A report by the Center for Political Economy of Argentina (CEPA) on the analysis of labor and business dynamics reveals 170,695 layoffs in the first 5 months of Milei’s government. According to the Superintendence of Labor Risks (SRT), in the formal private sector 126,244 layoffs were recorded by large firms with more than 500 workers, accounting for 74% of the total; while in companies with less than 500 workers, the loss of jobs was 44,451 cases, accounting for the remaining 26%.
In percentage terms, while large companies reduced their staff by 2.64% (from 4,782,973 to 4,656,729), companies with up to 500 employees reduced their staff by 0.88% (from 5,074,200 to 5,029,749).
Many of these large companies presented huge profits in the first months of the year. A study by IPYPP reveals the brutal figures of the transfer of income from the working majority to concentrated local and foreign groups.
“While the income of most of society is falling by between 20% and 40%, the net profits of the most concentrated capital in the different markets are increasing by more than 800% compared to the previous year, with increases exceeding 9,000% in laboratories, 5,000% in the grain export complex, more than 1,300% in the food sector, 945% in the banking sector and 790% in the hydrocarbon sector,” they say.
On the other hand, another CEPA report published this Tuesday reveals that in the private sector there were 167,205 layoffs, in line with the SRT figures, and 10,452 licenses, voluntary retirements and suspensions. The report indicates that the modifications to the Labor Contract Law and Public Employment Law introduced in the Bases Law, approved in June 2024, are the cause of the decline in economic activity.
Broken down by branch of activity, the report indicates that construction is the sector with the highest number of cases, as a consequence of the decision to completely stop public works, with 100,000 layoffs estimated by the Argentine Chamber of Construction (CAMARCO). Followed by the industrial sector, with 76,311 cases, and finally the services sector, with 1,346 cases in this first half of the year.
In parallel to the layoffs in the private sector, there are 29,604 dismissals in the public sector, mainly in the National State, whether in the Central Administration or in State-owned companies such as Correo Argentino or Radio y Televisión Argentina, according to the CEPA report.
It is worth clarifying that these numbers only consider the losses, without taking into account the new additions.
The 5 most emblematic cases highlighted in the report
1) Acindar and Tenaris (Industry-Steel Industry)
Acindar announced the suspension of production at its plants for one month, from March 18 to April 15. At the end of June, the company announced that in the second half of the year only 2 of the next 6 months will be open. In other words, 2/3 of the semester will remain closed.
Tenaris SIAT, part of the Techint group, is in charge of producing the pipes for the Presidente Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline. At the end of May, the company of the Techint Group of Paolo Rocca announced the dismissal of 5 workers, and at the end of June another 200 workers were added to the plant located in Valentín Alsina.
The halt to public works and the sharp decline in private construction, together with the installation of new technologies, are the preferred excuses to try to justify these attacks. It is known that these employers’ associations took over the government to pass these adjustment, restructuring and flexibilisation plans. One of them is Paolo Rocca, who heads the Argentine Chamber of Steel, one of the largest multimillionaires in the country and a contributor to Milei’s campaign.
2) Whirlpool and Briket (household appliances)
In the first, 60 layoffs occurred in the company due to a reduction in production at its plant in the Pilar Industrial Park, in the province of Buenos Aires, in May 2024. In Briket, located in the south of Rosario, the company – which produces refrigerators, display cabinets and freezers – laid off 300 workers so far this year.
3) Canale (food)
At the end of June, it announced its definitive closure in Mendoza, and with it, the dismissal of 38 employees: 22 permanent and 16 temporary.
4) FV and Ferrum (Construction)
They have shut down their plants and laid off or suspended staff as part of the sector’s collapse. In May, the company suspended for three months some 800 workers at its plant located in Pilar, province of Buenos Aires. In the case of Ferrum (the largest ceramic sanitary ware factory in the country), it has already laid off 100 workers so far in 2024.
5) Public employment
The National State has promoted a decisive policy of dismissals in order to reduce and reconfigure the state apparatus, the report indicates. Mentioning only a few case studies, the dismissals included basic rights such as health with severance pay at the Posadas Hospital, which is dependent on the National State.
There were also layoffs by the National State, which have a common theme: the withdrawal of the State and the guarantee of rights at the federal level. An example of this is the closure of ANSES offices (60 offices were closed, laying off more than 1,300 workers), INTI (with 278 layoffs and the opening of forced retirements for all staff), SENASA (20 offices were closed in the province of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Corrientes, Misiones, Salta, San Luis, Santa Fe and the City of Buenos Aires) and the Reference Centers of the former Ministry of Social Development (with the closure of 59 centers, decentralized offices with teams of professionals and administrators).
The CAREM project (Argentine Central of Modular Elements) was also halted, the construction of which was halted due to a lack of funding from the National State, and it can be assumed that its reactivation will not take place until private capital enters the company Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA after the passing of the Ley Bases. As estimated by the Chamber of Construction, CAMARCO, there are 100,000 layoffs in this sector.
Let the big businessmen who earn millions pay for the crisis
According to a study by CIFRA and FLACSO comparing profits on sales obtained in the first quarter of 2023 with those of the same period in 2024, profits in relation to the turnover of the Richmond laboratory jumped from 1.5% to 51.2%; those of Metrogas from 2.3% to 74.3%; those of Aluar from 5% to 52.1%; those of Mirgor from 5.5% to 51.2%; those of Arcor from 15.5% to 50.2%; those of Banco Macro from 4.3% to 44.9%; those of Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 from 19.3% to 80.1%; those of Pampa Energía from 33.5% to 68.3%; and those of Ternium, from 30.4% to 49.6%, to mention just a few examples. As can be seen, there is an exponential jump in the profits of the country’s main companies.
While they have earned millions during all this time and many of them have multiplied their earnings with Milei, they now use the crisis as an excuse to fire people. As shown in the CEPA report mentioned above, 3 out of 4 layoffs were by large companies. Faced with the economic recession and a government that gives freedom to the rich, they take advantage of the situation to fire people. The “losses” are socialized, but the profits are private.
In view of the increase in unemployment, the PTS-Left Front proposes that in the 12 thousand main companies in the country, those that have had astronomical profits in recent months through the super-exploitation of their workers and the increase in prices, the reduction of the work day to six hours without a reduction in wages be immediately implemented, distributing the freed-up work hours (for example, adding a fourth shift in factories where there are currently three or a third where there are two) and with a minimum wage that covers the family basket, updated monthly according to inflation. In this way, a million quality jobs could be created. In these months, they have made astronomical profits. Any large company that refuses this measure should be expropriated and put into operation under the management of its workers, at the beginning of a rational planning of production at the service of the popular interests.
We must achieve the broadest coordination to confront the Milei government’s policy of adjustment and surrender, demanding that the bureaucratic leaderships of the CGT and the CTA call for a true and consistent plan of struggle to defeat Milei’s plan, in the perspective of a general strike.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
