mid-December when the company announced an alleged crisis situation. Until that moment, production and distribution functioned normally, with no drop in activity and with regular overtime, as reported by its workers. In reality, it is a clear attempt to impose worse working conditions and discipline those who organize collectively.
A week after alleging economic difficulties, the employers communicated their intention to move forward with the dismissal of 29 workers, which was rejected, and also moved forward with firing 15 workers, which uncovered the conflict and the collective response of the workers. However, there is no real indicator that supports this argument: no reduction in production, no reduction in working hours, no negative balances. On the contrary, billing and accounting records in recent years show sustained gains.
2. A direct attack on conquered rights
The layoffs are not an isolated event. Lustramax has been advancing for a long time on basic rights won by workers: it is trying to cut the blank payment, eliminate the canteen on the plant and make working conditions more flexible.
Added to this is the claim of workers for the lack of payment of the bonus, of social works, affecting the medical care of families, and the payment of the end-of-year bonus.
In addition, Lustramax has been implementing an increase in the working day, exceeding it far beyond the law. As one of the delegates complained, the salary increases of the joint workers were not met and salaries were paid late. An employer’s association for which neither collective agreements nor labor rights existed or were complied with when and how they wanted: that is why the organization in the factory was strengthened.
3. A Milei project laboratory
Everything that happens at Lustramax anticipates point by point the labor reform that the Government intends to discuss in Congress: increase in working hours, lower wages, cheaper dismissals, conditions below collective agreements and elimination of union organization in the workplace including the prohibition of assemblies, among other historical attacks tailored to the needs of large businessmen.
The true objective was revealed when activists and two union delegates were included among those fired, in a clearly illegal and discriminatory maneuver. When the dismissals became known, in addition to these claims, the workers held an assembly, where the Buenos Aires Police appeared at the request of the employers to spread fear and repress any organization. The employers seek to impose worse working conditions and to do so, destroy any attempt at organization to defend wages and labor rights, but the workers are fighting to resist, demanding the reinstatement of all those dismissed.
The Lustramax employers act as if this reform were already in force. It seeks to impose a regime of “labor slavery”, where claiming rights is considered a crime and where the company has free rein to discipline without limits.
4. Acting illegally and attacking labor justice
Although the Ministry of Labor of the Province of Buenos Aires issued mandatory conciliation and ordered the reinstatement of those laid off, Lustramax decided to ignore the resolution and did not allow the workers to enter. An act of open illegality.
The company also presented a Crisis Preventive Procedure without real support: positive balances prevent, by law, moving forward with layoffs in that context. Even so, the employers insist on judicializing the conflict and criminalizing forceful measures.
This behavior reflects another central axis of the labor reform promoted by the Government: that any conflict that workers have with their employers, whether individual or collective, is not brought before the labor justice system, which recognizes inequality and protective rules of labor rights, but rather is treated as a private problem, or directly a criminal offense, in the hands of judges who respond directly and automatically to the government in power and the companies, as Lustramax seeks to do against workers who complain against dismissals.
5. Worker response and a witness conflict
Faced with the layoffs and the bosses’ attack, the workers responded with a total stoppage of activities, remaining at the plant and permanent assemblies. In addition, they carried out cuts on the Panamericana that had great national impact and received the support of other unions, social, student and left-wing organizations. A fighting fund is being expanded to sustain the resistance and solidarity is key to confront the adjustment and attacks on labor rights.
The fight at Lustramax becomes a witness case against the advanced employers and the labor reform promoted by the national government. If the employers manage to impose these dismissals and discipline the union organization, a negative precedent would be set for the entire working class. For this reason, Lustramax’s fight is seen as part of the more general fight against adjustment, precariousness and the removal of rights that it seeks to impose throughout the country.
Florencia Arietto, provincial senator of La Libertad Avanza and habitual enemy of every conflict and claim of the workers, returns to the scene alongside the Lustramax employers. A direct ally of Patricia Bullrich, the main promoter of the labor reform, her intervention makes it clear that what is at stake is not an isolated conflict: each step taken by the company, with the political endorsement of the Milei government, aims to impose through deeds a slave labor reform and attack the entire working class.
The Lustramax conflict is much more than a specific claim: it is an example of how employers, with political and legal support, seek to advance the rights they have won, and how organization, solidarity and struggle are the only way to stop these attacks and defend the living conditions of the working class.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
