The Wage Council meeting was a failure. The business chambers proposed an increase of 8% in May and 5% in June. A blatant pickpocket. The union centers proposed a vital and mobile minimum wage of $377 thousand. But they didn’t do anything to impose it either. Then the “libertarian” government decided to do something illiberal: its millionaire ministers defined in their offices what the increase would be. From there came the new number: 221 thousand pesos in April, 234 thousand in May. 1100 pesos an hour. In other words: to buy a kilo of bread you work 2 and a half hours.
It means an increase of 50% compared to December, but inflation in the same period was 107%. A phenomenal theft.
The SMVM influences the income of many sectors of workers. From the minimum that the agreements can pay, to the salaries of domestic workers and influences the amounts of teachers and retirees. But above all, it historically marked the value of the Empower Work, which would become 117 thousand pesos. And not even that amount is confirmed, because the government “disengaged” that labor program by decree.
To have an idea, the basic food basket for a family of 4 members was 358 thousand pesos. The total basic was 773 and in May it is expected to reach 900 thousand pesos. In other words, the minimum will be a quarter of the income that a family needs to survive. In the case of those who receive the social program, it will be one eighth.
If we add the lack of assistance to soup kitchens and the elimination of the “social monotax” included in the Omnibus Law, we are facing an attack on the pockets of the poorest workers.
It is planned misery. But also a misery that collides with the increase in the salaries of officials and parliamentarians. Spokesman Adorni or a senator earn 5 million pesos, 22 times the minimum wage, 44 times what a social cooperative member earns.
Here we are not talking about “state spending”, as the right-wing government likes to say. This is a benefit to the entire business class, who will be able to take these monthly or hourly values as a reference. The wickedest blender of all.
According to Article 14 bis of the National Constitution and Article 116 of the Employment Contract Law, the SMVM is the one that ensures workers during their legal work day the satisfaction of the 9 needs contemplated there: adequate food, decent housing, education, clothing, health care, transportation and recreation, vacations and welfare.
It is clear that Milei’s decision violates all of these elementary principles.
We must end this plan to impoverish the working class. We must unite the fight against the salary tax, which many unions propose, with the demands of the most precarious sectors. No one can charge less than the family basket. We must strike at the heart of Milei’s plan. Put the fight to overturn the Bases Law as the focus in these weeks. The union centers, instead of meeting between 4 walls with businessmen and officials, have to convene a plan to fight for all these demands.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
