(Photo by UOM VC)
The Congress, convened by the board of directors of the National UOM, managed to bring together nearly 400 delegates from the main factories included in branch 21 of the metallurgical agreement.
The opening was led by the general secretary Abel Furlán. With a fiery speech, he gave details of how the joint negotiations with the steel chamber are going and about the policy of the employers’ associations, their balance sheets and the government’s plan.
“The government comes with the chainsaw plan and the blender plan. I am embarrassed to have to explain that a worker I represent earns 300 thousand pesos. Maybe we will have costs. Every time we show resistance we will have costs. When there was a crisis, this union organization provided suspensions to avoid layoffs. The employers fired the same. We are not going to follow that strategy again. We will not recognize this invented crisis”. In addition to other phrases that should be worthy of headlines, this last one deserves all our attention. Today there are already companies that are furloughing workers. In some cases, in agreement with the unions of that section, in others, unilaterally. Employers like Acindar, which temporarily closed their plants as a result of the slowdown in public works, today want to discuss a suspension plan for their eventual next shutdown and thus continue blackmailing us with the crisis so that we accept new conditions.
On the other hand, at said congress the need to carry out a united struggle between both branches of the union was raised repeatedly by the delegates present. Having the steel workers in a fight plan and the metal workers being in mandatory conciliation does nothing other than wear out, disunite and contribute to the discredit of the workers with the union organization.
Among the proposals that were made, the MAC emphasized the need to unify all the workers who are being attacked by the Milei government. Do not give more time to the adjustment plan and do not place confidence in either justice or Congress. Employers are taking advantage of the crisis to promote labor reform, which not only seeks to reduce salaries, but also limit assemblies and the right to strike. They want to prevent us from discussing problems with colleagues and defining solutions, in addition to restricting our ability to defend our rights through strikes, being our tool that shows who we are who move the country. Make a call from Congress to the CGT and the CTAs to convene a plan of struggle with continuity, with strikes, mobilizations, blockades and everything necessary to tear down the DNU and stop the adjustment plan.
Abel Furlán, as leader of the national board of directors, responded that “the UOM is part of the CGT board of directors, so there is no need for the steel congress to make any call. The CGT is evaluating a new measure of force, but that it does not hinder the negotiation with the deputies who would vote against the DNU, because they already said that if there is a strike, the negotiation will break down”, and then he added “Then no strike will be carried out until it is dealt with in the chamber of deputies.”
The plenary continued without too many other condiments, some explanations of why there are plants or processes that cannot be stopped and few of why there are others that can be stopped and do not do so either.
Within the fight plan that culminates with the 72-hour strike that is being carried out, a mobilization was voted from the doors of the Siderca plant, touring the city of Campana, which was attended by different sections and the workers of that plant.
It is important to discuss in assemblies with base workers what the next steps will be. The employers are intransigent, they have an employee from the Techint Group in the labor secretary.
To all this, Acindar is closed.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
